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Reflections on our first Brighton & Hove Frontline Network ‘In-Person’ Event in two years – Worker’s Appreciation Week in collaboration with Savehaven

  • 2 min read |
  • Posted by Kate, Frontline Network Coordinator
  • On 31 May 2022

It has certainly been a challenging two years for all those working across the homelessness sector and beyond. Workers have had to navigate delivering services to some of the most vulnerable people in our society with constantly changing restrictions - limited staffing (due to colleagues isolating and an emerging recruitment crisis); and whilst often having to rely on remote management, and wider sector support, in the form of online meetings. (Including the Brighton & Hove Frontline Network.)

However, with the easing of restrictions earlier in the year we made the decision to get ‘back in the room’ with not just one event, but a series of mini-events across a whole week in April.

We teamed up with Savehaven at St Peter’s, who run an amazing café and hope centre. This meant we could offer a beautiful space, along with a range of fabulous hot drinks from the café, for weary workers, right in the centre of the city.

Our week-long programme consisted of sessions under the headings of networking; learning; discussion; and experiences; and with a wonderful lunch provided by the team at Safehaven at St Peter’s to kick off the week. We also had daily raffle prizes donated by several local businesses.

Some highlights were: learning around Autism and Homelessness, Trauma-informed Practice, discussions around Psychologically Informed Environments, and a visit from the Dogs Trust to talk about how we can better support people experiencing homelessness with dogs, and the services they provide in this area.

We delivered 10 sessions, with over 85 workers attending, from almost 20 different organisations.

I liked the fact it was a face-to-face event as it was great to be back chatting and networking again. Friendly, interesting topics, nice way of learning. Really good training and networking. It was perfect. Loved it.