Oxfordshire Homeless Movement
Following a generous grant from a donor for the third year running, OHM has distributed funds to support Christmas events across Oxfordshire. 17 separate events, across 15 organisations, will benefit, with OHM acting to ensure that funds are distributed fairly across the county.
The grant will support a number of Christmas Day lunches across Oxfordshire. In Oxford, recipients include Oxford Christmas Lunch, who provide a free sit-down meal to around 500 people including refugees, the elderly, people experiencing homelessness, and more. Funds will also support OX4 Food Crew’s Free Festive Lunch, which is open to anyone and organises gifts for all children attending. Outside of Oxford, the grant will support the Open Doors Café’s lunch in Bicester and the Free Christmas Lunch in Didcot for people who would otherwise be on their own or are vulnerable. It will also support Connection Support’s lunch at their Beacon Centre in Banbury and help them to provide gifts like winter thermals for those attending.
Other recipients will use funds to support events across the Christmas period. The Icolyn Smith Foundation through Bicester Spoon is providing a pre-Christmas lunch on 14th December and the Oxford Community Soup Kitchen is providing Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve lunches in Oxford, while The Porch will provide Christmas breakfast to those experiencing homelessness on Christmas Day and Boxing Day alongside their Christmas Eve lunch. The grant supported ACT Oxford in hosting a community Christmas meal in early December for rough sleepers or anyone vulnerable housed. Oxford Homeless Project will use funds to buy gifts for guests at their Christmas Party, open to anyone facing hardship and isolation, including toiletries and small pocket games. The grant will also help fund a celebration lunch for members of the Lived Experience Advisory Forum (LEAF), a group initiated by OHM and facilitated by the Gatehouse. The grant will continue to support events into the New Year, with Cherwell Collective using funds to support three lunches for people experiencing homelessness at their Comfort and Care Cafe in January.
Some of OHM’s partners receiving funds will put them towards a Christmas celebration for their residents. These recipients include Homeless Oxfordshire, providing a Christmas meal for residents of O’Hanlon House, and A2 Dominion for Matilda House.
In addition to events, the grant will also go towards gifts for vulnerable people this Christmas. OHM’s volunteer hub, Helping Oxfordshire Homeless Collaboration, will use funds to help with their 200+ Christmas gift bags for clients of OHM’s partners. Food for Charities’s Botley Bikers will be handing out festive goodie bags as part of their usual deliveries, as well as distributing supermarket vouchers to enable people to buy presents for others. Another recipient, Connection Support, will use funds for Christmas vouchers to gift to their residents.
OHM are delighted to have facilitated distribution of this grant again this year, which will contribute hugely to allowing vulnerable people in Oxfordshire to share in community and festivities this Christmas.
For more information on events in the homeless sector in Oxfordshire this winter, please visit our Christmas Hours and Events page.