Flowers For The Titanic and The Whitechapel

Starting on Friday 20th April, through to Sunday 22nd of April, a number of flowers displays were arranged at St Francis Xavier's Church, Langsdale Street, Everton to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic.

As the parish administrator of SFX, Brother Ken Vance, is one of our dedicated team of trustees, we have very close links with the church, and as such The Whitechapel Centre was given the honour of arranging a display.


Five of our service users, along with two of our art teachers, Joan and Carol, arranged some beautiful displays that were then placed at the end of the pews.

Along with the flower displays various other items from that period, photos, and titanic memorabilia were displayed.

A young, soon to be Jesuit Priest, Francis Browne, had been on the first part of the Titanic's journey from Southampton to Ireland, and had taken many photographs of the ship that were used in the display. The only reason that he hadn't remained aboard was because his order had forbade him, perhaps divine intervention?

 Something Francis may have worn

There were many beautiful displays throughout the church, and various concerts talks were given throughout the weekend to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

For those service users from The Whitechapel that took part it provided a wonderful opportunity to show their creativity, and to display their work for others to enjoy.

One of our regular art teachers aiding with the presentation of The Whitehchapel Centre's display.

Kelly from The Whitechapel Centre with her beautiful display.












The whole weekend was extermely successful, with the church being full throughout the three days. It was a wonderful way to remember the many lives that had been lost all those years ago.

Cold Weather Shelter 2011-12 - THE RESULTS!

The Whitechapel centre is asked each year by Liverpool City Council to organise a cold weather provision for rough sleepers, beginning at the start of December, and finishing on the 1^st of April.

The provision consists of two tiers;

Tier 1 is a night shelter which is based at St Stephen's church on Crown Street in Liverpool 8. The shelter opened when the predictive weather forecast indicated that the temperature will hit 0° or below for three consecutive nights.

 As well as having a warm safe place to spend the night, rough sleepers who present there are provided with hot soup and other refreshments.

Tier 2 consists of a dedicated staff team providing support for people who have accessed the night shelter with the aim of finding solutions for there homelessness. This is achieved by assessing people’s needs and liaising with housing providers such as hostels and private landlords to provide solutions.

This year the night shelter has been open for 13 nights and we have found solutions for 40 people. Many of these people are from socially excluded groups and have complex needs, and without the cold weather provision they could have been faced with spending the cold winter months sleeping rough.

This is a fabulous achievement, a real success for Paul and his team, who worked long hours in order to get such great results.

For more information on our Cold Weather Service, or any of the other services that we provide, please see our website at: http://www.whitechapelcentre.co.uk/

Get Ready! The Story So Far....

The Get Ready! Programme aims to give homeless indivdiuals a head start into starting to think about employment.

So far 62 people have signed up to the program, 48 of those have been inducted and supported onto the intial assement.

16 of those people have comleted 4 or more of the BITC courses that have been running, recieving a certificate at the end of each course.

We hope that most of those who have joined will go on to join the Ready For Work course at the end of it.

Above all, those that have taken part so far have thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and have made a great impression on the companies involved, and us here at The Whitechapel Centre.

For more information please contact Pauline Baysan, Cath Brown or Julie Prendergast on 0151 207 7617

For more information on services at The Whitechapel Centre please go to our website http://www.whitechapelcentre.co.uk