Margate FC Making a Difference


 

By Henry Thompson, Christ’s Hospital

 

Margate Football Club has partnered with local charities to help homeless people in the community.

 

Margate F.C. are making their stadium, Hartsdown Park, and other facilities available to people sleeping rough in the local area. However, they are not doing this alone, to maximise their impact they have partnered with the Margate Community Trust and Thanet Rise Team.

 

The project was launched on the 6th of October, when volunteers picked groups of rough-sleepers up and drove them to Hartsdown Park. Once they arrived there were lots of services available to the participants of the scheme. Service users were able to have a shower, hot meal and have their clothes washed and dried. A clothes bank was also running, alongside NHS health services. A football session was also available for those wanting to get active. To relax there was a warm shelter and a mental health worker, from the Head in the Game charity. The team running this hope to welcome a representative from HSBC Bank soon to help homeless individuals without an address set up a bank account and claim any money they may be entitled to. 

 

Whilst projects like these do show that strides are being made to improve the lives of the homeless in the local community, many would argue that more needs to be done by the council and wider government to prevent people falling into homelessness. The Guardian reported that solving the housing crisis is “At the heart” of Labour leader Keir Starmer's pitch to become next Prime Minister. This is surely a sign that the ongoing homeless crisis is a problem at both a national and local level.