Its Our Community Research Workshop 10 December 2013 Rachel Newell Social Enterprise Manager Tel

About us Mission: Wintercomfort supports those with experience of homelessness by offering essential welfare services and social, learning and work opportunities to enable them to achieve their potential. Brief History: Began as double decker bus in 1985 serving soup in the city centre. In 1989 the name Wintercomfort was adopted and set up an evening service providing food and shelter, run by volunteers. Became an official charity in 1991 with Henry Rothschild as its first chairman. 1n 1993 Overstream House was purchased after extensive refurbishment and opened for business on 12 November 1994.

Keeping it Real Rough sleepers have an average life expectancy of just 42 years. People who sleep rough are 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. The annual council street count said there were 9 rough sleepers on 19 November in Cambridge but we served 18 breakfasts to rough sleepers.

What we do now: Welfare Services am: hot breakfast (free to rough sleepers), showers, laundry services. Last year we served 5556 hot breakfasts to 368 people.

Learning and Development 10am-3.30pm: learning and development activities including art activities, literacy, numeracy, ICT session, job club, ESOL, cooking classes, sport, DIY sessions, gardening team. 316 people accessed service last year

Social Enterprises Food4Food Café Food4Food Catering Winterwillow (ended) Cleaning Services (2014!) We have delivered 244 buffets in the last year to 5597 people. Our traded income from buffets was £35,

Funding April March 2013: 488K 28% of our income is from statutory funding 31% individual donors and trusts

Volunteers Some regular volunteers, some one-off Total no. of volunteers in last year: 72 Peak at Christmas Help with numerous jobs: laundry, job applications, counselling sessions, running the cafe, database.

Challenges Competition for funds External economy: Funding Cuts, less personal giving Doing versus showing impact Lack of investment in capital items/resources Fluctuating Volunteers Balancing running social enterprise as a business verses social outcomes Public appeal of the cause (homelessness) Increased demand Service User involvement in decision making

Additional challenges with social enterprises Employing former service-users. Balancing business decisions for profit verses for social impact. Fundraising asks as expected to be sustainable Lots of capital start up funding available but less revenue funding.

Rachel Newell Social Enterprise Manager Tel