As the days get colder and darker, it’s all the more important for people who lack life’s typical comforts and commodities to find help and support. Back in October, Notts homelessness charity Framework launched an urgent winter appeal for funds, alongside an autumn gift range, designed by their very own Iryna Fryner. This Christmas, they’re following that up with another seasonal gift range, released to help support their vital work of aiding Nottingham’s rough sleepers. To mark this occasion, Framework’s Communications Manager Chris Senior told us about where the charity is at and the help that they need.
Tell us a little about Framework's Winter Appeal and why it is so important?
We issued this winter appeal to maintain Framework's street outreach teams in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and Sheffield. The number of rough sleepers needing support continues to increase, but the funding available is not sufficient. In Nottingham, the City Council is doing its best in very difficult circumstances, but there is still a £99,000 gap in funding which we need to fill to maintain existing staffing levels.
Framework's Street Outreach teams do vital work, especially as the nights become so cold. Can you tell us about how they help people who are sleeping rough?
Team members go out 365 days a year to support rough sleepers – conducting welfare checks in the early hours of the morning and, during the day, building and maintaining relationships, so they can work on finding them accommodation while addressing drug, alcohol, mental health or financial issues.
The people whom the public sees bedding down in shop doorways are a small proportion of those sleeping rough. Rough sleepers prefer to be out of sight because it is generally safer – they’re not at risk of physical attack by members of the public, including people who think that it’s a fun idea to urinate on a rough sleeper after a night out. So the outreach team also supports people in hidden places – car parks, building sites, abandoned buildings, wasteland, woodland, graveyards, quarries and the like.
One of the strengths of Framework is that the Outreach Team is supported by a wide range of colleagues in health, housing, and employment services. This includes the staff from Nottingham Recovery Network (NRN) who provide free support, advice and treatment for people facing drug and alcohol issues in the city. For rough sleepers, NRN has the Rough Sleeper Drug and Alcohol Treatment Team (RSDATT), who provide emergency treatment to homeless people, whose lives are often in chaos, rather than expecting them to turn up to appointments at specific locations.
Sleeping rough is the tip of the homelessness iceberg. It is not a lifestyle choice. People sleep rough because they have suffered some major trauma – maybe early in life or more recently
The Outreach Team also works with Framework accommodation services like Akins House (made possible by funding from Beat the Streets 2023), which provides eight flats, or the prevention and resettlement hub at London Road, commissioned by the City Council and funded by central government.
There are many misconceptions around unhoused people, what is one thing you would like people to know about the realities of rough sleeping?
Sleeping rough is the tip of the homelessness iceberg. It is not a lifestyle choice. People sleep rough because they have suffered some major trauma – maybe early in life or more recently. The impact of this trauma will be complicated for them to deal with, and for support services to address. They have not received the support that they need and are sleeping rough because they have run out of options. They are fellow human beings in a really tough place who deserve sympathy not stigma.
What were Iryna Fryer's inspirations for the designs of the autumn gifts?
She wanted to find creative ways to express the ideas behind Framework’s work: the importance of home as the basis for fulfilled life, while challenging preconceptions about homelessness and paying tribute to the vibrancy of Nottingham, expressing its ‘essence’.
You have the excellent Beat the Streets coming up next month, can you let us in on any plans and highlights for the festival?
The 2025 festival is set to be a landmark year, with the total raised across all seven editions expected to top the £500,000 milestone. Some of the acts playing include Evil Scarecrow, one of the UK’s foremost heavy metal bands, and Riding The Low, the musical side project of Nottingham actor Paddy Considine. Funds raised will no doubt go a long way to plugging the outreach team’s funding gap.
Is there any other news you'd like to share with us about what's coming up?
In 2025/26 we have two major accommodation projects for homeless men and women, which will be opening in Nottingham to provide badly needed additional housing.
What you can do to help people sleeping rough this winter
- Donate to the winter appeal, on Framework's website.
- Buy Christmas meals at £8 each for the people that Framework supports.
- Add £1 or more to the bill at Dan Coles’ new restaurant Piccalilli, at 1a Cannon Court.
- Download Don’t Want to Be Alone This Christmas – the new track by Nottingham musician Andrew Randell, written to support Framework.
- Send friends and family an e-Christmas card in aid of Framework via dontsendmeacard.com.
- Attend Framework’s carol service in Southwell Minster on 6 December.
- Say hi to anybody sleeping rough this winter and offer to buy them a hot drink, or food.
Support Framework’s Winter Appeal by donating at www.frameworkha.org/SOS.
If you find somebody sleeping rough, or find yourself on the street, contact Framework via their free 24-hour hotline number 0800 066 5356
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