We were approached by a lady called Maeve who had heard about our charity donation scheme through a mutual friend. She explained that she helps run a hub where women suffering homelessness can seek support and receive emergency food and hygeine packs and also have a safe place to spend time.
After a quick discussion our donations team agree that they're definitely worthy of our support!
Maeve from Connect Hub answered a few questions for us to explain a bit more about what they do. Over to you, Maeve...
1.Tell us about how it all started at The Connect Hub.
The Connect Hub is a community support space providing pathways out of and away from homelessness for women through support, connection and community. We want to ensure that we are accessible as possible to as many women as we can be, and this is why all of our support and community groups we offer are done so on a drop-in basis. We strive to meet all women where they are at. We are inclusive of all women, including trans women and those of marginalised genders who are comfortable accessing spaces centring the experiences of women. We also strive to reach women of marginalised communities, including women seeking asylum, refugees and minority religions and ethnicities. We want all women to know they are welcome within the Connect Hub, and we strive to ensure that they feel this upon walking in… The team of dedicated staff and volunteers meet women where they are, providing compassionate care that is responsive to their needs and wishes.
2.What other things are going on at The Connect Hub?
Simon Community Scotland recognised that women have specific needs and preferences related to their overall lives, and that support provided from any service should take into account a gendered perspective that is responsive, flexible, and centres their voice and expertise. That’s where the Connect Hub was born!
The service and space was designed and informed by women with lived and living experience of homelessness. They told us how a safe space for women should look, feel and operate. The Connect Hub model is built upon delivering trauma informed practice in a low-threshold, accessible environment.
Examples of this wrap-around support include:
● Clothing provision
● Period friendly point
● Shower and washing machine access
● Digital inclusion
● Emotional support
● Daily activities
● Benefits and financial support
● Group work
● Nightly community meal
3.Can you tell us a little bit about what will you do with the Greencity donation?
In May we celebrated one year of the Connect Hub being open! In that time, we have supported 248 women, provided 1523 hot cups of tea and coffee, cooked 1008 community meals, given out 393 toiletry packs and allocated 143 food parcels. Our service is delivered through a very small budget and we rely heavily on donations from businesses and the wider community.
This Greencity donation will help us immensely in continuing to deliver our services to more women. We plan to divide our donation between toiletry, food and cleaning provisions. For example, part of the food donations will be allocated towards our kettle packs and microwave packs. These support women who are staying in emergency accommodation such as hostels or B&Bs, where they have very limited access to cooking and food storage facilities. Our toiletry provisions are stocked predominantly by donations - and we run out quickly! Receiving Greencity toiletry donations will mean that we can continue to provide this much needed service.
5. Is there anything members of the public can do to help support your organisation?
Absolutely! For the day to day running of the Connect Hub, we regularly need donations of:
● Women’s clothing and shoes
● Clothes for women rough sleeping (e.g. leggings, thermals, hats, gloves)
● New, unopened toiletries (e.g. shampoo, body wash, baby wipes, toothbrush/toothpaste)
● Books, arts and craft supplies
● Food pantry items
For many of the women we support, if they are successful in gaining a permanent tenancy after living in temporary or emergency accommodation, they commonly have little to no resources to start fresh in their new home. Staff at the Connect Hub personally try to source furniture, whitegoods and other resources (many an instagram call-out has been made!), but our reach is limited. Supporting women to move into new tenancies is something that we desperately need community support with. If members of the public have housing donations to provide, or a trade/skill that they could lend a hand with (i.e. painting!) then please do get in touch with the team.
We keep our location private due to safety reasons, however please don’t hesitate to call the Connect Hub team on 0141 465 421, or email us via connecthub@simonscotland.org.
6.If you could invite 6 people, living or dead, to one of your community meals who would you invite and why?
We asked some of the women we support who they would invite to one of our nightly community meals, and they said:
Maya Angelou - the wisest, most insightful woman ever!
Jade Stein - activist, Communications and Engagement Manager at Engender Scotland
Mae Martin - comedian, activist, musician - someone who is truly themself
Kylie Minogue - she’s a pop diva!
Freddie Mercury - can be very fun, but can also be reserved and shy
Rihanna - she’s a powerful woman
Many thanks to Maeve and for answering our questions and providing the photos!
