Winter Night Shelter for the Homeless.
Wed, Sep 5th 2018 at 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
A talk by Rev. Jack Walker
Introduction by: Diane Kitchen
VoT: Roger Simmons
Fellowship: Ian Townsend
The Reverend Jack Walker joined us on the 5th September to talk about his work with the homeless, both in the past whilst living in London, and more recently since living in Newport Pagnell.
Reverend Jack manages a shelter based at the Newport Pagnell Baptist church (the old Lovat Hall building). With a team of up to 50 volunteers, mainly made up of parishioners, they open each Tuesday evening to assist those in need.
Reverend Walker was able to animate his talk through a number of stories relating to his work over the years. These ranged from success stories, turning people’s lives around and seeing them settled into safe accommodation, through to some not-so-successful stories where people have not been able to make the change from their street lifestyle.
The key thing picked up from his talk is that being homeless is not a lifestyle choice. It is something that people can fall into for a range of reasons and then struggle to come back from. For example, if a person has no identification, be it that they’ve lost it or its been stolen etc., they are virtually unable to get any help - no ID, no benefits, no benefits, no money, no money, no food or shelter which then leads to begging on the street – a pretty bleak outlook for anyone.
I think all Rotarians present were impressed by the work undertaken by Reverend Jack and his team and, although a slightly uncomfortable subject matter, we all enjoyed the talk.
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