Researched and published by Lemos&Crane working with The Connection at St Martin’s, supported by The St John Southworth Fund on behalf of the Archdiocese of Westminster, among other funders.
Lost and Found: faith and spirituality in the lives of homeless people was the first ever study of homeless people’s attitudes to faith involving in-depth interviews with over 70 people. Since its release in April 2013, the report has been downloaded over 600 times by people representing providers of social and supported housing, grass-roots charities, local authorities, health commissioners, as well as faith groups, churches and places of worship.
Because feedback revealed significant demand to further explore homeless and vulnerable people’s faith and spirituality, Lemos&Crane are now working with The Connection at St Martins to implement the practice and policy recommendations of the report.
The first stage of this second phase of the project took place on Friday 8th November. Organisations that took part in the research that led to the original report as well as agencies who expressed an interest in the work since its launch met to discuss the next steps for the project. Gerard Lemos facilitated the meeting.
Issues discussed included the distinction between religion and spirituality, and the importance of supplying service users with neutral spaces which facilitate calm and reflection. The process of interviewing service users on their arrival at a new organisation was highlighted as an area which required particular focus. How can service providers ascertain clients’ spiritual needs as well as their practical ones? When should the issue of spirituality be broached? Should spirituality be considered a discreet part of service users’ lives or should a client’s beliefs inform as many facets of a service as possible?
While there are some things which can inhibit the work of service providers (such as time consuming administrative tasks or incentive based models for staff), the group agreed that there are several examples of good practice in this area that already exist. In the next meeting, the working group will turn its attention to these examples in order to ascertain what (if any) characteristics they might share in common. The group eventually hopes to create a "tool box" of tools which practitioners can use to help them navigate these encounters and provide best service to service users.
LOST AND FOUND: faith and spirituality in the lives of homeless people, Lemos&Crane (2013)
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If you would like to recieve updates on the project's progress, please email Katherine
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