Churches Housing Charity Appeal for Volunteers

Tuesday December 15 2020

Scotland’s churches homelessness charity has appealed for volunteers to help get its message across, after two tough years which left it struggling to survive at times.

Scottish Churches Housing Action (SCHA) is hoping to bring together small teams of people who can help promote its message on tackling homelessness in Scotland, particularly in the run-up to next May’s elections to the Scottish Parliament.

The charity’s chief executive, Richard Howat, made the appeal after the charity was forced to cut its costs. In 2019, it was pursued for what it considers to be exaggerated dilapidations costs on its old office, which it could not afford to pay or challenge. Then this year’s Covid-19 crisis impacted both its own fundraising and donations from member denominations.

“I did question our ability to keep going on two or three occasions,” said Richard. “We have brought down costs to try to balance with what the known income is going to be in the coming year, but that has had a consequence in that it has reduced capacity within the organisation to deliver policy and promote the message we need to promote.

“And that has particular significance just now because of Covid-19 and its impact on homelessness and homelessness services, and with the forthcoming Scottish elections we need to be getting the message out there and challenging the future government of Scotland as to what they are going to do about it.

“We have a communications plan, but we don’t have the capacity to deliver it. We need people to pull information together, write articles, put out the social media posts – there is a lot of work to be done.

“Obviously anything extra we can bring in financially would be a bonus, but we know that this is a challenging time for a lot of people. This is more about people’s knowledge, expertise, energy and time.”

In the first instance, SCHA is particularly looking for people with a journalism, teaching/education, training, marketing, media, project management, housing, legal, or financial background, although the list is not exclusive.

If anyone is interested in helping, contact paul@churches-housing.org 

SCHA, founded in 1995, brings together 13 Scottish Christian denominations in the fight against homelessness, stimulating and supporting local projects around the country and encouraging the use of redundant buildings for social housing, as well as through advocacy and campaigning work.

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