News

December 2019 – Roughin’ It and Year Round Up

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We’ve had quite a year and made a lot of progress. Probably not as quickly as I’d like but progress nonetheless.

Our Roughin’ It Sleep Out on December 7th at The Macs Farm in Ditchling was a huge success and we fundraised a total of £1,650 from the event. More info and photos on our Facebook page for those who would like to learn more about the sleep out.

We will be registering as a Social Enterprise in January 2020 and this will enable us to deliver charitable work without being a charity. For those unfamiliar with this type of organisation, you can learn more here:

https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/

In 2020 we will progress work on Pocket Angel Restore which is our project in collaboration with four great organisations aligned to achieve the same outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. You will hear more about this in the New Year.

The launch of our app is now planned for Spring 2020 and we will be making the last push to get the final few service providers for pet products, food and clothing. If you or anyone you know can help please email us on volunteer@pocketangelhome.co.uk.

November 2019 – Community Engagement Event – Brighton University

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We’ve held a successful Community Engagement Event at the University of Brighton and are well on our way to spreading awareness of the app and having a joined up approach.

We attended the competition awards event in the Outside In https://outsidein.org.uk/, Environments exhibition at the Piano Nobile Gallery in Kings Place London, near London Kings Cross Station. The competition was judged by a panel including Grayson Perry, who Alcia had the honour of meeting! If you get the chance, give the exhibition a visit, it will be on from Mon – Sun 9 am – 8pm from now until January 2020.

October 2019 – Lara Searle Walked from John O’Groats to Lands End for Pocket Angel

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Lara has walked an incredible 👉 874 miles👈 to raise money for two worthy causes 🙌 Pocket Angel and the Uparo Foundation (founded by her Grandma) 🙌

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lara-searle-5…

If like Lara we do what we can and go the extra mile, together we can do amazing things! The unnamed faces of homelessness are human beings worthy of good things in the same way we consider our selves worthy. They may just not know or believe that. Let’s act and do things to show them how worthy we think they are. Great example setting Lara!

May 2019 – The Pocket Angel Service Provider Information Event – Success!

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On May 21st 2019 Pocket Angel ran our Service Provider Information Event in the room kindly donated by the Hilton Metropole Brighton.

We took the opportunity to introduce businesses not only to the Pocket Angel ethos, but also had speakers from the homeless community to give first hand accounts of the tough life they lead, and The Passage allowed us to use their Virtual Reality movie of the perspective of a rough sleeper on the pavement of Oxford Street, London, on a Saturday afternoon.

The event was incredibly well received and we had super feedback on our technology and what we are trying to achieve.

We also took this opportunity to publish for the first time our Mission Statement, including Assist, Restore, Inform, and Home.

April 2019 – Pocket Angel Team Met Businesses Doing Good in Brighton

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It was a busy two weeks as our BYT marketeers from Brighton University have whipped up media interest in the app. Last week Pocket Angel was featured in The Argus, on The Brighton Chamber of Commerce blog, on Brighton University’s website and Alcia did an interview which will be on Latest TV, The Vote. Virgin Media channel 159, channel 7 on Freeview or online.

The BYT team and Alcia attended the Good Business Club launch event in Brighton on April 23rd 2019 and were amazed at the number of Social Enterprises, CICs and Profit Sharing business in the room. hisBe (How It Should Be) founders Ruth and Sara did a brilliant job of sharing their vision. It was a sold out event to 120 participants!

Pocket Angel was well received and off the back of attending we have a number of businesses coming to our Partner Information Event at the Hilton Metropole Brighton in May. Exciting times!

February 2019 – Pocket Angel Supporters

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A team of Marketers from the University of Brighton joined us to help to work towards having business and charity partners signed up to accept the Pocket Angel vouchers. In addition to this we have the support of experienced Marketing executives from Hewlett Packard Enterprise who will help us further. This is exactly the sort of help we need at this time!

The plan is to have businesses attend an information event to learn more about the app and sign up to redeem the vouchers. The Hilton Metropole Brighton has donated the venue.

December 2018 – Our First Roughin’ It Sleep Out

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We did it! Thank you to The Macs Farm for hosting and everyone who knitted, baked, fundraised, donated and slept out for the #homeless! The Sleep Out was successful and a learning experience…our speakers were awesome! We’re already planning for next year!

As part of the Sleep Out campaign Pocket Angel called all knitters to help make covers for hot water bottles and the response was heart warming to say the least. Ree of the Hot Water Bottle Project Brighton was thrilled to receive the 62 hand knitted hot water bottle covers plus 19 off the shelf covered hot water bottles. They will make a real difference to homeless people on the streets of Brighton this winter.

The event was well supported and a great success, we raised £1,300 towards the development costs of Pocket Angel Assist.

The Birth of Pocket Angel

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The Pocket Angel app was born out of the need to allow the general public a means of helping homeless people in an increasingly cashless society.

The Pocket Angel founders regularly come into contact with homeless rough sleepers on our commute who ask us for money. We tend not to give money and usually buy the person a meal if we have the time.

This is not always possible and in 2016 Alcia had a light bulb moment. If there was a way to give the homeless person a voucher that would solve the problem. The Pocket Angel app allows you to provide food, shelter and basic hygiene essentials to homeless persons without giving them cash. In Autumn 2018 Alcia launched a Gofundme campaign to raise £5,000 to complete the development of the Pocket Angel app. The campaign on Gofundme, along with funds raised at various events like the Sleep Out on The Macs Farm and a cake sale at Hurstpierpoint College, were successful and the full amount was raised just before midnight of New Year’s Eve 2018. Alcia was overcome with joy! The campaign is still live and donations are welcome as there will be future need for funding to help us achieve a successful pilot of the app.

Visit the campaign for the Pocket Angel app on Gofundme at this link https://www.gofundme.com/app-for-homeless-rough-sleepers

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