At St James church we are going to spend a night (9th December) sleeping outside in solidarity with our friends who are homeless. Raising awareness and also raising vital funds for routes to roots Winter appeal.

Chris

'Once again Winter is fast approaching and once again I appeal to you on behalf of Routes to Roots to please help us to keep safe and warm all those for whom there will be 'no room at the Inn' this Christmas.

Many of our homeless in Poole are difficult to accommodate. They are the ones who carry the added baggage of alcoholism, drug addiction and /or mental health issues.They will be the ones who will end up this winter with no where to lay their head, except for the cold stone floor of a multi story car park. Come the morning there will be nowhere to wash, no hot drink or breakfast to wake up to and quite often, no one to care whether they wake up or not!

In Routes to Roots we do care and with your help we want to make sure that all those who sleep out in the cold this winter can wake up and access a hot drink and a cooked breakfast at a local cafe. With your help we want to continue to run our drop ins, where we can offer food and friendship, a change of clothes and a sleeping bag, if we've got one! It's here at our drop ins that we want Poole Addiction Community Team to be able to continue to do needle exchange, blood tests and vaccinations against HIV and Hep C. Last but not least it will be with your help that our community mental health nurse will be able to come to our drop ins and talk with those who need her most.

Please help us to be able to provide for some of the most vulnerable people in our town, by giving us your generous support this Christmas.

We may be a small charity but we have a big heart for the homeless and in all that we do, we never forget that Jesus said,

' What you do for the least of these, you do for me.'

With grateful thanks,

Pat'