Hope

CLICK HERE to support our Hope appeal

Hope

Writing the word hope doesn’t take long. It’s only four letters. Yet it must be one of the most important words in our vocabulary. Hope, in these challenging and often dark times, is more vital than ever.

I’m fortunate that I see and feel more hope every time I visit our safe places for people experiencing homelessness. Hope stems from the incredible things the people we support can and do overcome. It sits squarely in a safe and welcoming environment, and it shines from our amazing teams, who have the compassion, skills, and experience to make a difference. Hope radiates from our partners, from our volunteers and our supporters. 

Hope is also found in  the opportunities we offer – education, art and writing classes, digital inclusion, walking groups, volunteering … hope comes from a sense of identity, meaning and purpose, the smallest of things can light that spark of change. 

Today, Simon Community Scotland is launching our new appeal – HOPE.

Scotland is in a housing emergency and the cost of living crisis is pushing more people into poverty and having no where to call home. Our ‘Hope’ appeal is a call to action. We need the public’s support now more than ever to continue providing our vital services.”

With an estimated 100 people sleeping rough in Edinburgh and Glasgow every night and way too many thousands living in the uncertainty and restriction of hotels and temporary accommodation in and around the city centres, Simon Community Scotland’s services are a critical first point of contact. Our ‘Hope’ appeal will raise much needed funds to continue and expand services, ensuring that we can provide more hope and more opportunity.

Hope, for people we support, often starts with a conversation, a human connection. This could be on the streets, on our helplines or in our hubs. Once that connection is established, it’s from there that trust and belief build.  It is only through those trusting connections with us and through us to many other services that people can find a future of safety and support, of opportunity and meaning and of structure and change for the better.

My hope comes from hearing the very real experiences of people from our team, simple things that most of us might take for granted. Feeling seen, heard and valued as a person and not a collection of needs and problems. 

Our Glasgow team took people to Ben Lomond for a day out hill climbing (photo below). It was the first time many had been outwith the city centre and into country air for years, some for the first time. Some talked of ‘escapism’ and ‘freedom’. One said it gave them ‘hope’.  

Our Edinburgh team are helping over 300 people maintain tenancies every single day and help people move into long term homes of their own every week. We are also set to announce our new home for Streetreads – offering hope and a safe place that has been missing from the city since we were forced to close our original home in January.

We also work across North Lanarkshire and Perth & Kinross, where we support several hundred of people a year to keep or find their settled home.

There are so many incredible stories of people overcoming the very worst of circumstances, recovering from severe mental health problems, addictions and trauma, having found their own little bit of hope and then building from there.  We sometimes have to hold that hope for them and with them, whilst their belief that better is possible grows.  

Please share our hope and be part of giving someone else hope for the future.  We can only deliver hope  with the care and action of every single person that takes the time to support our work and our cause. We cannot do this without you.