Crisis Shift 4

And we're past halfway. This shift was supposed to start on 'upstairs' in the sleeping area with another 'key volunteer' shadowing me, then 'downstairs' in the 'awake' area. Supposed to.

I wasn't happy with the bedding down. We seemed to take longer to get the guests settled. I think it was because we had quite a few new volunteers and they had to be shown and told what to do. Then we had a very distressed guest who needed lots of help and attention. I and one of the senior volunteers spent a huge amount of time looking after this chap who was jumping at shadows and terrified of being attacked again (he had not been attacked in the centre). We finally settled him enough so that he fell asleep. We were there again when he woke, as we promised, and we persuaded him to go into the care of medical services in the morning rather than leaving the centre.

All of our guests are people. Human beings. It's odd, sometimes 'homeless people' are not really people, they're numbers, statistics, they're the beggars on the street, the people sleeping in the shop doorway, the smelly ones we try to ignore. But. They're also people. With families. With memories. With hopes. Ambitions. In need of a bit of help because things have gone wrong in their life. We convinced this chap to stay in the safety of the centre, where we can offer him all sorts of services of support and advice. And care. And love for another person.

Good night.