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The parish church of central Finchley
26 Hendon Lane, Finchley, London N3 1TR

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Posted July 25th, 2025

Community Connectors – Housing Justice

housing justice

St Mary-at-Finchley was a founding member of the Winter Nightshelter in Barnet and continues to support the Shelter – now run by HAB. A past coordinator of the Nightshelter (Amanda) is now working at Housing Justice.

At Housing Justice they run a very successful scheme called the Citadel which aims to link volunteers to ‘befriend’ people who were rough sleeping but have been helped to find accommodation.

The aim is to offer some support to help people continue with their move away from homelessness. Amanda explains there is training and support for volunteers from Housing Justice and the commitment might be as little as 1 hour per week. Below is Amanda’s email message to the Barnet nightshelters and also a copy of a leaflet explaining more.

Sign up to volunteer for Community Connectors

Amanda’s Message from Housing Justice

I hope you’re all really well. It’s so nice to be back emailing you all but with a very different hat on. I’ve just started as a Community Connector for Housing Justice working on our new North and East London Citadel project. In a nutshell this project pairs volunteers with people who have experienced homelessness and have recently moved into accommodation, supporting them to feel connected to their community and receive practical help and support to break the cycle of homelessness.
 
As members of communities who are already so engaged with the wider community and homelessness as a cause, you are my first port of call to start developing my bank of volunteers.
We’re looking for:
  • A commitment for volunteers to spend around an hour a week with their matched person
  • for a period of 3-6 months
This could be a perfect opportunity for people already volunteering with the Night Shelter, or other people in the congregation who aren’t available in the evenings and early mornings but would still like to help. Therefore, I would be grateful if you could please circulate this to your wider congregations in newsletters and at services. The service will be open for referrals to support people previously staying in the Winter Night Shelter as well as other people accessing HAB with low to medium needs. 
  • All volunteers will receive training and ongoing support from myself and will be DBS checked
  • all meetings with their supported person will take place in public spaces
  • no previous experience is necessary, just the openness to learn, consistency to attend meetings and commitment to the project and making a difference in their community.
Please see the
application link here and attached flyer for more information and don’t hesitate to get in touch with me with any questions you may have.
Best wishes,
Amanda
Community Connectors Volunteer flyer standard (1) page 0001
Community Connectors Volunteer flyer standard (1) page 0002