News / Caring in Bristol
What happens to the money you give to charity?
On a quiet street in St Paul’s is a hidden home for people experiencing homelessness. Caring in Bristol has been operating from the area for decades, but has recently transformed their basement in the current premises into a night shelter for young people.
This new shelter – Z House – is a four-bedroom night home with all the amenities required to keep individuals at ease and ensure they can effectively think about their next step. But for charities like Caring in Bristol building sites like Z House is a noble, yet challenging feat.
It is here where charities like StreetSmart take centre stage.
is needed now More than ever
With sofas and bean bags the community area is colour, cosy and comfortable
Many patrons at restaurants across Bristol might recall being asked if they wish to add an extra £1 to their bill that they are told will go towards charity.
But where in reality is the money going?
StreetSmart started a virtuous concept in 1998 of contributing towards helping vulnerable people at risk or experiencing homelessness, with something as simple as an extra £1 on food bills. All these extra £1s from participating restaurants then make it to charities like Caring in Bristol, which invest this money towards building shelters like Z House.
Youth services manager for Z House, Robin Adlem said: “Ultimately we want to engage the community within their own resolution.
“So we’re not doing things to people, we’re doing things with people.
“Our overarching mission is to try and end homelessness in Bristol. And we want to make sure that people feel safe.”
Z House has four spacious bedrooms with plenty of light entering the room through the windows
Z House feels like a warm blanket on a cold winter night. With a community kitchen, comfortable beds, a television, board games, showers, toilets and heating – the shelter welcomes youth who might not necessarily be on the streets but are still facing what is called ‘hidden homelessness’.
Some of the 18-25 year olds that are referred to Z House have not lived on the streets but have been sofa surfing from one house to another and by that, as Aldem puts it “sort of surviving”.
But at their core, these individuals are tough.
Josh Houston is the project coordinator for Z House and spends considerable time with those housed at the night shelter. Since its opening in July 2024, he recalled being “impressed by every one of them”.
He added: “We do offer support to them, but they’ll be out there looking for jobs, going to college full-time – with all of this stuff going on in the background.
“They continue engaging with support, stuff like texting me back about a support session when everything sort of seems to be falling apart by no fault of their own.”
(Extreme left) Josh Houston, Robin Adlem, Pam Lloyd, Casey Cox, Amanda Grimstead and Kimberley Coke met to see the collaboration between Street Smart and Caring in Bristol take effect
The shelter also has two night workers that stay with the youth through the night making sure they are comfortable and equipped with anything they need.
With every £1 diners donated in 2023, the funds went towards building Z House. In 2024, it is about providing wraparound support with skills like cooking, so individuals can be better equipped for their future.
But Z House is also just the beginning. With every £1 diners choose to donate, Caring in Bristol will also be able to fund their other projects like Caring at Christmas.
Philanthropy manager at Caring in Bristol, Amanda Grimstead, explained: “When we first established just over 34 years ago, it started as kind of a night shelter at Christmas. So we’ve kind of retained an element of that.
“But what we do now is we set up a seven-day pop-up centre in Trinity. We take it over for a week – it takes months of planning, and basically anyone can come along.
“It’s an open-door policy and we don’t exclude people. We definitely get a high proportion of people who are rough sleeping that come along there, because many of the homeless services shut down over Christmas and so people don’t have anywhere to go.
“It’s between 10am and 4pm and they can get warm food. We have lots of local Bristol restaurants, that are also part of StreetSmart they provide lunch each day.
“We have breakfast baps, tea and coffee, cake, but we also have entertainment with movies playing and there’s people of all ages.”
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On an average day of Caring at Christmas, the charity gets over 250 people. In 2023, at the end of the week, they had helped around 1250 individuals.
The charity also delivers over 300 packages – including a hot Christmas dinner and two additional meals – on December 25 to vulnerable people whom they know can not get out or travel on Christmas Day.
Charities like Caring in Bristol are on the lookout for any help so they can guide Bristol’s homeless community towards hopeful solutions.
Adlem emphasised, that the individuals are aware this “isn’t the end solution”.
He continued: “This is to stop people ending up on the streets and being homeless on the day. Our real job then starts to help somebody to really secure accommodation where they can have their friends and all that sort of stuff.
“What we’re trying to do essentially is take all the things that we know are needed and done really badly and do them right.”
Bristol happens to be the largest city outside London, to be helping StreetSmart in their cause.
By choosing to add an extra £1 when dining at one of the participating restaurants, diners unknowingly become donors for a noble cause.
Bristol restaurants participating with StreetSmart can be found here: https://streetsmart.org.uk/restaurants/
All photos: Karen Johnson
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