Episode Transcript
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This is the Rural Homelessness Podcast, where we discuss the important issues around ruralhomelessness, hear from those affected by it, and offer some solutions.
Brought to you by the award-winning homelessness charity, The Ferry Project.
Welcome to the Rural Homelessness Podcast.
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Hello and welcome to this episode of the Rural Homelessness Podcast.
I'm your host Matt McCleary and a very Merry Christmas to you wherever you are listeningto this podcast from.
We're right in the middle of December and Christmas is just around the corner, which isreally, really exciting.
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And on today's show, I'm going to be speaking with Donna Wheatley, who is a key workerfrom The Ferry Project, as well as Tina McNaughton, who is the support team.
leader there, all about Christmas and Christmas activities and plans for Christmas thatare going to be going on this year at the Ferry Project.
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So let's welcome Donna and Tina to the show.
Hi Donna and Tina, Merry Christmas to you.
Hi Matt, Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas, Matt.
It's great having you here today where we're going to be chatting about
what you guys do and more specifically what you do in terms of helping to keep theresidents entertained but also more specifically especially at Christmas time what that
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kind of looks like what does Christmas look like at the ferry project so I'm reallylooking forward to our discussion today so let's just start off then Donna what's your
general sort of role within the ferry project?
My main role is key worker but I have activities
tagged on to that role to make sure that clients always have something to do.
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So I cover from the clients coming in to making sure they're okay to obviously making surethey're having fun as well while they're here.
Okay, and Tina, what role do you have?
I am the support team leader.
So I'm line manager of the staff in the support office, oversee Donna and her activities.
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Give her the red light, sorry the green light I should say, for planning.
Yeah, not the red light.
Yeah, and just sort of oversee the general day-to-day running of the support and the corepart of the ferry project really.
great.
And as you've already mentioned, part of what you do is activities.
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just sort of in general then, can you tell us...
what some of the sort of activity highlights have been in this past year and also why it'simportant for residents to have these opportunities of these activities.
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Some of the big highlights this year, we did a picnic on the plaza for bank holiday inAugust.
and everybody was invited separately, they all had their own invitations and that's tohelp them feel included and to feel part of a group and a family again if they're lonely.
We had a day out to Hunstantern, we took a few residents out there as well, we bought thefish and chips, we went bowling, if the weather would have been better we'd probably gone
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for a walk along the beach.
We did a Halloween party this year as well.
And then simple things like Cheese Toasty Sunday, where we invite them all along and theycan have a cheese toastie of their choice.
Jacket Sayers on the Plaza for Firework Night.
That was a nice big one as well.
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Curry Night.
Pizza Making with Alison.
So we cooperate with Alison in the kitchen.
And then that's an activity where we make the pizzas in the kitchen and then we come upand we have a chat and a sit around and everybody just gets to intermingle.
get involved.
Tina, I know Donna sort of mentioned it briefly, but why is having activities or thisopportunity for socialization really important for someone who's sort of moving from
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homelessness to independent living?
Or what kind of important role does this kind of thing play?
A lot of our homeless clients coming to us feeling really quite isolated at times.
whether that's just because of sort of relationship breakdowns or perhaps drug and alcoholissues that they have or mental health problems and they self-isolate a lot of them as a
(04:53):
protection mechanism really.
So trying to get them to socialise and come out of themselves, open up to our staff andbuild that relationship with staff that they begin then to trust people in order to us
then support further.
is a massive, massive step for them.
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We find with some, lot of the activities being quite a relaxed atmosphere, clients tend toopen up to us more.
And it's like having a cup of tea and a chat.
People tell you a lot more about their life story, and then we can figure out what supportthey might need, than something that's perhaps more structured.
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And I noticed quite a few of the activities you mentioned a bit earlier on sort of involvefood.
Do you find food is a particularly good way of engaging clients, Donna?
Absolutely.
If there's food, they'll come.
So to have a cheese toastie.
We had one client attend the cheese toastie event.
He's not had a cheese toastie in years.
So he came to that event.
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Yeah.
He normally doesn't attend any of our events.
So that was quite nice to see that he came out of his shell enough to come for that.
Yeah, that's great.
And it's great having the cookery school as well, which helps to, as you said, about thepizza making and that kind of thing, also expand the residence horizons in terms of what
they can cook and knowing how to cook and everything.
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That's great.
So we we've mentioned a few of the event highlights that have happened over the year.
I know that this time of year, in particular Christmas time, is one that
can get fairly busy.
And so my question really is, what does Ferry Project do at Christmas time?
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Or indeed, what's going on this year for Christmas at Ferry Project?
This Christmas at Ferry Project is going to be very busy.
From the 12th of December, we've got our Christmas fair, which is a unique event to thisyear for our 25th anniversary.
which we've invited the neighbours and all the clients to and it's going to be a big eventthat has food and games and activities going on.
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And then from that date from the 13th to the 31st there are 28 activities planned.
Some of them between the 13th and Christmas Day there'll be two activities a day andbetween Christmas and New Year there's one activity a day.
But we have the 12 days of Christmas crafts
running up to Christmas Day from the 13th, which includes things like making glitter ballballs and garlands and sock snowmen and that sort of thing.
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And then also running alongside that in the afternoons will be things like Christmasbingo, movie night.
We've got a Christmas cookery time.
with the kitchen, so we're going to make sausage rolls and gingerbread men.
And we've got a football table tournament and board games and nibbles.
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Coffee and cake, arts and crafts.
again, hot chocolate on the plaza for midnight on New Year's Eve.
There's a lot going on to keep everybody busy if they want to be.
If they want to be, exactly.
No one's forced to take part of the activities, but the option is there.
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So I guess if people are wanting to sort of follow the progress of this,
There will be lots of posts going up on the Fairy Project social media throughout thefestive season as well.
So you can have a look at what's been going on in terms of all the crafts and food and hotchocolate on the plaza and everything else.
So do follow us on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn if you have one of those platforms.
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Tina, what happens on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself?
Right, Christmas Eve, our night staff will be delivering presents to the clients firstthing Christmas morning.
they will get there.
Are they all dressed up as far as the Christmas and go ho ho ho or not quite?
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I'd like to think they would participate, but I don't know at this point.
There might be some persuasion involved.
We need to find a hat for someone.
Yeah, yeah, I think there's some floating about we might have to borrow.
So yeah, the night staff will be involved delivering presents to every client, theirlittle hampers made up of all the donated goods that we're given leading up to Christmas.
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There'll be, I don't know if I could say what could be in there.
I don't want to give the game away before Christmas and tell everybody the surprises, lotsof goodies.
I think it's safe to say that there are some very generous individuals and companies outthere who do donate really great stuff for our clients, especially at this time of year.
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And we just want to say a really big thank you to all those people who have donated to theFerry project this year.
So thank you.
Sorry, Tina.
Carry on.
That's Christmas Eve.
What about Christmas time?
That's Christmas Eve going into Christmas morning.
And then staff that are working on Christmas Day will be cooking Christmas dinner forapproximately 30 clients.
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That's myself and Donna this year.
Is that going to be a turkey, do know?
Or is it going to be something else like a chicken or a beef?
No, I think that's turkey with all the trimmings.
We're going very traditional this year.
Very nice.
Cranberry sauce, I hope.
Yes.
Pigs in blankets.
yes.
Yes, they're on the list.
They're on the list.
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Yes, so they're there, we're cooking Christmas dinner.
We'll sit down and have Christmas dinner with the clients because I think it's quiteimportant to help and continue building that relationship with them.
Yeah, and is it right that the the client Christmas dinner happens in a very, I'm going tosay elaborate, it's just it's great that the Ferry Project is located in such an iconic
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building as Octavia View, this Grade 2 listed Georgian building.
And one of the rooms, think it used to be the old ballroom and it's got this beautifulceiling.
It's currently being used as the Whisbeach art gallery at the moment.
Is it right that the Christmas dinner is going to be in there on a long table, alldecorated with all sorts of stuff?
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that's the Christmas dinner will be in the gallery.
We have three big round tables that seat 10 people.
And we've got
We're helping having the clients as part of the activities are to make the centerpieces,the table decorations, the name cards.
And we're all going red and white and candy cane themed this year for the Christmastables.
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very nice.
Very nice.
I know I've been roped into taking some photographs as well.
And know Donna's good at taking photos as well.
So we'll try and get some lovely photos of all the red and white themed Christmasdecorations.
on our social media as well this year.
That's fantastic.
I look forward to seeing that.
So are candy canes going to feature in the Christmas dinner in some way?
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Table decorations, definitely.
Yeah, we have candy cane sweets available for people to take after they finish theirdinner.
okay.
All right.
right.
That's good.
Yeah.
Okay.
So there's this dinner, this big at lunchtime, I imagine.
Yes, 12.30.
And then what happens after that?
Everybody goes back to their room to sleep at all.
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Like in any other household, I expect.
Yeah.
I would lie down somewhere and try and recover after eating all that food.
Yeah.
No, wonderful.
Very traditional.
Yeah.
Yeah.
that's wonderful.
And you said you've got a few things happening as well, sort of between Christmas and NewYear.
What would that involve?
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And that involves Boxing Day.
We normally do like a bubble and squeak thing with the with the leftover from Christmasdinner.
So we're going to offer bubble and squeak and board games like a traditional Boxing Daytype thing.
And then we've got an arts and crafts morning, a bacon roll breakfast, a quiz afternoonand a pizza get together.
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Happening between Christmas and New Year.
That's great.
And I guess.
Fairy project is well, it's not unique, it's one of the it's the nature of the work, isn'tit?
That the support needs to be constantly provided, which means that staff don't get thingslike Christmas Day off because someone has to still be on staff to still continue to offer
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and provide the support that's needed.
And I suppose even especially at Christmas time, because
When you think of the life of a homeless person, they've lost a lot to get to that point.
And that even includes family as well.
And Christmas is that time of year where you think about family quite a lot, don't you?
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And so you might find yourself in a dark place sometimes as well at Christmas.
So you need that extra support around you at times like Christmas, more especially than atothers.
That's some of the point of the activities is that it brings it can bring the peopletogether and if they aren't feeling lonely then they were was more than welcome to join
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and hopefully that will help them to be feel more like a family and be around friends.
That's great and if someone's listening to this I know this is going out on the 15th andthey're thinking you know what I would like to donate something to the ferry project or to
to someone who's been homeless
to give them a bit of a boost at Christmas time.
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How can people go about donating something to the Ferry Project?
They can come to our main reception and give whatever it is they're giving to mainreception and then that will be given out accordingly over Christmas or we have the
donations hub over at the QMC that they're more than welcome to donate to over there.
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That's great.
So the main reception is located along South Brink in the Octavia View building.
Is that right?
Yeah, that's correct.
Or you can access the Rearwood Building via Summers Road.
And you can find directions and addresses on our website, ferriproject.org.uk.
Well, that's fantastic.
Thank you, Donna and Tina for chatting all things Christmas and activities today.
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It's been great having a chat with you.
Thank you very much for having us, Matt.
Can we just say a massive thank you to everybody that donates to us throughout the year?
A lot of the activities I do couldn't be done without donations that happen.
So we greatly appreciate it here and so do our clients.
So thank you.
Definitely.
Thank you ever so much, everybody.
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Thank you.
Thanks everyone and have a Merry, Merry Christmas.
And I'll be joining you again for another episode of the Rural Homelessness Podcast.
on the first and the 15th of next month.
So do tune in again then and I look forward to seeing you there.
Thank you and Merry Christmas.
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Thank you for listening to the Rural Homelessness Podcast brought to you by The FerryProject.
Visit our website on www.ferryproject.org.uk