The Project
In July 2024 The Wallich received a generous £5000 grant from the 1910 Trust for the Cardiff Solutions service.
Cardiff Solutions provides a genuine ‘Drop-in’ service for the city’s most vulnerable people. With the increasing need for our services across Cardiff, Solutions supports up to 35 people daily aged 21+, most of whom are socially and economically disadvantaged, living in poverty and extremely vulnerable. Almost all have experienced significant trauma, the impact of which is that many struggle to maintain a stable lifestyle independently.
Historically, many of the people we support are affected by entrenched homelessness, but we also support people experiencing homelessness for the first time and those precariously housed. Recently, this has included people who are in employment but severely impacted by the cost-of-living crisis and forced to live in their cars or ‘sofa surf,’ people who need access to information, advice, and personal hygiene and laundry facilities to maintain employment.
Our aim is to provide a one stop shop, supporting rough sleepers to access accommodation and providing appropriate support to address any issues they have preventing them from achieving this.
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Progress
We have taken on a volunteer who has been able to offer weekly cooking sessions with rough sleepers. The aim has been to plan a meal, draw up a shopping list, prepare and cook a meal for up to 15 people and then sit down together to eat and chat. So far service users have had meals from:
The Caribbean, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Italy, India, as well as the more traditional Lasagne, Chilli con Cane, Spaghetti Bolognese, Chicken bake.
Over the three-month reporting period we have supported over 200 people over the age of 21, our oldest being 82. The majority of people seeking support are male. Anyone who is rough sleeping is welcomed.
We supported people from a wide range of backgrounds, including veterans with severe PTSD, asylum seekers/refugees, people with relationship breakdowns, people being evicted from private accommodation and uninhabitable council accommodation, victims of domestic violence, people fleeing for safety i.e. from debt collectors/drug dealers or similar, victims of modern day slavery, victims of vigilante paedophile rings, prison leavers, entrenched rough sleepers, people being discharged from hospital. All were on the mental health spectrum from anxiety/depression to suicidal.