Winter Night Shelter

Renewed Hope’s Winter Night Shelter reopens in December and we are recruiting for volunteers. See below for more information.

If you are an adult who is homeless please go to your local Council Town Hall to be assessed. This will ensure the Night Shelter is the right option for you. You can find this here.

Between mid-December and early March, our night shelter gives 10 people from the local area a hot meal, bed and breakfast every night in winter. It is held in church halls across Reigate, Redhill, Horley and Merstham.

Each winter the night shelter provides a safe and welcoming space for around 30 people who would have otherwise been sleeping rough. With the help and dedication of around 200 trained volunteers, guests enjoyed a hot evening meal, good company in a non-judgmental environment and a lovely breakfast the following morning. Some venues also offered shower facilities.

Getting a bed

Our night shelter gives priority to people who have lived or worked in Reigate and Banstead Borough or Tandridge District for at least 6 months or have close family here. If you are rough sleeping or soon to be homeless you will need to be referred by the relevant council, so please contact them to be assessed. You can find contact numbers on our Find Help webpage.

Volunteering & Training

Having the night shelter open alongside our Drop-In daytime service, means there are volunteer opportunities during the day, evening, night and morning everyday!

If you are interested in volunteering with us and are not already registered, please go to our Volunteer Registration Form. You will be sent details about our training and how to sign up to shifts. Attending a training session is a requirement for helping at the night shelter.

There is more information about the shelter and roles available below. Here are some FAQs for winter night shelter. More will be covered in the training.

Our training sessions about 2 hours long and are held in some of our night shelter venues. The dates are below

Wednesday 11th November, 7.30pm – Horley Baptist Church, 289 Court Lodge Road, Horley, RH6 8RG

Tuesday 17th November, 7.30pm, Shrewsbury Chapel, Shrewsbury Road, Redhill, RH1 6BH

Thursday 3rd December, 7.30pm, ONLINE via Microsoft Teams

Volunteers in the kitchen

New volunteers

For anyone new to volunteering on night shelter, please register as a volunteer on this link and you will get updates about this.

More information about volunteering in night shelter

Shifts

• Evening shift – 6.30-10pm – welcoming the Guests and serving or cooking a two-course meal for everyone
• Overnight shift – 10pm-6am – 2 waking volunteers + sleeper
• Breakfast shift – 6am-8.30am – Preparing and serving breakfast. Night shift can stay to eat and help if they wish
• Other roles – 8am Driving Guests’ belongings and venue paperwork between venues.

Roles

Night Shelter guests and volunteers. Credit: Natalie Hitchman

Evening shift

• 2 x Evening Shift Supervisor – experienced volunteers leading the shift and delegating the tasks to Evening Shift Assistants
• Evening Shift Assistant – 3-4 volunteers helping the Evening Shift Supervisor in the socialising area
• Evening Meal Supervisor – Leader in the kitchen who provides the evening meal food – 2-course evening meal for up to 20 people guests and volunteers
• Evening Meal Assistant – 1 volunteer assisting in the kitchen
• Evening standby – 1 volunteer per shift who can be available at short notice in case someone drops out for any reason

Night Shift

• Night Shift Supervisor (awake for half the night) – an experienced volunteer leading the shift. Shares the sleeping with the Night Shift Assistant
• Night Shift Assistant (awake for half the night) – a junior volunteer supporting the shift supervisor in monitoring the guests overnight. Shares the sleeping with the Night Shift Supervisor
• Sleeper – A volunteer who will be woken up in the rare occurrence of an emergency. This is a role to ensure we have sufficient overnight volunteers
• Night standby – 1 volunteer per shift who can be available at short notice in case someone drops out for any reason

Anyone carrying out night shifts on a regular basis is subject to an Enhance DBS check due to the more solitary nature of the role compared with other shifts.

Morning shift

• Morning Shift Supervisor – an experienced volunteer leading the shift and delegating the tasks to Morning Shift Assistants
• Morning Kitchen Supervisor – Person responsible for preparing the breakfast, which could be cold or cooked breakfast varying from bacon/sausage sandwiches to a full English on request. Food provided by the venue. We also take into account dietary needs for guests, including allergies or for reasons of belief eg Halal, vegan, gluten intolerant
• Morning Shift Assistant – 2 volunteers (1 volunteer in the sleeping/eating area and 1 volunteer in the kitchen
• Morning standby – 1 volunteer per shift who can be available at short notice in case someone drops out for any reason

For any information about the night shelter, you can also contact our Winter Night Shelter Lead Anna Coe on anna@renewedhope.org.uk  or 01737 886997.