I cross-posted the above from elsewhere on here cos I couldn't be arsed to rewrite it - does anyone have any thoughts though?
Homeless outreach
I go with what posi says on the other thread.
I'd also look up the kind of thing the Black Panthers were doing.
Although most anarchists cut out most of this article (apart from the Panther Ps), I'd read all of this page:
http://www.kwru.org/educat/orgmod2.html#six
The key thing though is to talk to the people you plan to help. You may be surprised at what it is they're most interested in.
I also had the idea of an anarchist sally army type thing a while back - making it a self-help organisation. making it into a free charity shop, helping people deal with their shit, and then recruiting them into furthering the organisation's self help aims. Though I was thinking of having a focus that went beyond the homeless, to include poorest of the housed, but ideally all wc people. It should be an official charity, squatted or precarious organisations would be no help for long term organising. But that's another story.
i dont think liability is a problem because if were just an informal group without affiliating to anything then nobody is going to go after us...
i was thinking of working something around the lines of food not bombs... if we cant get ready made sandwitches and meals then get raw ingredients nearing their sell by date and cooking something up...
i think that if we manage to get a regular supply of food from some groceries in the area and are able to recruit a group of people willing to cook (dont need to be anarchists)informally without going through any union society then itl be simpler...
alright all, just stumbled across this thread, i've worked extensively with homeless people and people with drug misuse issues in coventry/leam/warwick/stratford/rugby/nuneaton and surrounding areas as well as other places over the years and i reckon its a good idea. it might be worthwhile setting up a food not bombs group, i'm sure the brum lot would help and give advice. there are more services for homeless people in cov than your probably aware of - theres cyrenians and a day centre by the old hospital. i'm not in the area at the moment, but hopefully will be in a month or so, but if you get this idea running, give me a shout or pm me and i'll try and help if needed.
fareshare might be able to give you some advice - they do what you are talking about on a national scale - theres one in brum according to their website - they will definitely be able to advice on hygiene etc
I've been thinking recently about the feasibility of setting up some sort of homeless outreach thing in coventry & or lem spa. At the moment the only outreach service in coventry is the salvation army and, for obvious reasons, I don't think that's a good thing. However I wasn't sure about the feasibility of it:
At first I was thinking informally, we phone up or write to marks & spencers or any other high street food shop and say we're from a student volunterring project. there was a charity i was involved with in manchester who for outreach would go to m&s, pick up all the sandwiches which had display until dates which had expired that day (but were still got to eat for another day or two) then (along with other things) distribute them round town.
However it occured to me that if we're getting students involved in this then
a) some warwick uni undergraduates (and post-grads for that matter) may lack common sense about how to handle some of the situations then can possibly arise
b) there's always the possibility of coming across syringes and various other first aid considerations so some sort of basic first aid training is probably necessary
c) if anything happens are we liable? it occurred to me that all the charities i've done work for went out of thier way to go over safety/health stuff. is this to ensure liability? if we can affiliate with some university society already affiliated with the union can we get coverage through them? has anyone got any idea who i would talk to about this or the legal issues surrounding it?
cool, so yeah if anyone has any thoughts/experience/advice about this it would be much appreciated