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How SCRATCH is helping turn houses into homes with the help of the Greggs Foundation in Hampshire
Southampton City and Region Action to Combat Hardship – better known as SCRATCH – is a charity dedicated to relieving the effects of hardship, disadvantage and homelessness in the Hampshire area.
Charity Chief Executive, Mike Smith, explains what it takes to help nearly 3,000 households a year on the south coast and why funding from the Greggs Foundation makes improving lives that little bit easier to achieve.
First registered in 1999 to relieve the effects of poverty in Southampton and the surrounding area, SCRATCH has become a positive force in the local community by focusing on three things: People. Product. Place.
As Mike Smith explains,
“The people referred to us are typically getting their first home. Many of them have been living in a hostel or sofa surfing for a period of time. So, more often than not, they have nothing in the way of home furnishings and the house they are moving into doesn’t even have the basics of a place to sit, a place to sleep or white goods to make cooking and cleaning possible.
“To genuinely help people get back on their feet they need to be settled in a home. If you’re sleeping on the floor you’re not going to perform well at work or school. If you don’t have the appliances to cook a good meal it’s the same thing.
“Typically we’ll get calls for beds – or bunk beds if it’s a crowded house – and we look to supply what we can from the warehouse of second-hand items we’ve had donated, that we’ve reclaimed or, in rare instances, we’ve bought new.”
In most instances, the furniture offered by SCRATCH isn’t free. But as Mike explains, the cost of furniture is either covered by housing associations or the local council. And where beneficiaries are required to cover the cost of items themselves, it is heavily subsidised through the grants and funding that the charity receives. So much so that SCRATCH offers a whole house furnishing package for just £100.
As Mike notes, the incredible popularity of the SCRATCH service has seen it grow dramatically over the last 25 years:
“What started out as a few weekly deliveries has now turned into a huge logistics operation. We furnished nearly 3,000 households last year, which requires a large warehouse to hold stock and two large 3.5 tonne removal vans that are almost constantly on the road now.
“Our core team is made up of 11 members of staff covering seven full-time equivalent roles. We also have about 60 volunteers registered to work with us at any one time. Each day we have eight volunteers split between morning and afternoon deliveries and we supply lunch to those working on the vans – either before or after their shift.”
This impressive network of volunteers is made up of a combination of locals and people seeking asylum based in Southampton. Mike says,
“Individuals seeking asylum are not allowed to undertake paid work until their claims are processed. But in our experience the volunteers are really hardworking, peaceful people who are otherwise stuck in a hotel with nothing else to do. They tell us that being able to volunteer and do something with purpose is great for their mental health.
“For those whose who gain asylum and are allowed to stay in the country they ultimately need to get their own home, so we help get them furniture once they have secured a residence, too. Where we can, we’ll also help them in the job market because once they get the right to remain in the country they are immediately evicted from their temporary accommodation and need a salary to pay for housing.”
Expanding SCRATCH’s service provision and seeking flexible funding
As the demand for support has grown and SCRATCH’s logistics capabilities have expanded, the organisation has explored other services such as food provision, paint redistribution and removals. Mike explains,
“At one time we ran a Fair Share depot and operated a food bank but there are quite a few providers out there doing this so we’ve realised that our sweet spot is actually in housing a walk-in cold room and walk-in chiller. We are able to store food for other local organisations and provide capacity for their services.
“Paint is something that seems relatively small but is actually not cheap and is really important in making a house a home. We collect unwanted paint from manufacturers, shops and decorators that’s free of charge and redistribute it to our community.”
He continues,
“Offering a removals service was a bit of an obvious choice for us, given the setup we have. In instances of domestic violence we’ll come in and help clear a home or room out when someone needs to move to a safe house quickly and discreetly.”
In recent years, SCRATCH has also opened a workshop to give tired furniture a new lease of life. The workshop isn’t just about restoring items, though; it’s also a place for volunteers to develop skills and experience a friendly, sociable environment. Mike says,
“So much of it is about helping people’s mental health. Being able to sand down a wooden chair or fix an item that’s broken in a safe space just makes people feel better about themselves. Plus, it’s helping our volunteers develop their skills and gather knowledge.
“It means we can pick up items that aren’t quite in working order and would otherwise end up in landfill. Environmentally this makes quite a difference – in fact, we think we divert tens of tonnes of furniture from landfill each year. There must be over 2,000 sofas that would otherwise be thrown away that we can upcycle or repurpose.”
Of course, running a workshop, a warehouse, two vans and full staff doesn’t come cheap. That’s where Mike says that SCRATCH really benefits from the support of generous funders like the Greggs Foundation.
“The money we’ve received through the Community Action Fund makes a big difference to what we do. We have electricity bills to pay, employee salaries to cover, vans to service and much, much more.
“Having core funding that we can spend where it is going to have the most impact is critical to a charity with large overheads like ours. For example, the rent on our warehouse is £60,000 a year alone. For this two-year funding from the Greggs Foundation we are able to cover the salary of our Volunteer Manager, which is a crucial role in keeping us well-resourced and able to run our services 12 months of the year.”
Find out more about the incredible work of SCRATCH on the south coast by visiting their website here.