Billy started volunteering at our Winter Shelter in November 2022. He helped prepare meals and cleaned the social spaces.

“I heavily encourage anyone who’s interested in working in the homelessness sector to start by volunteering. You’ll get an idea of who you’ll be working with and the sort of tasks you’ll be doing. As soon as I started volunteering, I knew I absolutely loved this kind of work. The staff were really friendly and helpful, and I loved interacting with the residents.”

Billy volunteered at the shelter for 3 months and then applied for a Support Worker role

After volunteering for a few weeks, Billy applied to work as a full-time Support Worker at the Winter Shelter. He was helping the case workers, making dentist and hospital appointments for service users and making phone calls to the council and specialist services on their behalf.

When the Winter Shelter closed for the season in April 2023, he moved over to our support centre and worked at our morning drop-in sessions. Here he helped with our basic need support for people who are rough sleeping – providing hot drinks, lunchtime meals, showers, clothes and toiletries. When the Winter Shelter re-opened in October, he became the Resource Coordinator, arranging the food provision for up to 30 people every night and buying tickets for service users.

What do you most like about your role as Support Worker?

“I really like interacting with the people who stay at the Winter Shelter, hearing their stories, their regrets, likes and dislikes and ambitions. It makes my job incredibly rewarding. It’s so much easier to help people when you try to understand them, knowing how they’re going to respond, or how much help they’ll need.

How has your experience of working at Emmanuel House changed you?

“Before I started volunteering, I wasn’t a very social creature. I have so much more confidence now – it’s been really easy to work on my people skills. You learn so much so quickly, picking up new skills and the staff are always trying to help.

“I’ve learnt how to manage difficult situations and conversations. I’m confident in handling these on my own now, I’ve learnt how to keep things calm. All the skills I’ve learnt at Emmanuel House can be transferred to general life – it’s a steep and rewarding learning curve.

“I now have a lot of knowledge about the sector, the many different systems and procedures, the implications of street homelessness, the various options that are available, the number of different services that are on offer, and all the different forms that homelessness can take. I feel confident in recommending different accommodation to different people. I’ve also learnt how to be honest with people and how to deliver bad news.

What skills do you think you need to be a Support Worker at Emmanuel House?

“To do this job, you have to be flexible and know how to adapt. You have to be willing to learn and determined to help people move forward, even if it’s just one step at a time.”

How Billy and his colleagues helped Samir* move from rough sleeping into supported accommodation

Billy told us about a man he supported at the Winter Shelter in December 2023 and how Emmanuel House prevented him from becoming homeless.

Samir* had come to UK from Sudan and had been living in Home Office accommodation when he received his refugee status. He was evicted from the accommodation and went to the city council’s housing service for advice, who referred him to the Winter Shelter.

Samir had no bank account, so wasn’t able to apply for Universal Credit. He spoke very little English and Billy used a telephone translation service to communicate with him. Billy showed Samir the variety of different banking apps available and helped him choose one he found accessible and easy to navigate. When it was proving difficult to set up, Billy went to the bank with Samir so that they could finish the process quickly. Billy then helped Samir with his application for Universal Credit, which was successful.

“Samir was very quiet and seemed very anxious, but I tried hard to get to know him, even if I had to tell my jokes through Google Translate!”

After a month staying at the Winter Shelter, we found him a room in a local supported accommodation provider. He had his own room and was very happy to have his own space.

*Names have been changed to protect identities.

If you’d like to get involved with Emmanuel House, please look at our volunteering opportunities or our current job vacancies.