Acts Trust

Amazing GraceChristmas in a Graveyard

It was on a cold night in December that Grace found herself sat on a bench in the graveyard behind the Friend’s Meeting House, very cold and tired. “I’d been at work and when I got back I found all my stuff outside the house; the Landlord had thrown it all out.”

She was spotted by one of the Amigos volunteers who invited her to come into the church, eat something and warm up while the team prepared for the Amigos Christmas Party that evening.

The volunteer helped Grace up the stairs; “it felt like I had frostbite on both legs and I was in a right mess”, she recalls. There, the volunteers made a bed up for her, and she managed to eat a little before falling into an exhausted sleep.

As the evening wore on, Grace drifted in and out of sleep, slowly warming up and regaining some of her strength. By the end of the evening she was feeling well enough to have a wash, and a couple of volunteers arranged for Grace to stay in Nomad. Shortly afterwards she was helped to find her own room in a new house.

Grace was also given a Foodbank voucher: “that helped and kept me going for a week. It’s only meant to be for three days but I made it stretch. I then started getting my benefits through and became more independent.” Through Amigos, Grace was introduced to Re:Route, and says this is the reason she is now able to volunteer at the Healthy Hub on a regular basis.

Grace became a CAP client in May to help with the old debts and to get herself back onto her feet financially. She said ‘it’s amazing! I feel really excited about it and it feels like the stress is lifting off’

The change in Grace is evident; she is far more confident and excited about her future. She would eventually like to open her own café and is pleased that within her new role at the Healthy Hub she has the opportunity to attend a Food Hygiene and First Aid Course. She feels her managers are really pleased with her, and is being trusted with more responsibility, including food preparation and operating the till.

Grace said that going through the ACTS projects has “changed her life” and that if she had the chance to tell the volunteers anything she would say “thank you all for you’ve done to help me out.”

When asked if Grace would recommend turning to ACTS Trust she smiled and said, “yes, definitely; I’ve made loads of friends.” In January Grace started going to church and now attends every week; she said, “it’s so good and I feel well better!”

Grace has worked incredibly hard to get to where she is today and we feel extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to meet and stand alongside such a strong woman. Through sheer deter-mination she has accomplished amazing things in a short amount of time, supported from all sides by dedicated volunteers.