One in 20 adults in Birmingham are homeless...Scary, isn’t it?
SIFA Fireside
A late pay cheque, missed mortgage, loan or credit card repayment could leave us part of that statistic.
Here at SIFA Fireside our aim is to prevent clients from entering crisis and if they do to support them out of it by offering practical support to more specialist support services.
It’s not just about providing a roof; it’s about sustaining the roof.
The drop in service is where a lot of the magic happens, with a dedicated team of staff and volunteers working tirelessly to support those in need, providing breakfast, lunch, showers and clean clothes.
Moving forward additional specialist services available include tenancy support, benefit and legal advice, health and well-being services offered by a nurse, opticians, chiropodist, podiatrist, dentist, sexual health and a mental health team.
Our Changing lives team hold a weekly job club where clients can be supported with universal job searches, help with CV’s, interview techniques, suits for interviews and bus tickets to get them there!
The team also have established strong links with local businesses where clients can gain work experience leading to employment, they also arrange recreational and community activities to promote social engagement and inclusion.
We have an awesome housing team based with us from Shelter, who see clients on an appointment bases but will also accommodate emergencies as they arise; working with an array of housing providers they are able to house people in temporary or shared accommodation or signpost them to the relevant service, best suited to meet their needs.
As a frontline service SIFA Fireside has a duty to be able to recognise potential cases of modern slavery and work with the appropriate organisations to support clients who have been exploited.
We have been involved in a couple of high profile cases recently and are held in high regard across the country as a leading organisation in combatting this inhumane treatment of a fellow human being.
As I said earlier we welcome donations, we accept men’s clothing and footwear, towels, toiletries, tinned and dried food, books, board games and sleeping bags and, of course, we also welcome financial donations.
We appreciate people choosing to donate their time and we do have a lot of corporate volunteers as well as regular and client volunteers.
We also have corporates who choose to help by collecting, washing, drying and returning our towels, providing us with a chef to cook for the day lunches and a local banqueting company who provide curry dishes once a week.
If after reading this you feel that this is something that you as an individual or as an organisation would like to get involved in then call us on 0121 766 1700 or email us at office@sifafireside.co.uk.
If you’d like to hear more about SIFA Fireside and the work that we do then download ‘SIFA Stories’ podcasts to hear more from staff and clients.
You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter.