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Karen Hurley, Chief Executive has been nominated for Pride In Medway Chief Executive Karen Hurley said "I am delighted for our work to have been recognised and I am very proud of my staff who are ver resilient at times dealing with the challenging issues that people have. We all get a buzz oout of helping and I enjoy seeing the people that come to use being suported by staff and staring their lives again." See article in the Medway Messenger. Medway man is 3000th client of a pioneering service that helps homeless people stay connected A Medway man, who’s recovering his life after becoming homeless, is the 3000th person in the UK to sign up for the VoiceMail4All service that is helping homeless people across the UK to stay in touch and in control. VoiceMail4All is a pioneering free personal voicemail service, developed by the charities St Mungo's and Tech4all. The service offers homeless men and women a free local 01634 number on which they can receive crucial messages so they can stay connected with their family and retrieve messages from doctors, social services or potential employees about appointments, interviews and more. The client said: "I was very grateful to have the service and found it to be a real lifeline when I was homeless as it was the only means of communication when I was unable to use and charge my mobile. I learned about the service at Medway Cyrenians and believe it’s a very useful service for people who are homeless and with little or no money wanting to keep in touch. As the 3000th person, it shows that the service is valid and useful for people with no other form of communication." Karen Hurley, Chief Executive of Medway Cyrenians, said: “Medway Cyrenians has always recognised the value of a free and reliable contact number for our clients and are grateful to our partners at St Jim Gilbourne, Board Treasurer of Medway Cyrenians, receives a certificate from Medway Mayor Cllr Ted Baker to mark the charity’s sign up of the 3000th UK client of the VoiceMail4All service STAFF SATISFACTION SURVEY 2011 Medway Cyrenians conducted the first ever Staff Satisfaction Survey. Which the results can be viewed in PDF format. Click Here to View the Results of the Survey MEDWAY CYRENIANS IS ONE OF THE FIRST TO USE NEW, FREE TEXT MESSAGE SERVICE TO RAISE FUNDS Medway Cyrenians will be amongst the first charities in the country to use its own, unique personalised text code,HOME04, to raise funds using JustTextGiving by Vodafone. This is a brand new, free service for charities. The service has no set up or fundraising costs for charities, no network charges for people making donations and every penny donated goes to charity. Gift Aid can also be added to donations. From today, supporters of Medway Cyrenians can make donations of up to £10 by texting HOME04 and either 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 to 70070 to make their donation. The text message is free and all of the donation will be passed to Medway Cyrenians. Karen Hurley, Chief Executive of Medway Cyrenians said: “This is a wonderful way for us to raise money as it’s speedy, simple and spontaneous. Most people have a mobile phone these days so we expect this to be very popular with the people of Kent and Medway who understand the valuable work we do helping local homeless people get back on their feet.` Staff member awarded Certificate of Merit A member of the staff team at Medway Cyrenians homeless charity has been awarded a Group Commander’s Certificate of Merit for the assistance they provided to the police in raising the alarm and rescuing a number of individuals during a recent fire at the homeless project. The Certificate will be presented at a ceremony to be held at Leeds Castle in May. Karen Hurley, CEO Medway Cyrenians, commented:
Kevin George has been shortlisted for the national 2011 Housing Heroes Awards. These awards showcase the people that are doing exceptional work in the social/affordable housing sector. Kevin is now one of six left in the running for the category Inspirational Resident. The event is organised by Inside Housing magazine and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony in London in May, hosted by TV news presenter George Alagiah. This is the biggest award ceremony in the social housing calendar. Paddy Gray, President of the Chartered Institute of Housing, he has been privileged to be associated with many heroes right across the UK and beyond. He said: ‘A hero is somebody who is selfless, who is generous in spirit, who just tries to give back as much as possible and help people. A hero to me is someone who saves people and who really deeply cares.’ Stuart Macdonald, Editor of Inside Housing, said: ‘All the finalists have done fantastically well in getting this far. Well done to Kevin for being shortlisted. The competition was really fierce.’ You can find out more by visiting Inside Housing’s website: www.insidehousing.co.uk PRIDE IN MEDWAY - GALA EVENING Medway Cyrenians employees, Jon Rose and Nicky Pearson, were pleased to attend the Pride in Medway gala evening where the homeless charity was commended for its community work with local homeless people. Also pictured is Kevin George (far left), a former client, who was congratulated for his outstanding personal achievement in overcoming issues which had led to his homelessness. Kevin is now an employee with Medway.
PRIDE IN MEDWAY Medway Cyrenians have been awarded Pride in Medway status 2010 for their work with homeless people in the local community. Karen Hurley CEO says ‘this is great testament to my hard-working and dedicated staff team who put the needs of homeless people at the heart of everything they do. I am very proud of the work we do at Medway Cyrenians and its lovely to have been recognised in this way."
BBC KENT BBC Kent have recently reported on three of our clients at Medway Cyrenians. Click link to see the full story. NEW YORK MARATHON 2010
Helen has run 10 marathons over the last five years and one amazing Ultra-marathon – running from London 2 Brighton, 56 miles which she finished in 10 hours 55 mins. Helen started running after losing her sister 7 years ago, to fill the void left in her life and to do something she knew would make her sister proud (as she too was a marathon runner). Helen became impressed by the work that Medway Cyrenians does through a complicated social chain that linked her to one of Medway Cyrenians clients who is now living independently again. SALUTE TO THE 40'S 18th and 19th September 2010 Staff enjoyed the weekend in September raising funds at Salute to the 40's event at Chatham Dockyard. Money which was raised will go towards making Christmas more comfortable for the clients at Medway Cyrenians.
To thank Richard for his hard work and commitment, in return Medway Cyrenians have donated five hanging baskets to The Abbeyfield Kent Society’s homes from its worthwhile gardening allotment project, which involves its clients in growing plants and vegetables. The colourful hanging baskets were carefully produced by Medway Cyrenians’ clients and a formal presentation to hand over the hanging baskets took place on Friday, 9 July at 4.00pm at The Abbeyfield Kent Society’s home Rogers House in Gillingham. Attendees included Trustee of The Abbeyfield Kent Society Richard Iddenden, residents of the home and Lucy Dixon, Home Manager, Karen Hurley, Chief Executive of Medway Cyrenians, three enthusiastic Medway Cyrenians’ gardeners, Lee, Kevin and Chrissie and Vanessa Wilson, Head of Homelessness at Medway Council.
Richard Iddenden, Trustee of The Abbeyfield Kent Society comments: Karen Hurley, Chief Executive of Medway Cyrenians comments: “Medway Cyrenians is a small local charity committed to targeting as much as possible of its limited income on direct work with clients. Inevitably this means there is less money to undertake the other things we would like to have, such as an attractive website. Richard has been a wonderful help in achieving our new look website and clients wanted to say thank you by supporting another cause that they know is dear to his heart, The Abbeyfield Kent Society. The gift of hanging baskets was their idea. Social isolation is a horrible side effect of being homeless and community partnership work such as this help build clients self-esteem and let them know that others in the community care about their welfare. Medway Council have been a tremendous support with the development of the gardening project and these are exactly the kind of benefits we had hoped to achieve. ”
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Mungo’s and Tech4All. Many of the people hoping to find accommodation in our hostels do not have any means of contact, and giving them a VoiceMail4All number means we can let them know when a room becomes available. We decided to mark the occasion by inviting the Mayor, Mayoress and local partners not only to celebrate but to find out more about the problems homeless people face and how we support them. Something like VoiceMail4All is a practical way we can support people to feel more connected and included in society.”
Medway Cyrenians received a kind offer from a well-wisher, Helen Perera, who ran the New York Marathon on our behalf on 7th November 2010. All the sponsorshop money collected goes towards helping vulnerable homeless people in Medway, and for this we are thankful to both Helen for agreeing to run the marathon and to everyone who sponsored her!
