INTRODUCTION

To write this note as the Chief Executive, I have reflected on all the projects we have successfully ran since 2015. Our aims and objectives are the prevention and relief of poverty and homelessness across London, by providing immediate and long-term, physical, and mental support for those who are homeless, threatened by homelessness, or without recourse to public funds. Community building projects that encourage action and engagement help the most vulnerable community members to feel supported regardless of circumstances.

We do community outreach, operating day centres, visiting prisons, and empowerment training e.g., life skills training, mental well-being advice, free counselling services, advocacy, housing advice, and IT training etc. Our main goal is to prevent homelessness before people lose their homes, get on drugs, become alcoholics, start gambling, etc. We provide basic and immediate help with volunteering opportunities.

There have been challenges because of inflation and the high cost of living in London, but also there has been an improvement, to our service because Lambeth Council has offered and renovated the Chartham Court community hall for our organisation to use as a food bank and other relevant services we do to benefits residents 7 days a week.

The Bright Morning Star Prisons and Homelessness Outreach is running a health and well-being project sponsored by Lambeth Well-Being Funds, the high-cost-of-living program sponsored by Lambeth Community Fund, and Community Food pantries sponsored by Co-operative. These funds and all the support are a great achievement for our organisation, and our dreams of serving the vulnerable community are becoming a reality. With the help of our dedicated volunteers, we can continue to do great work that makes a positive impact in London.

Those who now seek support through the BMS-run projects have increased around London. To encourage more people to volunteer for our organisation, we have joined Lambeth Volunteers and Neighbourly charity organisation projects. Our main priority now is the food pickup and redistribution to those who need it most. It helps reduce waste and environmental pollution and supports vulnerable individuals and communities.

OUR FOUNDATION

AIM

The aim of The Bright Morning Star Prisons and Homelessness Outreach aims to prevent poverty and homelessness.

OBJECTIVE

The BMS Prisons and Homelessness Outreach objective is to help rebuild and elevate the lives of the most vulnerable people in London. To raise local awareness and increase the ownership of the project by the community. To do this, the BMS conducts seven activities: outreach, skills training, rehabilitation, counselling, the day centre for socialisation to reduce depression and isolation, prison visits, and food pick up & distribution.

AMBITION

We are always searching for new ways to integrate ourselves into the community and support the most vulnerable people in the community. Our ambition is to play a crucial role in preventing homelessness by tackling rough sleeping, supporting move-on, and preventing tenancy breakdown. Our idea for the future is to stop homelessness from happening in the first place. There are predictable routes into homelessness, like leaving the care system or prison. We will do everything we can to help people find and keep a home. Preventing homelessness is cost-effective, but more importantly, it is the right thing to do.

OUR MAIN SERVICES

We support those coming out of the prisons and care system by positively impacting their lives. We are operating a community-based organisation that runs from the grassroots, a homeless day centre that is accessible to not only the homeless person or rough sleeper but also includes the elderly, job seekers, and those on low income.

Community Outreach

Our community outreach is done 7-days-a-week; reaching out to the homeless, rough sleepers, elderly, those who are on low income and bed-bound, and job seekers with the food collected. We operate a food stand where we give out hot meals, sandwiches, snacks, fruits, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and soup. We also offer referral services, signposting, and giving out hygiene products.

Prison Visits

We visit the immigration detention centre and local prisons. We collaborate with prison chaplains to organize services for prison inmates to receive emotional and physical support.

Day Centre

At our day centre we provide physical and mental health and well-being advice, emotional support, and one-to-one counselling services to the community. We provide coffee mornings, BMS foodbank, advocacy, housing advice, art and craft sessions, and IT training. Most importantly, we build lasting relationships in the community between people of different backgrounds. We prevent isolation, depression and help build community involvement.

Ex-Offenders Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation of ex-offenders into the community by providing immediate help and support through skills training, cooking lessons to support their health and wellbeing, volunteering opportunities and employment training through the Bounce Back Charity.

2024 ACHIEVEMENTS

2024 was a year that set the space for a new connection and collaboration for the Bright Morning Star Prisons and Homelessness Outreach. The impact of the permanent venue with 7-days-a-week of access to serve the community set out a new dimension for us as a homeless and community organisation. Our structure and strategy are working, and registering to become a Lambeth Council supplier is an achievement we have long waited for.

Awards Received:

• Exceptional services from ELG
• Contribution to the growth of society and generosity to Humanity from Toplo Technology
• Nigeria Patriot Award

Key Statistics 2024:

Service Schedule:

• Outreach: Twice a week
• Walk-in Centre: Daily operations
• Immigration Detention Centre visit: Once a week
• Prison visits: Once a week
• Outreach Fridays with stands table in front of Brixton Police Station

Estates Served:

• Clapham Park Estate
• Mursell Estate
• St Matthews Estate
• Canterbury Crescent
• Pedlar Acre (Opal Street)
• Mansfield Estate

CHALLENGES

1. Funding

Obtaining grant-funding streams was difficult because National Lottery Community Funds, who has been supporting our Organisation in the past four years with a £10,000 Yearly grant, refused our grant application twice in 2024. This put a financial strain on the organisation because, out of our 2024 budget, we were able to raise £10,000 from the Lambeth wellbeing fund and Co-operative and £2,100 from our fundraising effort through the public.

2. Donations

Financial and materials challenges are the struggle we face facilitating some of our projects. We see monetary donors depreciating because of the High inflation and High cost of living the Country is experiencing. The situation increased the need for our services, and service users' expectations ranged from mental health, health inequality, social Isolation, and depression. Looking for new and inventive routes to raise funds, we have derived a fundraising strategy of accepting voluntary donations of £2 from employed residents who come to collect food items to support our organisation work.

3. Vehicle

The BMS Prisons and Homelessness Outreach have learnt to adapt from these experiences of providing our vital services and we are now looking to overcome any challenges we are faced with. We currently use a car to as a means of transportation for all pick-up and redistribution activities, e.g., Food, clothes and donated items from various shops but we need a minivan that can transport the most vulnerable service users from one point to the other to access some of our activities.

4. Staff and Volunteers

Lack of paid professional staff and sufficient and consistent volunteers limits our aims and objectives as an organisation. Ideally, we need volunteers that can serve the charity for a minimum of one year consistently to seamlessly deliver our services.

Positions needed: Administrative Volunteer, Outreach Officer Volunteer, Creative Activities Volunteer, First Response Volunteer, Art Group Volunteer, Enhanced First Response Volunteer, Language Support Volunteer, Food Pickup & Packaging Volunteer and Move On Volunteer.

Thanks to London Community Fund, Co-op, and Lambeth Council Community Engagement officers that have realized the importance of the Bright Morning Star Prisons and Homelessness Outreach to those coming out of prison and rough sleeping in Lambeth. Only two organisations (including BMS) connects with Lambeth ex-offenders for their reintegration into the community. Because of the vulnerability of ex-convicts, the danger they pose and the stigma they face, these individuals thus exhibit complex needs which our organisation are dealing with.

WINTER PROJECT 2024

During the wintertime of 2024, we were able to provide comprehensive emergency support to homeless individuals across London:

As a homeless, ex-offender and community organisation, our main aims and objectives are to prevent homelessness and poverty across the community and help rebuild and elevate the lives of the most vulnerable people in Lambeth and across London. We now cover 5 different boroughs of London.

Using mixed communication (spoken, WhatsApp, leaflets, social media, banners etc.) to pass information to our service users is the best way to support our vulnerable community. These mixed methods enable us to serve the community, particularly because some services users do not have phones, some are not tech savvy, and yet others would not know of our services if not for our digital communication and outreach. It enables them to seek help so they can be referred or signposted for the right help. Our visionary Mrs. Lola Osarobo leads the outreach to hand out personal protective equipment, hygiene products, and toiletries in Lambeth, Southwark, Bromley, Croydon, and Westminster Councils (with Lambeth residents being our main focus that we serve).

EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM

The BMS Prisons and Homelessness Outreach "Positive Impact Counselling Service" have offered one-to-one free counselling to the most vulnerable people in the community on how to manage mental health issues and where they can get mental health treatments.

We also run empowerment programs, e.g., arts and crafts, on how to make pillows, sewing lessons, soap making, bracelets and earrings, housing advice, healthy cooking lessons, dancing and exercise activities, IT training, signposting and providing information. All this has impacted many community members whom we serve and those coming out of prison and are homeless.

A few participants now use the skills they learnt through our empowerment program to provide income for themselves by selling the things they make on eBay and Amazon.

We at BMS achieved our goal of making everyone feel included, learn a transferable skill, and best of all, building lasting relationship between members of the community as they are now aware of their Neighbour's face and common grounds.

OLDER CITIZEN PROJECT

The BMS elderly project continues to support those who were bed-bound at home because they were unwell. In the past, this project operated in such a way that they [older citizens] were introduced to our organisation by professionals working with them in the community. They are individuals who couldn't order food or cook a meal due to their health condition, age, or disabilities. Our older citizen project covered three estates in Lambeth: Canterbury estate, St Matthew Estate, and Kennington Pedler Acre.

We made sure that volunteers regularly reached them, and some of our members took turns making sure healthy food was delivered to them for free.

A benefit of this project aside from feeding them, was that they [older citizens] didn't feel left out or forgotten because we stood by them to give them something to look forward to by providing a WhatsApp group that allows them to see what is going on in the community, and they, in turn, called us to say what they want to participate in.

Unfortunately, this program was discontinued due to lack of funding but we have evolved it into a home delivery service for the elderly. We get calls from local libraries such as Brixton, Streatham, and Clapham – who signpost vulnerable elderly people that are unable to leave their flats due to illness or disability. We then deliver microwavable food to them.

OUR PARTNERS

Working with organizations across London to maximize our community impact:

• Pret A Manger
• London Community Chaplains
• Greggs Food Foundation
• Neighbourly
• Brixton Prison
• Southwark Council
• Lambeth Council
• Lambeth Healthy Living Platform
• Lambeth Community Connectors
• St Mungos Homeless Charity
• Lambeth Homeless Department
• Stockwell Probation Service
• Streatham Job Centre
• Brixton Police Station
• Street Link
• Community Southwark Charity
• Holy Trinity Church
• Harvest Mission Outreach

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address

The Bright Morning Star Prisons and Homelessness Outreach
Chartham Court Community Hall
Canterbury Crescent, Brixton
London, SW9 7PT

Registration

Registration Number: 09954660

Phone

07946288144, 02036528918

Email

info@thebrightmorningministries.com
admin@thebrightmorningministries.com
Moningstarc89@yahoo.co.uk

Online Presence

Website: The Bright Morning Ministries – Prisons and Homelessness Outreach
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tbmspho_charity/
X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/morningstarc89
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebmsprisonhomelessness
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069205906213

Thank you for supporting our mission to make positive impact in communities across London.

Annual Report 2024 - The Bright Morning Star Prisons and Homelessness Outreach
Generated: 6/16/2025