In this episode of the Rural Homelessness Podcast, host Matt McChlery is joined by Ferry Project key worker Donna Wheatley, and Support Team Leader Tina McNaughton to discuss all things Christmas at the Ferry Project. Listen as the guests talk through the activities happening in the run up to Christmas and New Year, as well as what happens on the big day itself, and why these are so important for strengthening community and the support network at the Ferry Project. For many clients, Christmas can be a tough time as they may have lost their own family or friends, so the chance to celebrate together in a welcoming environment is key. Hear also how you can support the Ferry Project at Christmas, and help to make this year a magical one for our clients.

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Transcript

 

Introduction
This is the Rural Homelessness Podcast, where we discuss the important issues around rural homelessness, hear from those affected by it, and offer some solutions. Brought to you by the award-winning homelessness charity, The Ferry Project. Welcome to the Rural Homelessness Podcast.

Matt McChlery (Host)
Hello and welcome to this episode of the Rural Homelessness Podcast. I'm your host Matt McChlery and a very Merry Christmas to you wherever you are listening to this podcast from. We're right in the middle of December and Christmas is just around the corner, which is really, really exciting. And on today's show, I'm going to be speaking with Donna Wheatley, who is a key worker from The Ferry Project, as well as Tina McNaughton, who is the support team leader there, all about Christmas and Christmas activities and plans for Christmas that are going to be going on this year at the Ferry Project. So let's welcome Donna and Tina to the show. Hi Donna and Tina, Merry Christmas to you.

Donna
Hi Matt, Merry Christmas.

Tina
Merry Christmas, Matt.

Matt
It's great having you here today where we're going to be chatting about what you guys do and more specifically what you do in terms of helping to keep the residents entertained but also more specifically especially at Christmas time what that kind of looks like. What does Christmas look like at the Ferry Project? So I'm really looking forward to our discussion today, so let's just start off then. Donna, what's your general sort of role within the Ferry Project?

Donna
My main role is key worker, but I have activities tagged on to that role to make sure that clients always have something to do. So I cover from the clients coming in to making sure they're okay to obviously making sure they're having fun as well while they're here.

Matt
Okay, and Tina, what role do you have?

Tina
I am the support team leader. So I'm line manager of the staff in the support office, oversee Donna and her activities. Give her the red light, sorry the green light I should say, for planning. Yeah, not the red light. Yeah, and just sort of oversee the general day-to-day running of the support and the core part of the Ferry Project really.

Matt
Great. And as you've already mentioned, part of what you do is activities. Just sort of in general then, can you tell us what some of the sort of activity highlights have been in this past year and also why it's important for residents to have these opportunities of these activities?

Tina
Some of the big highlights this year: we did a picnic on the plaza for bank holiday in August, and everybody was invited separately. They all had their own invitations and that's to help them feel included and to feel part of a group and a family again if they're lonely. We had a day out to Hunstanton, we took a few residents out there as well, we bought them fish and chips, we went bowling, if the weather would have been better we'd probably have gone for a walk along the beach. We did a Halloween party this year as well. And then simple things like Cheese Toasty Sunday, where we invite them all along and they can have a cheese toastie of their choice. Jacket Potatoes on the Plaza for Firework Night. That was a nice big one as well. Curry Night. Pizza Making with Alison, so we cooperate with Alison in the kitchen. And then that's an activity where we make the pizzas in the kitchen and then we come up and we have a chat and a sit around and everybody just gets to intermingle and get involved.

Matt
Tina, I know Donna sort of mentioned it briefly, but why is having activities or this opportunity for socialization really important for someone who's sort of moving from homelessness to independent living? Or what kind of important role does this kind of thing play?

Tina
A lot of our homeless clients coming to us feeling really quite isolated at times, whether that's just because of sort of relationship breakdowns or perhaps drug and alcohol issues that they have or mental health problems. They self-isolate, a lot of them as a protection mechanism really. So trying to get them to socialise and come out of themselves, open up to our staff and build that relationship with staff that they begin then to trust people in order for us to then support further is a massive, massive step for them. We find with some, a lot of the activities being quite a relaxed atmosphere, clients tend to open up to us more. And it's like having a cup of tea and a chat. People tell you a lot more about their life story, and then we can figure out what support they might need, than something that's perhaps more structured.

Matt
And I noticed quite a few of the activities you mentioned a bit earlier that sort of involve food. Do you find food is a particularly good way of engaging clients, Donna?

Donna
Absolutely. If there's food, they'll come. So to have a cheese toastie. We had one client attend the cheese toastie event. He's not had a cheese toastie in years, so he came to that event. Yeah. He normally doesn't attend any of our events, so that was quite nice to see that he came out of his shell enough to come for that.

Matt
Yeah, that's great. And it's great having the cookery school as well, which helps to, as you said, about the pizza making and that kind of thing, also expand the residence horizons in terms of what they can cook and knowing how to cook and everything. That's great. So we've mentioned a few of the event highlights that have happened over the year. I know that this time of year, in particular Christmas time, is one that can get fairly busy. And so my question really is, what does Ferry Project do at Christmas time? Or indeed, what's going on this year for Christmas at Ferry Project?

Donna
This Christmas at Ferry Project is going to be very busy. From the 12th of December, we've got our Christmas fair, which is a unique event to this year for our 25th anniversary, which we've invited the neighbours and all the clients to and it's going to be a big event that has food and games and activities going on. And then from that date, from the 13th to the 31st, there are 28 activities planned. Some of them between the 13th and Christmas Day there'll be two activities a day and between Christmas and New Year there's one activity a day. But we have the 12 days of Christmas crafts running up to Christmas Day from the 13th, which includes things like making glitter ball balls and garlands and sock snowmen and that sort of thing. And then also running alongside that in the afternoons will be things like Christmas bingo, movie night. We've got a Christmas cookery time with the kitchen, so we're going to make sausage rolls and gingerbread men. And we've got a football table tournament and board games and nibbles, coffee and cake, arts and crafts. Again, hot chocolate on the plaza for midnight on New Year's Eve. There's a lot going on to keep everybody busy if they want to be.

Matt
If they want to be, exactly. No one's forced to take part in the activities, but the option is there. So I guess if people are wanting to sort of follow the progress of this, there will be lots of posts going up on the Ferry Project social media throughout the festive season as well. So you can have a look at what's been going on in terms of all the crafts and food and hot chocolate on the plaza and everything else. So do follow us on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn if you have one of those platforms. Tina, what happens on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself?

Tina
Right, Christmas Eve, our night staff will be delivering presents to the clients first thing Christmas morning, so they will get their-

Matt
-Are they all dressed up as Father Christmas and go ho ho ho or not quite?

Tina
I'd like to think they would participate, but I don't know at this point. There might be some persuasion involved.

Matt
We need to find a hat for someone I think.

Tina
Yeah, yeah, I think there's some floating about we might have to borrow. So yeah, the night staff will be involved delivering presents to every client, their little hampers made up of all the donated goods that we're given leading up to Christmas. There'll be, I don't know if I could say what could be in there. I don't want to give the game away before Christmas and tell everybody the surprises, lots of goodies.

Matt
I think it's safe to say that there are some very generous individuals and companies out there who do donate really great stuff for our clients, especially at this time of year, and we just want to say a really big thank you to all those people who have donated to the Ferry Project this year. So thank you. Sorry, Tina. Carry on. That's Christmas Eve. What about Christmas time?

Tina
That's Christmas Eve going into Christmas morning. And then staff that are working on Christmas Day will be cooking Christmas dinner for approximately 30 clients. That's myself and Donna this year.

Matt
Is that going to be a turkey, do you know? Or is it going to be something else like a chicken or a beef?

Tina
No, I think that's turkey with all the trimmings. We're going very traditional this year.

Matt
Very nice. Cranberry sauce, I hope.

Tina
Yes.

Donna
Absolutely.

Matt
Pigs in blankets?

Tina
Oh yes, yes, they're on the list. They're on the list. Yes, so they're there, we're cooking Christmas dinner. We'll sit down and have Christmas dinner with the clients because I think it's quite important to help and continue building that relationship with them.

Matt
Yeah, and is it right that the client Christmas dinner happens in a very, I'm going to say elaborate, it's just it's great that the Ferry Project is located in such an iconic building as Octavia View, this Grade 2 listed Georgian building. And one of the rooms, I think it used to be the old ballroom, it's got this beautiful ceiling. It's currently being used as the Wisbech art gallery at the moment. Is it right that the Christmas dinner is going to be in there on a long table, all decorated with all sorts of stuff?

Donna
Yes, the Christmas dinner will be in the gallery. We have three big round tables that seat 10 people, and we're having the clients as part of the activities helping to make the centerpieces, the table decorations, the name cards. And we're all going red and white and candy cane themed this year for the Christmas tables.

Matt
Very nice. Very nice. I know I've been roped into taking some photographs as well, and know Donna's good at taking photos as well. So we'll try and get some lovely photos of all the red and white themed Christmas decorations on our social media as well this year. That's fantastic. I look forward to seeing that. So are candy canes going to feature in the Christmas dinner in some way?

Tina
Table decorations, definitely.

Donna
Yeah, we have candy cane sweets available for people to take after they finish their dinner.

Matt
Okay. All right. right. That's good. Yeah, okay. So there's this dinner, this big at lunchtime, I imagine.

Donna
Yes, 12.30.

Matt
And then what happens after that?

Donna
Everybody goes back to their room to sleep it all off.

Matt
Like in any other household, I expect. Yeah. I would lie down somewhere and try and recover after eating all that food. Yeah. No, wonderful.

Donna
Very traditional.

Matt
Yeah. Yeah. That's wonderful. And you said you've got a few things happening as well, sort of between Christmas and New Year. What would that involve?

Donna
That involves Boxing Day. We normally do like a bubble and squeak thing with the leftover from Christmas dinner. So we're going to offer bubble and squeak and board games like a traditional Boxing Day type thing. And then we've got an arts and crafts morning, a bacon roll breakfast, a quiz afternoon and a pizza get together happening between Christmas and New Year.

Matt
That's great. And I guess Ferry Project is well, it's not unique, it's one of the it's the nature of the work, isn't it? That the support needs to be constantly provided, which means that staff don't get things like Christmas Day off because someone has to still be on staff to still continue to offer and provide the support that's needed. And I suppose even especially at Christmas time, because when you think of the life of a homeless person, they've lost a lot to get to that point, and that even includes family as well. And Christmas is that time of year where you think about family quite a lot, don't you? And so you might find yourself in a dark place sometimes as well at Christmas, so you need that extra support around you at times like Christmas, more especially than at others.

Donna
That's some of the point of the activities is that it brings, it can bring the people together and if they are feeling lonely then they’re always more than welcome to join and hopefully that will help them to feel more like a family and be around friends.

Matt
That's great and if someone's listening to this I know this is going out on the 15th and they're thinking you know what I would like to donate something to the Ferry Project or to someone who's been homeless to give them a bit of a boost at Christmas time. How can people go about donating something to the Ferry Project?

Donna
They can come to our main reception and give whatever it is they're giving to main reception, and then that will be given out accordingly over Christmas. Or, we have the donations hub over at the QMC that they're more than welcome to donate to over there.

Matt
That's great. So the main reception is located along South Brink in the Octavia View building. Is that right?

Donna
Yeah, that's correct. Or you can access the Rearwood Building via Summers Road.

Matt
And you can find directions and addresses on our website, ferryproject.org.uk. Well, that's fantastic. Thank you, Donna and Tina for chatting all things Christmas and activities today. It's been great having a chat with you.

Donna
Thank you very much for having us, Matt. Can we just say a massive thank you to everybody that donates to us throughout the year? A lot of the activities I do couldn't be done without donations that happen, so we greatly appreciate it here and so do our clients. So thank you.

Tina
Definitely. Thank you ever so much, everybody. Thank you.

Matt
Thanks everyone and have a Merry, Merry Christmas. And I'll be joining you again for another episode of the Rural Homelessness Podcast on the 1st and the 15th of next month, so do tune in again then and I look forward to seeing you there. Thank you and Merry Christmas.

Outro
Thank you for listening to the Rural Homelessness Podcast brought to you by The Ferry Project. Visit our website on www.ferryproject.org.uk