The 17th October saw the inaugural St Martin’s Frontline Workers Network gathering in Brighton & Hove, hosted by Justlife. The event was a roaring success! 23 frontline workers from a broad range of organisations came and joined in. The event was half informal chatting, helped along greatly by coffee from the trainee baristas and donuts and fruit provided by
The Real Junk Food Project Brighton. The second half included an introduction from Justlife on the aims and objectives of the network followed by a ‘mapping’ exercise of agencies working with homeless and vulnerably housed people in the city. Incredibly between everyone over 200 organisations were identified in the 20 minute exercise, and the first aim of Justlife as network partners will be to collate these and make them available to frontline workers.
Martin from Pavilions, the city’s substance misuse service, said 'I found it really inspiring to attend the first in a series of events where frontline workers can meet up, network, exchange ideas and look at what is out there and where there are gaps’. Following on from this, Jenny from Justlife’s Pathway Plus service said ‘It was great to meet such enthusiastic people from different agencies I didn’t know existed’ A second gathering is being planned for December with the aim of looking together at issues that faced as services in the city and how working together solutions can be found. Simon from Justlife said he wants the network to be a good networking opportunity but also move the support for people forward ‘Having the opportunity to meet face to face with people, all with the same aim of improving opportunities for people homeless or vulnerably housed in the city, is really useful. But even more exciting is the possibility of coming up with creative and innovative solutions to problems we face daily, that will make a difference to those we are trying to support'To keep up-to-date with Frontline Network events, sign up to our
mailing list.
