Jimmy's Night Shelter

Jimmy's is named in memory of Jim Dilley, who spent much of his life sleeping rough in the region, or spending winter nights in one of Cambridge's temporary shelters. In the last few years of his life, Jim slept under the M11 motorway bridge at junction 13. In the winter of 1993, Jim was told he had lung cancer. Sadly he died in Papworth hospital in June 1994, and subsequently his ashes were scattered at his old 'home' - junction 13 of the M11.

His moving story so inspired a small group of people from the churches that they were determined to establish a permanent night shelter in Cambridge.

Plans for the Night Shelter were drawn up in early 1995 and in May of that year, the Council gave permission for the Shelter to be established in the basement of the Zion Baptist Church on East Road.

Crucial to setting up the Shelter were funding and donations. Jimmy's was lucky to receive funding from CRISIS, the Opportunities for Volunteering scheme, plus countless donations from many other organisations and individuals. These included kitchen equipment from BT in Ipswich, furniture from the Eaden Lilley department store, a food mountain from the OLEM church.

Even at this stage, Jimmy's was reliant on - and extremely grateful to - an army of volunteers, who worked tirelessly to get the Shelter up and running. These volunteers came from all over: the wider church community, Cambridge's two universities, individuals who had heard or read about Jimmy's in the media, retired people, busy business people, our neighbours in Petersfield - the list really is endless! An especially important group was that drawn from the homeless who helped with decorating, collecting donations, cleaning, cooking, odd-jobbing - already we knew our guests would help make Jimmy's a very special and unique night shelter.

Our services then, although essential, were rather basic: bed, breakfast and an evening meal. It was quickly realised that, important though these are, the needs of the guests were far wider. Working with our guests we have established laundry facilities, a dedicated clothing store, a quiet reading room, pool table, sports afternoons, annual seaside trips, free internet access, guest advocacy, chiropody, move-on houses and visiting agencies such as street outreach team, drug & alcohol services, psychiatrist and St.John Ambulance footcare team.

Services like Jimmy's Night Shelter will always be needed. We aim to ensure that whatever the future holds, we will continue to offer love, support and a place of safety and security for all our guests - in memory of Jim Dilley and the many others like him.

Richard

Homeless is often misunderstood because most people have a stereotype image of what a homeless person looks like, what their habits are and what potential threats they present. It is something we at Jimmy’s are always ready to challenge, although challenge or confront may be too strong for the way we do it. Our style of working has always been to keep our heads down and just get on with the work. We do not campaign publicly for understanding of what we do, but we do try to protect our guests from any disadvantages that we are aware of. At meetings particularly, we are able to voice concerns and fears we have for the homeless from unfair treatment, from inequalities that exist, from unreasonable enforcement of the law and from political whims or influences that would ostracise this group of people even more than they experience at present.

Of all the groups of people I meet, the most hardened are those who have some political agenda and those who have to follow a political line. Surprisingly, the Police do not fall into this category, most of those we meet are quite sympathetic of the lot of the homeless and will move them on rather than arrest, or even direct them to Jimmy’s!

Defending our ethos; our principles and values, also becomes hard, but it always good to be able to talk about the standards, the morality and the ethics of our work, that is – love. It often falls, though, on deaf ears.

In all of this we are mindful of the need for funding, where it comes from (central government) and the fact that the Government does not like nightshelters and soup runs and clothing runs, etc., because they “sustain people in a street lifestyle” and do not assist them out of it. We should invite more politicians to visit Jimmy’s and see just how we do assist people out of homelessness.