People experiencing homelessness receive boost from local students

Residents at our Lifehouse (centre for people experiencing homelessness) in Blackburn received a visit from local school pupils laden with food. 

The secondary school pupils from Jamiatul Huda in Blackburn served chicken curry, rice and naan to the residents and joined them at tables to share the meal.   

The kind gesture was gratefully received by our Lifehouse residents who shared their experiences of how they became homeless with the young people. The residents spoke to the students about the realities of homelessness and helped to break down any preconceptions and were keen to express that 'homeless is not who I am'.  

Colin Mottershead, Service Manager for the Lifehouse, said: "I've seen the residents smiling and engaging today which has been wonderful. I know it has meant a lot to our residents and I would like to thank the teachers and pupils for their generosity. The students have been wonderful and are amazing advocates for their faith. I want to congratulate them for being a real inspiration to others. At The Salvation Army we're working to raise awareness of the realities of homelessness and visits like this are a fantastic way to do this. It isn't an issue that can be ignored and we're encouraging the public to look beyond the homelessness to see the person." 

For the teachers it was an opportunity to bring the Islamic ethics they teach in the classroom to life in the real world. Tahir Anwar, from the school said: "It was amazing for the students. Seeing all the smiles on the faces of the residents was great, and it was a perfect opportunity to extend a hand to the wider community. It was great to see the students interacting, we could see lots of faces smiling and laughing. And we could see that there was this community spirit." 

We run a number of homelessness services across the North West. To find out more visit our website. 

This year we are celebrating 150 years of transforming lives and are still at the heart of every community today, supporting those in need.