Foxton Centre: new Preston homeless day centre opens offering 'rough sleepers breakfast' and laundry service

The day centre is based on Fox street in Preston, across from the Fishergate centre on Preston’s high street. The newly renovated building opened under the Foxton name on December 28.

George Brierly, 49, Operations Manager at The Foxton centre told The Post of the Foxton’s big plans for the rest of the day centre timetable, as they have recruited the help of multiple external services to use the new site as a base to reach out to the rough sleepers and provide help with a multitude of physical and mental issues. George said: “We are hoping to operate a rough sleepers breakfast, Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 11.30, then we’re going to close for an hour to do a quick tidy up. Then we will reopen for afternoon sessions which we have big plans for.

“We have contacted loads of different agencies as we want to work in partnership with them, we want people to come in and deliver specialist services and we’ve done a lot of organising prior to opening the centre. We want to do a full time table with agencies such as DWP, CAB, Housing Advice, Inspire Drug and Alcohol, Positive lifestyles who help with physical health, mental health we’re still looking into that with a new service that’s going to be coming in. Sexual health, HEPC testing, opticians, we’ve contacted everyone you can think of.”

“We’ve also contacted Preston college to see if we can hold some classes here at the day centre, as what we’ve found is a lot of our guys will access college if they’re in a really good place. Whereas the opportunity doesn’t come to people that are out on the street but our idea is to bring the service to the client to those individuals.”

The building boasts plenty of new facilities such as laundry and shower rooms, a kitchen and a breakfast area for rough sleepers. The other spaces will occupy the external services to help bridge the gap between the homeless and being able to access the essential agencies they may require to provide help.

George said: “They can come and use the centre for practical reasons, for a shower, to have their clothes laundered, especially in this weather. I’ve worked with a lot of rough sleepers who say it’s better to be cold than wet because when you’re wet it goes right through you. You’ve no chance of getting your clothes dry, so that’s why we’re here to help with that and offer that laundry service. If sleeping bags have been wet throughout the night, give a new one until it is ready. But the overall idea is not to just give someone a hot breakfast, or for them to continue out on the street, the idea is to help with that but also then look at the preventative side of it.”

Although the centre can be used as a drop-in, warm hub for those on the streets, the Foxton centre wants to help reduce the number of rough sleepers by working amongst external services to help the individual with the issues that could be keeping them on the street.

Gemma Ward, 36, the Day Centre Manager said: “A lot of people may just come in for a brew to start with or just for something to eat initially or just so they can have a shower. That definition of help can range from a lot of things, there is no pressure. It’s up to them how much they get involved with us, but we’ll keep chipping away and help where we can. It’s all about relationship building.”

The Foxton Centre had been inundated with food donations over the Christmas period, however, now they told The Post that these donations had been wearing thin so more are needed throughout the winter months to maintain the services they provide.

Gemma said: “It's just been Christmas, a time when we receive a crazy amount of donations. But already they are running down, so we’re always after anything for breakfast sessions. Foodwise, anything that is non-perishable there’s that need for it. And clothes, gloves, underwear too. We’re almost completely reliant on donations now, as food banks are struggling, we’re limited on where we can refer to.”

“There are the outward ways that people straight away think ‘that’s how I could help’, like volunteering or donating: but for me, it's also going back to basics, it’s all about tolerance. Having that open mind that it could be any one of us. It could be our sisters, brothers, or children in the future, they could be someone that’s coming through our doors for help.”

The day centre welcomes food donations and volunteers to come and help with the work they provide to the rough sleepers of Preston. You can help by visiting their website: www.thefoxtoncentre.co.uk/donate.

George said, “We’ve supported people that have literally had it all. Fancy cars, big mansions, loads of money, but for whatever reason that’s broken down, then leads to relationships breaking down, anything can happen. It really differs and ranges the number of people we support, we find with the people that we help that we work within a trauma-informed approach. So we will try and focus on the experiences people have had and whether it's putting a plaster over because right now it’s too difficult to peel back all the layers, but having that understanding and empathy and just knowing where somebody is coming from. It's about having that conversation and getting to know the clients so we can work out why certain behaviours are happening.”

“What we want to do here is work within a psychologically informed environment and that’s why we’re really focusing on all these different services together.”