Viva Brighton Issue #74 April 2019

BITS AND BOBS
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CHARITY BOX #36:
ST JOHN AMBULANCE HOMELESS SERVICE
Sharon Agnew, who runs the
Brighton and Hove St John
Ambulance Homeless Service,
explains why there’s more to
the first aid charity than many
people realise…
What is the St John Ambulance
Homeless Service?
Essentially, we provide mobile
first aid and health care to
people who are homeless in
Brighton and Hove. We have
two kitted-out former ambulances – and a
new, purpose-built unit on its way – where the
homeless community can access our services
every week. You can find us down at the Peace
Statue in Hove every Monday and Thursday,
when we also run an additional clinic at the First
Base Day Centre in Hove. We offer a range
of services including podiatry, dental care, GP
referrals, advocacy and dietary advice. But often
the people we see just want to have a chat over
a cup of tea.
Who operates the clinics? A volunteer nurse
leads the clinics and manages a team of around
four or five support volunteers. A lot of our
volunteers are retired people who have worked
in the medical profession and some do it in
addition to their current jobs. But anyone can
train to be a support volunteer for us as long
as they are willing to go through a DBS check.
They receive training in skills such as first aid,
homelessness awareness, communication skills
and safeguarding, then they usually do some
shadowing with more experienced team members
and then they start. Volunteering for us can
be a great outlet for people who
have some time to spare and are
looking to give something back.
How long has the service
been going? We’ve been operating
for 20 years now. We were
St John’s first homeless service.
The Hastings branch launched
15 years ago. But we are the
only two homeless services run
by St John’s nationally and even
20 years on, many people aren’t
aware of us. They think of St John’s as a first
aid charity but they don’t realise we run units
especially for the homeless community. That
can make it harder to raise funds. Because St
John’s is a big charity, people often assume we
have enough money coming in but the homeless
service is a separate strand and we’re very much
in need of donations to keep running.
What’s coming up next for you? We’re very
excited to get our new, purpose-built unit on the
road in a couple of months’ time. At the moment,
we have been working out of two converted
ambulances, which work well but aren’t ideal.
It’s thanks to a recent fundraising campaign that
we’ve been able to commission a purpose-built
unit that is being made to our exact specifications.
It’s due to be with us at the beginning of
May and we’re hoping to do some road show
events to show it off because we want people to
see what their donations have bought. It’s going
to be great having a third vehicle to work from
and it will mean we can help even more people
in Brighton and Hove. Nione Meakin
sja.org.uk
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