kathy hoyleHomelessness and inclusion charity Cyrenians are delighted to have appointed a Manager for the Social Bite Village.

The Social Bite Village will provide a home for up to 20 people affected by homelessness. Cyrenians have almost 50 years’ experience in delivering residential community models to those affected by homelessness. The charity is now journeying with Social Bite by providing the support and care for the community of the purpose built village located in Granton.

The aim of the village is to empower residents with the skills required to maintain an independent and meaningful life away from homelessness and the issues which may have contributed to their homeless experience e.g. unemployment, relationship breakdown, debt, addiction, mental health.

Cyrenians have appointed an internal member of staff to the role of Manager for the village. Kathy Hoyle started her career as a professional chef before gaining a degree in Social Anthropology with Development. She joined Cyrenians as a volunteer in 2006 before moving into a job at Cyrenians Communities, supporting young people directly affected by homelessness. After this, Kathy took on a role supporting people to maintain accommodation in the private rented sector as an alternative to homelessness, before spending 4 years working for Cyrenians Homeless Prevention Service and then joining Cyrenians Fareshare Depot as Deputy Manager in 2012.

Kathy has a wealth of knowledge and experience in supporting those affected by the tough realties of homelessness; she is professional, genuine, caring, highly personable and committed to making the village a great success.

Kathy said: “I am thrilled to be managing such an exciting and innovative project. The village has the potential to be an enormously transformative and supportive place for people to live whilst they tackle some complex challenges. With the support of Cyrenians, the residents will have an opportunity to live in a community where they will be given the space to form relationships and build up skills. This feels like an opportunity for us to make history and I am very excited to be part of that.”

Kathy will be taking part in Social Bite’s Sleep in the Park event on 9th December, and she will be at the Cyrenians stall. She welcomes people to come and have a chat and ask any questions they might have about the village.

readingCyrenians’ Family Visitors Centre at HMP Addiewell is hosting various activities to celebrate Book Week Scotland and Prisoners’ Week.

The Visitors Centre is run by homelessness and inclusion charity Cyrenians to support families affected by imprisonment. The facility provides families visiting loved ones with access to housing, health and welfare services, as well as offering advice, emotional and practical support. The aim is to reduce re-offending by encouraging family contact, since maintaining close contact with family has been shown to reduce the risk of re-offending by up to six times and yet almost half of prisoners lose touch whilst in jail.

Book Week Scotland takes the theme of “nourish” this year, and families visiting prisoners are being asked by the Visitors Centre to think about nourishing their bodies with good food and nourishing their souls with books. The week aims to encourage families to read to their children and to read for pleasure. A short story competition will be held for visitors on the theme of “my ideal dinner date”, and prisoners are taking part by creating papier mache models of their favourite meals/dish. Activities for children visiting prisoners include an art competition in which they will draw their favourite meal/food. An early years specialist from Bookbug (Scottish Book Trust) will be coming to the Visitors Centre to read and sing songs with children during visiting time.

Prisoners’ Week is a Church initiative aiming to celebrate and raise awareness of the work going on across Scotland to support prisoners and their families. The theme this year is ‘Hope Within’, with children and other family members visiting loved ones in prison being encouraged to use either art or words to express their hopes for themselves and their families.

These activities for Book Week Scotland and Prisoners’ Week are part of a year of health promotion work carried out in the Visitors Centre, focusing on healthy eating, coping strategies and thankfulness.

The impact of imprisonment on families may include loss of income/money worries, moving house or school, mental health issues, stigma and bullying and changes to family relationships. Children with a parent in prison may feel isolated or ashamed, and they are twice as likely to experience mental health problems and three times more likely to be involved in offending. Prison Visitors Centres aim to help families to deal with the issues they face as a result of their family member’s imprisonment, as well as helping to break the cycle of offending.

It has been well documented by health and social care professionals, as well as debated in Parliament, that Scotland as a nation has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

Availability and affordability being the two main contributory factors, whereby alcoholic drinks at times can be cheaper than some soft drinks in your local supermarkets. There are no barriers to its reach. Whether you live in a prestigious postcode area or a socio-economically deprived estate, there is no escape from the detrimental footprint that the misuse of alcohol leaves across our communities. Individuals who misuse or become over dependent on alcohol can often find themselves excluded from their home and family, lose their employment status and ultimately feel isolated within their own community.

Cyrenians, an Edinburgh based homelessness and inclusion charity, has worked tirelessly for almost fifty years to serve those on the edge, working with the homeless and vulnerable to transform their lives by beginning with their story, helping them believe that they can change their lives, and walking with them as they lead their own transformation.

At the Cyrenians Recovery Service in Bathgate, staff are faced with the impact of alcohol misuse from individuals who access our service on a daily basis. The aim is to assist individuals in moving towards a substance-free life, whether that be free from drugs or alcohol, through building an understanding of their addiction, confidence and self-esteem.

The focus is always on recovery from addiction and working with individuals to develop the resilience to cope with circumstances that would have previously resulted in a problematic drinking episode. There are always going to be challenges with sustaining recovery in your own town, as usually all of the individual’s past ‘triggers’ for using alcohol or drugs are around them.

As well as providing a group rehab programme and tailored one to one support, Cyrenians also runs the Recovery Hub, called ‘Pre-Sync 27’. This is a designated ‘safe space’, unique to West Lothian, where individuals who are seeking a positive route away from addiction can meet and freely share their experiences whilst providing and receiving support from their peers. The Recovery Hub is a fully functioning community facility, where people can access a range of social, educational and recovery activities such as Keep Well clinics, music therapy and reiki. It also hosts mutual aid support and fellowship meeting such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). In the last year Cyrenians Recovery Hub opened its doors to over 6300 visits, highlighting both the need for this type of facility and also the success of the interventions provided.

In Alcohol Awareness Week, we as a society should take stock of where we are in our relationship with alcohol. We should examine our communities and the results of alcohol misuse and its associated health and social problems. We should look to change a long ingrained culture and strive to educate or possibly re-educate people of all ages to the dangers linked to alcohol misuse.

Charities and businesses across Scotland are joining forces in a first-of-its-kind event on “civic leadership”.

The one-day event brings together The Open University, TSB Bank and the Edinburgh Cyrenians as well as the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce in a bid to unite the skills and common drive of both third sector organisations and businesses looking to shape the future.

The event, held on 10 October at the Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor Hotel, will see 50 select delegates combine their skills and experience to drive forward a positive social agenda in Scotland that aims to help the economy and wellbeing of Scots.

The Edinburgh Cyrenians are one of the partners in this innovative project and work with the homeless and vulnerable to help transform their lives.

“Businesses in Scotland are not separate from the communities they serve.” said Ewan Aitken, Chief Executive Officer.

“Their staff and customers are part of those communities. Business people often find roles as leaders in all sorts of organisations but especially in youth and social care roles. The advantages are many. Not only does the organisation, and its members, benefit from the service provided but there is also benefit for the volunteer in terms of skills developed and contacts made.” he explained.

Another partner in the event, TSB Bank, have recently made a bid to return to their founding principles and demonstrate what learnings can be gleaned from the ten years since the economic crisis of 2007.

“TSB Bank was founded on the principles of Reverend Henry Duncan, who wanted to address the economic needs of his parishioners as well as their spiritual ones. He used his professional position to offer support to his community and clearly enjoyed himself in the process.” said Business Historian, Professor Charles Munn OBE FCIBS.

Director of The Open University in Scotland, Susan Stewart said she was “delighted to be a lead partner in such an exciting event that will help make Scotland a stronger society. This fits in with our ethos of making use of The Open University’s academic expertise for public good.”

‘Reimagining civic society. A new paradigm for Scotland’ is a free event that will be held on Tuesday 10 October from 12.15pm to 5.00pm at the Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor Hotel. Tickets are limited but may be booked via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reimagining-civic-society-a-new-paradigm-for-scotland-tickets-37447288849

Bus photo - cyreniansThe Homeless Navigator Project is a new Comic Relief and Essential Edinburgh funded service within Cyrenians that seeks to address a visible problem with rough sleeping in Edinburgh.

The project aims to offer an alternative opportunity for people who are experiencing homelessness and cannot, for whatever reason, make use of the current support services that exist in Edinburgh. The Homeless Navigator Project offers a peer support service, delivered by someone with lived experience of homelessness, for those who are rough sleeping or vulnerably housed.

Recent research by Crisis shows that homelessness in Britain is projected to double by 2041. Another report by Shelter Scotland suggests that figures of people sleeping on the streets might actually be higher than imagined as some people do not seek the help they need. With that in mind, the Homeless Navigator Project will offer rough sleepers a chance to speak to someone who has been homeless and understands the challenges involved.

The Homeless Navigators, who are a combination of peer workers with lived experience of homelessness and experts by training, will tour around Edinburgh on foot. They will identify people who are sleeping on the streets in order to form supportive relationships and increase their uptake of services such as Housing, Health, Employability and Substance Misuse.

When working with marginalized and vulnerable people, establishing trust is crucial. A peer approach works on the basis that someone who has experienced the same difficulties is motivated by positive, caring reasons – they have been there themselves and they know how challenging it can be.
There are no eligibility criteria or referrals into the project – the team will actively seek out and build relationships with people who are on the streets and offer them support. If you wish to find out more about the service or make us aware of someone spending time on the streets who would like some help then please contact us on 0131 475 2354.

The Homeless Navigator Project is part of the Outreach team at Cyrenians. Outreach at Cyrenians is a group of services that promote the inclusion of people who experience homelessness as well as other disadvantages, such as poverty, poor mental health and substance misuse. The Outreach team builds trusting relationships with people in order to allow them to achieve their goals using a combination of expertise by training and lived experience.

Manager of the Cyrenians Outreach team, Mike Wright said: “This is a valuable opportunity for our new Outreach workers to take their experience of life on the streets and to provide person-centred, caring, insightful support for those who are unable to access other forms of support.”

More information on Cyrenians and this project is available at www.cyrenians.scot