It’s never too late to be kind

Imagine a world where people look out for each other. Where one act of kindness can make the world of difference to someone. That’s what Random Acts of Kindness Day is all about.

Celebrated every year on 17 February, the goal of Random Acts of Kindness Day is to promote the life-changing potential contained in even the smallest acts of kindness.

This can certainly be the case for people who are facing homelessness, who often report feeling “unseen”, isolated, lonely and vulnerable.

Today, I want to share some key ways we can help those of us sleeping rough.

StreetLink is a platform that connects people rough sleeping to support provided by local authorities and charities. To make these connections, the platform relies on alerts submitted by members of the public.

To make a StreetLink alert, go to the website and input as much information as possible. Include the location, the time you saw the person, details about their appearance and anything else that could help identify them.

This allows local organisations, including Oasis Community Housing’s Outreach team, to go out and find the person sleeping rough and offer support.

Make eye contact, say hello and offer a smile. People living on the street can be ignored for hours at a time. So, simply showing acknowledgement goes a long way.

If you decide that you’d like to buy someone something to eat or drink, then please ask them if/what they would like. You can do something really kind like buy someone a sandwich, however they may not be able to eat it.

One of our support workers once spoke to a man who’s sleeping bag was full of the pastries that people had bought him, but he was a celiac and eating them would have made him really ill.

If you live in the North East of England, you can direct people sleeping rough to one of our homelessness drop-in centres, Basis Gateshead or Basis Sunderland. Here, Monday to Friday, people can get housing advice and some of their immediate needs meet: hot food and drinks, a shower, laundry facilities and spare clothes. At the drop-ins, people can also speak to support workers about how they can move forward.

Kindness doesn’t have to be a big gesture or cost a lot of money – although baking for family or colleagues, or donating to charity will always be welcome! But, who doesn’t feel better upon receiving a smile or feeling like they have been really listened to. Sometimes, the simplest acts of kindness can have the greatest impact.