STREET SMART - HELPING THE HOMELESS

I spent a few days in London before Christmas with my daughter enjoying a visit to the shrine that is Liberty's and soaking up the atmosphere of Dennis Severs house in Spitalfields.  I always feel more than a twinge of discomfort seeing just how many dispossessed and disenfranchised people there are as we scurry about ogling window displays and then soak in a hot bath in an overheated hotel room at the end of the day.  We live in what is still a prosperous country with a Welfare system that sometimes favours the feckless and not those who often through a series of unfortunate events lose jobs and homes.  There but for the grace of God or good luck more than good management go I.  I recently visited the Church in Ottery St Mary in my home County of Devon. I noticed  a flier from an organisation that affirmed that no-one in Devon should be without a bed and there are facilities to procure overnight accommodation and yet rough sleeping continues.  I know that this is sometimes by choice but not always.  Whilst in London we spoiled ourselves and had several sociable meals out. I was puzzled to see £1.00 added to the bill next to a heading - Streetsmart.  At first I thought  this was a drink albeit a cheap one! I then realised that this is a wonderful initiative to generate funding to support homeless members of our Society.  The £1.00 is discretionary and is an insignificant amount on a restaurant bill.  Even better, the whole amount goes directly to the homeless as the Streetsmart organisation is sponsored by Business and Industry.  I think the good old Victorian notion of philanthropy. The scheme began in 1998 and I'm ashamed to admit that although I smugly feel I have a social conscience I had never heard of it closeted away in rural Devon.  No excuse. It only functions in a few Cities in the UK and only during the months of November and December.  Restaurants have to sign up to this initiative. 

           Why does this not run countrywide throughout the year?

 The scheme seems to be straightforward to administer for hotels and restaurants.  Possibly like me, the majority of hospitality businesses are equally  unaware of Streetsmart.  I feel like a psuedo beneficent and £1.00 does not assuage my guilt when I am tucked up in the warmth and the wind is whistling and the rain is driving down on people huddled up in doorways.  I haven't 'done my bit'.    Life isn't fair, we are not and never will be equal.  It's not in our nature.  We are brought up with the mantra that we must better ourselves.  For some of our dispossessed kith and kin, they are unable for whatever reason  to meet their own basic physiological needs  for shelter and food.   We send shelterboxes overseas in times of crisis which is right and proper but why not a similar scheme here or does this make the situation more overt and therefore uncomfortable?

Lets us at the very least encourage restauratants and hotels and the good old British staple - fish and Chip shops throughout the land to sign up to the scheme.  

http://www.streetsmart.org.uk/sleepsmart/how-it-works.php

Manners make the world go around and bring back letter writing!

Forgive me whilst I ruminate....................            

Being born in the late 1950's and having been shuttled off to a series of  Roman Catholic Convent Boarding Schools from the age of 9 years, (two of which promptly closed down as I was just managing to blend into the background) I am an inveterate letter writer.  Letters home were a ritual overseen by one of the Nuns and composed usually on a Sunday.  I can't recall contents and my mother not being one for sentimentality or as she described it "a soul trot" did not keep her children's missives.  I do remember the excitement as the post came to school.  Letters were laid out on the pews lining the corridor to the refectory and there was always an anticipatory jostling and scrabbling in the hope that there was a tangible link to home amongst the envelopes laid out in alphabetical order. When I spent some months au pairing in Athens, my late and much beloved Father wrote to me on a weekly basis.  I still treasure some of his letters and wish that I had kept more.  I've always found the receipt of a letter a joyous event. I write as I speak, eveyrthing from the minutiae of my day to family matters, home and gardening to hopes, dreams, anxieties, spiritual meanderings.  The best letters are written with spontaneity, words crossed out as thoughts alter in mid sentence, and items  jotted down as ideas crowd the brain and run faster than the pen. From a young age I wrote Thank you letters for presents received; for outings given, for holidays spent with maiden Aunts and for invitations to lunch/dinner.  It is second nature to me and now to my daughter who for many years I encouraged, cajoled and forcibly directed the writing of thank you letters. 
                             
                       
A letter differs from any other form of contact in that it can involve the ritual of selecting fine stationary and a fountain pen to using a sheet of A4 if there is nothing else to hand.  I once wrote a letter on a dried maple leaf and posted it to test the Royal Mail.  It was delivered in a cellophane wrapper to the addressee!  A Thank you letter takes time to compose, minor alterations notwithstanding and demonstrates the appreciation of a gift selected and received, a social event attended and is an important social link which warms the recipient and at the very least is good manners.  As soon as a child can write they should be responsible for writing a thank you letter with guidance and encouragement from an adult until it becomes a self directed routine.   I remember sending gifts to the children of friends and receiving thank you letters written by the mother or a telephone thank you via the mother and I ceased to provide gifts once the children became teenagers.  Call me bolshie but this should be a reciprocal event.    We need to reconnect with one another and to show tangible appreciation for one another's thoughtfulness evidenced by giving some of our time, consideration and gratitude.  Positive feedback nurtures relationships.

                                                   Make 2013 the year of the letter