no, not indifferent or lacking passion about lots of things, just don't like any of the three that Jeff listed

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:36, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

what type of volunteering?

( zulu eh?, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:37, Reply)

I'm shift leader for a homeless charity - we temporarily house rough sleepers whilst hostels close over Christmas

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:38, Reply)

well, respect
that's a cool thing to do
( zulu eh?, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:40, Reply)

It's a right laugh - not as depressing as you'd think. My 10th year this year & the highlight of the year for me
last year we re-housed 130 people by the end of the week. Fucking RESULT.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:43, Reply)

Fantastic.
If I wasn't so fucking crap at getting off my arse and doing stuff then I'd find something to do. My best friend, (who now lives in New Zealand), was great at getting me mobilized to do stuff.
( girlinthehole, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:45, Reply)

two birds, one stone.
GET YOUR ASS TO NZ
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:54, Reply)

I'm too old for them to want me.
Just like every other fucker : (
( girlinthehole, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:55, Reply)

It's operated by Crisis - you can just do a couple of shifts if you're interested.
www.crisis.org.uk/pages/christmas.html
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:56, Reply)

I live in West Yorkshire.

( girlinthehole, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:58, Reply)

Shame.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:00, Reply)

That is fantastic
How many guests* do you have over the Christmas period?

*Apols if guests is the wrong term to use here.
( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:47, Reply)

Guests is the right term. 2200 across 9 centres in London. Includes "sofa-surfers" as well as rough sleepers, plus some guests travel in to London to stay with us
we serve 35,000 meals & operate services by doctors, dentists, legal advisors & others.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:54, Reply)

That's fantastic
That must cost the charity a fortune to do and the logistics of serving 35,000 meals is nigh on impossible to comprehend.

The fact you are able, over Christmas, to rehouse a number of people makes it all the more amazing.

Well done you.
( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:00, Reply)

I just manage volunteers & keep it calm and safe (we shift leaders get training on this)
The really amazing bit is the 5000 volunteers that help over the 8 days we are open. We get lots of corporate donations for food etc & get a lot of cash donations too - we couldn't do it without either of these.
(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:05, Reply)

I volunteered doing breakfasts for homeless people in Manchester for about 6 months
and they were rude and obnoxious, consistently damaged the property and tried to steal anything that was taped down. It wasn't particularly rewarding.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:55, Reply)

it's not without a few arseholes spoiling it for the majority, but we kick the worst behaved out (anyone fighting for example)

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 12:57, Reply)

I've always wondered this and not sure if it's a dickish question or not
but do the homeless often get it on with each other? Really am just curious.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:18, Reply)

most of them do - they stick up for each other too - most have lost all contact with their family so their friends on the street are all they have, but like the rest of the population there are some right cunts.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:23, Reply)

I can imagine it's like any community really just with harsher consequences
Fair play for doing what you do. I volunteered in Bristol Zoo as a limur ranger and thought I was saving the fucking world. Kudos Battered.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:27, Reply)

you were a lemur ranger in Bristol Zoo?
that's awesome.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:32, Reply)

It's not actually cause Lemurs are fucking little shits
basically I had to tell people not to get to close and not to feed them. But I did get to play with a lot of other animals in the Zoo.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:35, Reply)

yeah we had a zero crime tolerance thing
but the abuse they used to give us just made it intolerable. I had one guy throw his entire breakfast on the floor because he said it was too salty, but he was the one who had poured all the salt on it. Stuff like that just makes it really frustrating. There were some genuinely nice people there, but for the most part it was just dickheads who didn't want to be helped. Maybe I was just in a rough one, maybe there are posher homeless shelters!
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:24, Reply)

That sort of thing can happen - probably had mental health issues. Not that that makes it any easier for you to tolerate

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:39, Reply)

I know, it's so middle class of me to find the homeless people distasteful
There were so many volunteers there that I felt like my time was just being wasted anyway so I should put it to more productive things, however, I have since done nothing.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:47, Reply)

It's not uncommon at times to have too many volunteers. I've recently stopped helping another charity run a soup kitchen in Hackney for that very reason.

(lkjshaglkasjdhglkhjz lkcvl; g;aodh;owih, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 13:49, Reply)