The BCM Care Centre opens Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for non-residents. Hundreds have come through the doors. What do they see? Another agency ‘doing the job’ because the need is there? Or because their heart is in it?

People are often traumatised or depressed when they first venture in. They get a solid meal; they get a listening ear if they wish. You try to identify their primary needs, but often they won’t say. They have been knocked back so often before. Is this just another bunch of do-gooders?

When people first come in, you do what you have to do. We’ve made up bottles for babies (even though we ‘don’t’); taken people to hospital (there and then) for their safety; and whisked people straight into the shower for their sake and everybody else’s.

Later you start addressing real needs and building up relationships and supportive company. That’s why we started doing holidays. One man hadn’t had a holiday for forty years; another had never been away, even as a child.

Here are some of the many stories of the those who pass through our doors...

An ex-teacher, conned into chipping into some business deal, ended up being ripped off and losing his home. Homeless for years, he has his own place now but he can’t afford to look after himself. The centre is his lifeline.

Several years ago, a seventeen year old Indian came in, had his meal and asked if we had any accommodation. We got talking: he was quite a ‘lad’, into stealing cars and with a whole catalogue of related misdemeanours to answer for. We ended up accompanying him to the Magistrates’ Court. In time he changed and we linked him up with his mother. Later he got his own flat but he messed up again through friends using him. He has now returned to India, to stay with relatives there, which seems the most practical solution for a while.

A man with a drink problem ran up debts and was beaten up by the shopkeeper concerned. He came to us in plaster and on crutches. He did computer training with us, followed by a foundation course at Fircroft College and was offered a place at the University of Central England. Sadly he never took it up. Having finally received his compensation for the assault, in no time at all he was back to his drinking. We still have occasional contact but it’s a story of what might have been.

A distraught woman of thirty-five was afraid to go home because of her violent partner. She stayed in the women’s section at Washington Court for six weeks. Working with a social worker, we were able to resettle her where she could receive the necessary support.

An Indian girl involved with a West Indian man was caught in the crossfire between him and her parents. She also stayed at the Court for a while and we contacted her family. She then became pregnant and we were glad to secure a place for her at a mother and baby unit.

We seek to invest time in people. You don’t always achieve what you want, but for us it is the only way to go.