True stories
I am Irish and 37 years old with a 22 year history of heroin addiction. When I left Ireland, I had lost everything dear to me, my family, my home and my girlfriend who had died from a heroin overdose. I found myself alone and homeless, with no money in London and for the first time in my life my safety net was gone and I was alone, scared and hungry.
We were taken to a hostel and given a home cooked meal . Our new friends sat and ate with us and were very respectful – they didn’t ask any intrusive questions and for the first time in many months, I felt a sense of family. Although I didn’t know them, I felt as if I could trust them and I found to my amazement that they had come from a similar background to me and they were addicts in recovery. Talking to them gave me some hope for my own battles with addiction. After the meal, it was time to go back onto the streets and we were given clean clothing, some food but above all, I was given respect and dignity. Before I could thank them, they thanked me for coming. Who are you I asked? Streetlytes was the reply.
I was told they would be here again in a few days and they would love if I visited again. A few cold days and nights passed but sure enough the same two guys showed up again and invited me to eat. We had a really nice time and this continued for several months.
I am happy to say that with the help and support of Streetlytes I am now clean and sober and a volunteer myself with Streetlytes doing outreach work in Shepherds Bush helping homeless people the way I have been helped.
Do you have a story to tell?
We are hear to listen and help. Find out where you can meet us here.
Or contact us by email streetlights-homeless@hotmail.co.uk or phone on 07828 627201.
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Our thanks to our fantastic supporters
"For us, retailing is about more than quality products and great service. It's also about supporting and helping the communities where we work, and being a good neighbour. We aim for our stores to be at the heart of the communities they serve.
Our colleagues like to give something back to their community, which is why we run our local Charity of the Year and Local Hereoes schemes, to help them support local good causes.
We also have a part to play in the wider community, which is why our Ladbroke Grove store is proud to to support local community charity, Streetlytes, through our Food Donations Programme. I am sure that this feeding programme will prove to be of great benefit to those in the London areas where they provide this much needed service."
Yvette Philbert, PR Ambassador
Sainsbury's Ladbroke Grove
At EMI we want our company to have positive impact through the way we manage our business and the wider role we play in society. Within our own operations, we work hard to understand the expectations of different stakeholders and demonstrate responsible business practices.
Issues that affect our employees and their families, our local communities and our industry drive a culture of charitable giving by EMI and our staff. In the UK we encourage our employees to participate in volunteer roles with our charity partners on the ground, whilst also making in-kind donations - often merchandise - when and where appropriate.
We are delighted to support a charity as worthy as Streetlytes. Our staff have embraced the charity through volunteering and donating clothes and toiletries and we look forward to continuing to build our relationship with this extremely hard working charity.
Firmdale Hotels is committed to working with a specified number of charities per year, one of which will always be within the local community. Firmdale Hotels will offer support through the skills of its employees and the company's own resources. The chosen local charity will benefit from the direct involvement of Firmdale Hotels employees who will undertake a day of charitable work. This allows the employees to see the impact of their involvement.
We are delighted to support STREETLYTES, a charity that reaches out to the poor and homeless in central and west London, providing hot food, clothing and blankets on a weekly basis. Firmdale Hotels have undertaken clothing drives, donated hygiene kits and bedding and volunteered employees for evening soup kitchens.
Reed Business Infomation UK (RBI) is dedicated to playing a positive role in our local and global communities, primarily through employee involvement. Our central focus is education for disadvantaged young people and community initiatives of importance to local employees. We have been working with Streetlytes for 3 years raising money, collecting food and clothing and helping to fund their Drug Awareness workshops. We have been very impressed by the results they have achieved and look forward to continuing our support.
We are Christians tackling poverty together in England.
Our aim is to increase the passion within the Church for the poor and marginalised in this country and to make the Church's response more effective and our vision is for every church, in every community, tackling poverty together by giving time, money, action and prayer. We need people to join us now and each year we support over 300 church and Christian projects tackling poverty.
Our values
- We recognise the inherent worth of every human being - all are made in the image of God.
- We believe in a person-centred approach - building relationships for the long term.
- We value local action by local people.
- We embrace the difficult and demanding - people and places.
We are delighted to support the work of Streetlytes
Vivid Associates is an award-winning, cutting edge design agency, which has been established for over 20 years. We pride ourselves on our highly skilled creative team and our commitment to deliver cost-effective, multi-media design solutions.
Creativity is at the heart of what we do and we aim to provide our clients with a friendly, "can do" service across all media. We love what we do and we believe that working collaboratively with our clients delivers quality design work and helps us to understand their product, markets and goals.
Streetlytes is a very worthy cause that we are delighted to support.
Holy Trinity is just to the SW of the Royal Albert Hall. Sunday 11 a.m. Services use the BCP (Book of Common Prayer) of 1662 and the King James Bible.
Sunday visitors can usually find space at the table to enjoy our convivial hot lunches, on the 2nd Sunday of each month. (Notice of attendance is helpful to the chefs: 020 7581 3493). Others prefer to find a corner of this spacious building for some quiet contemplation, or to briefly walk around and sign the visitor's book when it is open during the week.
Weekday opening: Wednesday 1pm - 4pm, Sunday 9.30am - 12.45 Particular opening times (morning & evening) are easily arranged: Call 0207 581 3493
We are delighted and proud to be supporting the work of Streetlytes.
GAIL’s is a celebration of bread. We revel in the art of honest breadmaking, using no artificial flavourings, colourings or preservatives.
But we are not just a shop on a High Street – we’re part of the local scene. We make friends with the customers that we see every day and are here for them to provide bread, morning coffee, afternoon tea, conversation or a quiet hiatus.
Being part of a community is important to us, and that’s why we are so pleased to be donating food leftover at the end of the day to Streetlytes, who provide a fantastic drop in centre near our Notting Hill shop, and will continue to support them as they grow.
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