A night out in Nottingham City.

I was out this weekend, for a few drinks in town. This is what I experienced:

• 8 PEOPLE on the streets of Nottingham
• 11 PEOPLE  offering their bodies in exchange for money. 
• A man who appeared to be about 50, sleeping on St James street in a shirt, pair of jeans and with no sleeping bag or blanket.

Each and everyone of these PEOPLE is vulnerable and each and everyone being exploited in one way or another. Perhaps by an individual, a substance but all by the system.

I sat and spoke to a few of the PEOPLE who were rough sleeping and learned of their stories and exchanged names. Tried to offer some practical advice about services and give them advice. I sat and listened and spoke and had a coffee and I looked around me, at the amount of people who were just walking by and I realsied I had become invisible too.


I was am angered that people can just walk past humans, PEOPLE in pain, distress and not see it. They are so caught up in thier own existence that they failed to see life. That angers me, that dissappointts me and ultimately confuses me! Where is the compassion and/or empathy  for people less fortunate?
 Can you imagine being constantly ignored by the society in which you live and being disregarded?

104% APR

We have a new worker in the team doing some relief for us.Lets call him Rob.

Rob is from a manufacturing and IT background and not worked in this field before. He started volunteering with one of  Frameworks services and is now doing floating support work.
I think its fair to say, that Rob was surprised at what our service users were experiencing.  
He returned from a support session today and was absolutley dismayed to learn that a service user had borrowed £500.00 from a loan company, with a repayment of £26.00 per week. The service user is totally dependent on the benefit system and cannot afford to repay such a loan. The loan has doubled in a matter of weeks and the service user is now being threatened by a "friendly collection agent".

Rob and the team  will of course be working with the service user for as long as our service exists to make a more reasonable repayment plan and deal with the harrassment from the "friendly collection agent".


Another scenario:

Jack has a mortgage on his 4 bedroomed house and has worked all of his adult life.  Jack has a wife and had 3 children, until one died last year.   Jack, has learning difficulties and cannot read or write.  Jack and his family are going through some very difficult times having lost their teenage daughter recently. Jack was in full time work but couldn't bare to go back after the death of his daughter because he felt he couldn't face people at work or handle their questions and/or sympathy. Jack is doing some agency work but not full time. Jacks wife, lets call her Mandy, has not left her family home since the funeral of her daughter and is suffering from agoraphobia, she is also self harming and has suicidal thoughts. There are also 2 other children in the home.   This family have a lot going on and need suppport. Jack  tells me he got a van to help him get work. "Great" I say. How much did it cost? Jack goes on to tell me that he has signed an agreement with a company. I have now looked at the legally binding contract, and Jack has leased a van for a massive amount per month. He will never, ever own that van and he will be paying them thousands of pounds!!


You see most  people who don't work in the field like Rob, have no idea what kind of scam like loans or arrangements there are out there!! 

It is outrageous that the companies that pull these cons will continue to exist but the services that can help people out of these tricky situations won't - don't you think?

decisions, decisions!!

Earlier today I recieved an email from a colleague about a vacancy they had seen at a childrens charity. The job advertised seems right up my street, decent salary(more than I am on now, significantly more!), interesting role and totally doable. I looked it up and thought about applying.

Later this afternoon, I was working at my PC and 2 of my team came in and started talking about an assessment they had just done. They were full of enthusiasm, compassion, empathy, soloutions, speaking of injustice and advocating for the service user.

As I sat there, the application for the other job drifted into my mind - I caught up with myself and realised that I don't want to work anywhere else!! I want to come into Val Roberts House and see the people I see, work with  my very committed team, fight for the rights of the people we support, help change a system that isn't going to provide and stay put.

You see an extra six, seven grand would be quite nice, even a change could be quite nice, but I love going to work, I love it when our team stops a teenage parent being evicted, I love it when a 17 year old parent who thinks they can't go back to college to get some qualifications - does exactly that, when parents with their children on the child protection register go to a meeting and due to their hard work and perseverance their children are taken off the list, when one of Frameworks service users sits on a recruitment panel to employ a new worker - i love those things.

After 7 years of seeing people survive and resist their demons, I am staying put, going nowhere and striving forward.

Its a sad fact that there will always be disadvantaged and vulnerable people but the great thing is, is I am with them.

Are you?

I am struggling with that.

I have just learned that the Barclays boss is due to recieve a £9 million pound bonus. How can the government justify that happening?


I have always struggled with the fact that money is more valuable than people, that crimes against property are more heavily penalised than crimes against a person.

How can the bank boss in question live with himself?

How can he accept such a sum, surely he is aware of what is happening in the world around him.

Maybe I am being too Nottscentric but surely he can see the cuts that have been made to other Northern cities, like Liverpool.

And it  is to be remembered that that is just one bank boss - there are many more.

I wonder what the total amount of money paid out in bonuses is?

Does anyone know?

Another week done but its a friday!!

Well thats another week over. But upon leaving the office, I am left with the uncomfortable thought that a service user we were supporting throughout the day was feeling scared, vulnerable and didn't know what to do or where to go.  Thats the hard thing about this job, there is only so much one can do. There are no magic wands!!

For the purpose of this blog lets call the service user Sophia. Sophia has 8 children in her care, ranging from 4 months to 14 years. She is a single parent and doesn't speak any English. Today her eviction notice found its final day and Sophia was extremely anxious about what to do next!! The problem is that Sophia does not have any recourse to public funds so therefore cannot claim benefits, get any social housing or get social care to help feed her children.

Sophia has been living off of child benefit and tax credits for the last 9 months and cant work due to the ages of her children. She came here as an ecomnomic migrant  - in the governments eyes, but she was actually fleeing racial persecution from her country of origin. Sophia is of Roma descent - commonly referred to as a Gypsy.

Sophia has been unable to pay her rent, is not married and doesnt have a partner so the pressure on her is enormous. Her life here is far from perfect and she isnt pleased with the way her life has turned out her, but she finds it easier to endure than the racial attacks she was experiencing back home.

So I leave work today, pleased I am going to spend my weekend with my loved ones and feeling incredibly priveliged. But ultimately knowing that Sophia and her 8 children will be scared, alone and fearing that her landlord will turn up and forcibly remove her from her home. Despite this being illegal.

I wonder how many people are hidden away like this? I am sure I only get to see the tip of the iceberg. What will happen when the cuts come in?

What do you think?

starting my new role as a social media ambassader

Imagine, me Sara Bull - an ambassader for social media. Doesn't that include using those strange things with plugs??? What are they called? Oh yes computers!!

When I was invited to the training I had to consider very carefully what use a IT no- can- do could be to Framework HA in this role.

So I present myself to you not as a computer literate person but as an individual who believes strongly in the rights of individuals, who strives for equality for the disadvantaged and who wants to make a difference in the world she lives.
I hope I can do that, I hope you will join me and/or help me if you think, that I am going wrong.

So I start the discussion with a question - When you see someone begging on the street, what do you do?