At Genesis Trust we believe in a mutually supportive community. We also believe that partnership and collaboration are fundamental and would like to highlight how important and valuable this is to our work with local homeless and vulnerable people.

Many of you know that last summer we had to close our Gateway Centre off London Road because of flooding. We had to find a temporary location as quickly as possible to continue supporting homeless and vulnerable people. We reached out to our community.

Our community responded generously! Several churches offered us space and we were able to settle on the basement under Widcombe Baptist Church. This quick response resulted in us closing to clients for only 13 working days. Widcombe Baptist Church provided a shower, which is crucial for someone experiencing homelessness, for their health, wellbeing and dignity.  We want to say thank you again to Widcombe Baptist Church for this space and their ongoing commitment in providing for our clients. We are so grateful for their support.

Life Connect Update

The unfortunate closing of the Gateway Centre and the loss of our kitchen meant that we had to stop our Life Connect Wednesday morning breakfast and our Friday ‘It’s a Wrap’ lunch. Clients are able to connect in conversation with us and others in a safe and warm environment, which is crucial to their wellbeing. During these meals, we can develop relationships which can lead to further support and long-term independence.

Sue Fourie, Genesis Life Projects Manager says, ‘There is something therapeutic about sitting next to someone for a meal – an excuse to chat and reflect on the day. It requires so little of us and yet for some of our clients that hour may be their only healthy conversation in an otherwise lonely or chaotic day.’

The team at Widcombe Baptist Church became aware of the need for a replacement Friday meal, so last November they offered Genesis Life Projects a Friday ‘Soup & Roll’ lunch. Each Friday volunteers from the church make fresh soup and serve our clients. We are so pleased to see so many people sitting around tables enjoying a hot and healthy meal together.

Sue says, ‘Soup & Roll continues to flourish. The simple yet meaningful gathering, which always starts off with a prayer, provides an excellent opportunity to model positive behaviour to our guests, to connect and to share a respectful interaction with each other over a meal before the weekend.’

From November to February, the church provided 17 Friday lunch sessions, serving a total of 310 bowls of homemade soup to 103 different guests. We want to say a huge thank you to Widcombe Baptist Church and their volunteers who make the soup and serve it each Friday. Your contribution to our week is invaluable.

To us, community and partnership is everything. We are so thankful for our generous community. If you are an individual, a school, a church or a business and you’d like to partner with us in supporting the most vulnerable in our community please let us know. There are many ways you can be involved. Click here to read more.

Gateway Centre Update

Because we were forced to close the Gateway Centre, we are taking the opportunity to do some much needed refurbishment and development that would have required us to move out for a period of time. There are several things that need doing including a new roof, new windows, new kitchen, new shower room, a disabled toilet downstairs and proper accessibility to the lower level.

We have been working with our architects and builder to determine what is needed to be done and the best way to go about it, and whether we can afford to do it all straight away. Much of the work requires planning permission, an application for which has now been submitted. It cannot be guaranteed but we hope to begin the work in the summer and be back in the building by the end of the year or early 2026, but this timescale is far from certain. We will continue to update you on the progress.