Richard Graham MP asks “so who was right about Brexit?”

This meeting is free to participate. All are welcome.

The joining link is:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9761650628?pwd=QmtZYUFCVWZJQzhzeU9Vdm43THlQdz09

Rotary@Kingsholm will be making a donation to HaVinG in appreciation of Richard's talk. Individual participants and/or their clubs are encouraged to make their own donations to:

Account  Name HAVING 

Sort Code 30 90 89 

Account No, 39634260

Background to HaVinG

Having a voice in Gloucester (HaVinG) is a CIO created in 2018 in the wake of rising homeless and rough sleepers in the middle of the last decade.

It came out of a large meeting convened by Gloucester’s MP in early 2017 and a consensus that what was needed was more a hand-up than a hand-out - not cash to someone begging but instead donations to a local charity to 

a) provide food to sustain them and

b) when housed and ready, training to get back to a life of meaning and purpose.

HaVinG raised funds from Cathedral sleepovers and other activities like a sponsored leap and swim in The Docks plus other donations including from local Rotary Clubs and funded food for sustainability provided by eg the Cathedral Breakfast.

Some progress was made on training those rehoused by P3 on food preparation and cooking before the pandemic arrived. 

This meant HaVinG’s fund raising activities dried up, although whatever cash remained was spent on supporting the voluntary food provision in Lockdowns 1&2.

In 2021 HaVinG hopes to return to business as usual. It has no paid staff and no overheads except an audit so no furlough etc issues.

Chair Martin Henshaw trustees and patrons (Richard Graham and Bishop Rachel) all hope to move forward with food sustenance and skills training once restrictions are lifted.

This should dovetail well with the government’s commitment to rehouse all genuinely homeless and Gloucester City Council’s work to provide about 40 homes by the end of March (on schedule), so that all who have been in hotels during the pandemic will have been re-housed by then.

But no government or Country can ‘eliminate’ rough sleeping - people get into trouble for all sorts of reasons and the value of a local charity for sustenance and skills will remain.

I should probably add that HaVinG is not specifically a religious charity although it has supporters and trustees of different faiths.

Anyone with a particular interest in and or experience of providing skills to those with difficulties would be very welcome to help HaVinG. 

Likewise HaVinG would be delighted if anyone who would like to set up a modest standing order, to help Gloucester look after rough sleepers in a way that doesn’t risk fuelling addiction would help.

The best contact at HaVinG is the chairman, Martin Henshaw,  Chair-HaVinG@outlook.com

Thanks

Richard Graham