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New film shows how Leeds homeless charity is transforming lives
St. George’s Crypt, based on Great George Street in Leeds city centre, is a charity working with the homeless, the vulnerable and those suffering from addiction. Staff at the Crypt are on-hand to support their needs, help them to find accommodation and to make positive changes in their lives. The charity has been working with the CommUNIty Team at Leeds Beckett University for the past year, sharing knowledge, skills and resources with the charity to improve the health and wellbeing of those affected by homelessness. This has included a series of seminars promoting the exchange of academic and community-based knowledge, student placements and research collaborations.
The film includes conversations with members of staff - some of who used to be clients - client volunteers, clients and partner agencies. It highlights and explores the development of services within St George’s Crypt, how the charity decides what services to use and how it works in partnership with its clients, other professional bodies and volunteers to deliver a client-centred structured service that lays strong foundations, builds confidence and skills and aims to help people gain control of their lives.
Michelle Briggs, Professor of Nursing at Leeds Beckett University, commented: “It’s been an honour and privilege to be part of the St. George’s Crypt CommUNIty partnership. St. George’s Crypt are committed to improving the lives of people affected by homelessness. This partnership has allowed us to pool our resources to make a positive impact to homeless people in Leeds.”
Anu Singh, Director of Patient and Public Participation and Insight at NHS England said: “This film highlights the excellent work being done by St George’s Crypt to understand the needs of their clients. This means that they are able to provide activities and services that people need to improve their health outcomes. We are delighted to have provided a grant to make this film possible. We hope that other organisations will see the benefits of participation and it will encourage them to get people involved in the development of the health services they provide.”
Andrew Omond of St George’s Crypt added: “This bears testament to the work we do and the support we are blessed with here in Leeds. We have been developing our service for the past 85 years, learning from the concerns and wishes of our client group and hope we will continue building a multi-agency, inclusive and evolving charity for the next 85 years.”
The charity teamed up with Rob Pritchard, who graduated from Leeds Beckett University in 2006 with a BA (Hons) degree in Film and Television Production and who is now Creative Director of Mojo Film, to show how St George’s Crypt has developed a person-centred service tailored to the needs of the homeless through consulting with their clients.
Rob Pritchard, Creative Director of Mojo Film, explained: “The remit for the film was to create a piece that highlighted the services that St George's Crypt offer to service users via the partnership scheme and the input that the service users have in determining how the programmes are run at the organisation.
“We all felt that, although the message was important, it would have more impact if we also concentrated on the 'human angle' of the organisation. We interviewed several service users, both former and current, and also the partners involved such as Leeds Beckett and Opera North.
“We also felt it was important to create a piece that would challenge any preconceived ideas of what the Crypt does: that it’s not just a soup kitchen and shelter but provides an invaluable service to rehabilitation.”
The partnership between Leeds Beckett University and St. George’s Crypt also sees regular physiotherapy clinics taking place, delivered by Dr Phil Commons in the School of Health. MBA students from Leeds Business School also recently provided support through a project examining the economic and social value and sustainability of the Homeless Accommodation Leeds Pathway (HALP) project run by the Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust and there have been a number of successful student placements from the University in the Crypt.
The film is the result of a grant application to NHS England’s Celebrating Participation in Healthcare fund. A total of 11 organisations from across England were picked as examples of good practice in community healthcare provision that can be examined and learnt from. The grant asked for each charity or community project to creatively communicate how involving citizens and/or patients or carers has improved the healthcare services they use.