The Brick has always been part of Queens Hall. It was started at the Hall in 2004 with an evening cafe twice a week after the first Christmas shelter. From there it moved to the Bricklayers Arms in Hallgate and then to Arcade Street off Library Street. It is now based at St Georges in Water Street where it has grown into the nationally known, wonderful outreach to the homeless that it is today. See their website here
Trish Green remembers: "“We’re going to run a shelter for homeless people this Christmas” said Tim Hall the Minister at Queens Hall in Wigan in December 2003. I was sat in the congregation and thought wow, this is short notice, how is it all going to happen just like that? He went on to ask for volunteers and I thought it would be a good thing to do so I gave my name in but said I would wash up as I didn't really want to get too involved. Well, I did my duty on Christmas Day; washed mountains of plates and pans and then went back to my cosy Christmas.
but Maureen Jones, the lady who organised the previous year was unavailable to perform the same function again, so Tim Hall asked me to organise it. I am an organiser naturally and my job in the NHS was in administration, so I agreed to give it a stab.
It was all new to me, but with help from Google searches and Maureen, I made sure that health and safety was in place, the police were informed, volunteers available and a list of duties was drawn up, so far so good! Volunteers flooded in. So many people wanted to help, and it was very difficult turning people away once the slots were filled. Many people wanted to just try to help and make their Christmas more meaningful. I also put out requests for sleeping bags, blankets, socks, undies, and food. We got so much donated that we were able to provide a huge rucksack of presents for each person that stayed with us.
Because I had organised the event, I felt duty bound to be there the whole time to ensure that it all went well. We opened on Christmas Eve, welcoming guests and offering them a shower and some clean clothes. One guy stayed in the shower for over an hour, and we had great difficulty getting him out so others could use it. Not everyone wanted a shower, and we had chiropodists and nurses who gave their time for free to provide services for the guests – a foot check to ensure that they didn't have trench foot (a condition caused by having wet footwear on all the time), nails clipped, or a chat about health with one of the nurses.
While this was going on, an army of volunteers were making sure our guests had what they needed. A bed space was allocated to each person, and they laid out their sleeping bags and pillows which we provided for them. We had DVDs playing films all evening so many of them settled down to watch for a while. They were all given a hot meal and later on in the evening Ray from Church came with his guitar and sang Christmas carols which everyone joined in with and enjoyed. A couple of volunteers stayed overnight to make sure all was well and then at 7am the following morning more volunteers arrived to make breakfast. I remember one family turning up with their children and bringing eggs and bacon with them. They told us the children weren't allowed to open their presents until they had seen how some people spend their Christmas. We were very moved by that and gladly accepted their gifts.
Christmas lunch preparation was timed to perfection. An army of volunteers had peeled veg, chopped and sliced, the turkeys were in the oven overnight and at 1pm volunteers served a sumptuous Christmas dinner to our guests, and took it in turns to eat their own dinners. After lunch, each guest received a wrapped present containing socks, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, underwear, gloves, scarf and chocolates and they were all emotional. In the afternoon we all played board games or watched films and tea was a buffet of leftovers turkey, salad, bread rolls and plenty of cake!
and everyone packed up their belongings old and new, and farewells and thanks were said. One girl confided to me that she had felt safe for the first time for ages and was very grateful. She said she was thinking of committing a crime so she could go back in prison where again she was safe. It struck me that this was a terrible reality, that for some people who have no hope of getting a home, living on the streets is an unsafe place particularly for a female, and as such prison is sometimes the only safe option. I think this was the point where God changed my heart, and I was filled with compassion and wanted to do something to put all this right. Speaking to Lynda and Jim, 2 of our friends who had helped all weekend with my husband Howard, I said it was a pity that there was nothing available in the town for the homeless the rest of the year and we had the idea to open up the Queens Hall café two evenings a week and just see what happened. We asked permission from Tim - the minister and he gave us his blessing. So, on 6th January 2006 with a lot of prayer and love,we opened the café, and one homeless couple came for a meal. Because the café does not have a full kitchen, we served beans on toast followed by cake and plenty of tea and coffee. We chatted with the couple and although we didn't change their situation, we felt like we had made things a little better for a while. The café continued for several weeks with more and more people turning up to eat. Because of the numbers and the limited kitchen resources, we decided that we needed to move the operation downstairs to the lower hall where facilities were a lot better. This involved more planning, so we made sure there was always someone upstairs on welcome duty to direct them and to ensure that they weren't wandering around the building. We also had to put locks on the toilets after we found two people in there behaving suspiciously. After that people could only go to the loo on their own and this seemed to work quite well. We were beginning to be much wiser in our dealings and were keen to keep people safe.
with the same band of loyal volunteers giving their time unstintingly. At the same time as the café was operating and the Christmas night shelters were opening, one of the congregation, Julie was also praying for people and offering them refreshments from the café during the day, several times a week. Tim had been having meetings with the Health Authority and Local Council, and they too were interested in local services for the homeless. The council had been funding an organisation called the Key Project which was run by Joe Gavaghan through the Salvation Army and Tim took over the responsibility for this organisation. The Key Project was also supported by Margaret Somers from the Health Authority. Together with our café, this project helped identify and support the local homeless population and find them housing. Tim Hall also wanted to have a dedicated place to help homeless people and he looked for and found a building where this could happen. He identified the Bricklayers Arms on Hallgate in Wigan and felt God was telling him that was the right place when he saw the pub sign “In God is all our trust”.
The Regional Health Authority put in a substantial amount thanks to Margaret Somers, the Local Council also gave an amount and Tim raised some of it through a sponsored slim where he lost 3 stone in weight and asking local people and businesses for support. He also got help through a housing organisation run by Pastor Pete from Southport called Green Pastures giving a mortgage on the property to release us to help people. Once the funding was in place, Tim hired a team of builders and work commenced.
Unfortunately, Tim was to leave Queens Hall to take up the reins of a Church in Southport, but on the 9th June 2008 we opened our drop in centre at the Bricklayers, or the Brick as it was now called and Tim was able to meet our guests and have breakfast with them before leaving for Southport a few days later. Tim has since passed away, and we remain forever grateful for his vision and support.
The Brick ran on prayer and volunteers. Each day was a challenge, and we didn't have a great deal to offer clients in the way of accommodation as there was a huge waiting list. Joe and Ronnie from the Key Project worked as part of the housing team and Margaret came in regularly to tend to people’s medical issue. For my part, I ran the administration and tried to learn as much as I could of the practical side. In 2009 it became apparent that if we wanted to continue helping people, we would have to step up our game and look for further funding. The local council’s funding was going to be withdrawn as they were looking at further developing homeless services in line with their homelessness strategy.
When we looked at the tender for what they wanted, it felt like a massive step for us but at the same time we knew that if we didn't take the step, we would just be a small organisation with no power and no real ability to make a difference. We decided after much prayer and advice, to take the plunge and see what happened. John Parker, one of our longstanding Trustees, and myself headed up the tender writing. Neither of us had completed one before and it was quite daunting. John had previously run a business, so he approached it practically and broke it down into chunks for us to manage. I concentrated on writing all the policies and procedures for the list that the Council had supplied as a requirement. Most of it was cobbled from the Internet with many tweaks and alterations, and John and I sat down to discuss what it was that we were offering and what our wishes were for the future. We both put many, many hours into that document and on the day that it was to be submitted we met to pray over it and to ensure that it met every requirement that the Council wanted. With great trepidation we handed it in and then had to wait. A couple of months later we heard we had got through to the next stage and had to go before a panel to present our case and answer questions about our proposal. Again, we worked very hard on our presentation. I'm sure it wasn't as slick as others, but it came from our hearts, and we practised it well. On the day of the presentation, 3 of us stood before a panel of 5 and presented our case. I remember John’s last point being about getting 2 people back to work each year. If they stayed in work we would save the government over £2,000,000 and that by looking after homeless people there would be great indirect savings to the NHS, etc. John quoted an academic (from the USA) that showed one homeless alcoholic man was costing support services £100,000's a year.
We were then asked questions on why we wanted to do this, how we were going to see it through, how the funding would help us etc and we answered honestly and as best we could. I remember being very nervous about it all as though the future of it all rested on our shoulders.
In December 2009, I got a phone call from the Supporting People office of Wigan Council to say that our tender had been successful. I just said oh thank you and put the phone down. It wasn't until I had told someone else that it became real, and the truth sunk in! We’d done it! The contract would start on the 1st April 2010 and run for 3 years with the option of extending if the need arose. Wow! Work would now begin in earnest!
