Its 48 years since St Basils was founded by the late Revd Les Milner on 1st October 1972 to prevent youth homelessness and stop the ‘cycle of homelessness’ trapping people into a life on the streets.
St Basils in 1972
Back then St Basils could house 18 young men in dormitory style beds and also had a street outreach service and advice centre helping around 30 young people at a time.
Reflecting on St Basils’ beginnings in a previous review Les wrote; “We started [St Basils] with incredible naivety and only 2 and a half staff to cover all our services but there was an instance response from the young people and in no time we were flooded out…. We had a saying ‘For as long as it takes’; we would stay with each young person for as long as it took to sort their problems out.”
St Basils today
In recent years St Basils has on average been helping 4000 – 5000 young people per year with housing, support and advice amongst other services.
But what if St Basils had never existed? How different would our communities be? How different would our streets look?
Can you help us? Please take a World Homeless Day pledge
Like many charities we’re struggling right now due to the ongoing situation and not being able to hold any of our usual fundraising events. This means we may not be able to reach as many young people this year. There is another important day coming up in October; its ‘World Homeless Day’ on Saturday 10th October. This year we’re asking you our wonderful supporters to make a #homelessdaypledge and help St Basils to prevent youth homelessness right now.
There are lots of ways you can help including:
- Donating £5 to support one young person for one night
- Hosting your own facebook fundraiser (see fundraisers tab)
- Taking part in one of our virtual events or fundraisers
- Hosting your own virtual event or fundraiser
- Donating starter packs of useful household items for young people (email fundraising@stbasils.org.uk)
- Donating some items from our wishlist
- Volunteering your time
Please take your pledge on social media and tag us in:
https://www.facebook.com/stbasilscharity
https://twitter.com/stbasilscharity
https://www.instagram.com/stbasils.charity
https://www.linkedin.com/company/stbasilscharity/
Please share with your family, friends, community or faith group and your other networks. Thank you!