| Pray for Friends First . Based in the Diocese of Chichester, it supports vulnerable and homeless people with a drop in service, supported house, and agricultural and workplace skills workshops. With support from the Church Urban Fund, it now plans to establish a work-based supported housing project for homeless and long-term unemployed people. This ‘Friends First Farmhouse’ will be a rural work-based traineeship and supported house. Five long-term unemployed people will live and re-train in the West Sussex countryside for up to 2 years. They will tackle issues associated with their homelessness, receive therapeutic input, and develop work and independent living skills. They and other volunteers will make products to support other parts of Friends First, such as a veg box scheme. Pray also for the Contextual Theology Centre’s partner churches in The East London Communities Organisation – currently engaged in a process of listening and discernment about the most practical ways to help people trapped in long-term unemployment to find work at a Living Wage. |
