Combating homelessness with Judy Vickers

Meet the Mancunian-9.8-Judy Vickers transcript

Intro

Hello, listeners, and welcome to Season 9 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast: social impact stories from Manchester. I'm your host, Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe, offering you a warm Mancunian welcome. This season is extra special as I'm collaborating with the Spirit of Manchester Awards, celebrating the city's voluntary and community sector. Throughout the season, I'll be featuring interviews with award winners and nominees, shining a light on the incredible work happening across our city.

Every Tuesday, I bring you the stories of Manchester's community champions, individuals working for a range of causes, and making life better for the people of Manchester. My hope is to inspire you to discover your own social purpose, whether through volunteering or by getting involved in the social impact sector, while also celebrating good causes and spreading positivity.

You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or my website at meetthemancunian.co.uk. Stay tuned for a season full of inspiring social impact stories.

Passionate about supporting homelessness? In the 8th episode of Season 9, also the season finale, we hear from Judy Vickers, Executive Officer, Lifeshare and Spirit of Manchester Award nominee for Inspiring Campaign.

Introduction to Judy Vickers and Her Passion

[00:01:30] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you so much, Judy, for joining me today.

[00:01:33] Judy Vickers: Good evening.

[00:01:34] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Tell us first about how you found your passion for homelessness. Where did that come from?

Judy's Personal Journey and Inspiration

[00:01:39] Judy Vickers: From a personal experience, really. Round about 1996, I was very settled, family, house, children, everything I thought was going fine. And then I was a victim of domestic violence, and I had to grab the children and go to a refuge. Had the support of amazing staff at the refuge.

Was in there for probably nearly about a year. And then got my accommodation through social housing. Rebuilt my life, went back to university to do my social work. And I think really from that, because I realised how quickly it really can happen to anybody.

And then in the 80s, I started volunteering at the Needle Exchange for Lifeline because of the big rise in homelessness, HIV, various other things. I think that's where my passion started from, really.

[00:02:42] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It must have been such a hard time to, like you said, from a settled life to suddenly overnight almost, to be a victim of abuse. But then to find support and then restart your career and your new life in social work. Thank you for sharing that with us. I can well imagine that it's great that you're taking those lessons to inspire other people.

[00:03:06] Judy Vickers: And I think really to break down sort of the stereotypical image people have of homelessness. And I think, people should really take a second to realise that everybody is two pay checks off being homeless in a sense really, and you don't know in an instance what can change.

Early Involvement with Lifeshare

[00:03:26] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: How did you get involved with Lifeshare and what does it do?

[00:03:31] Judy Vickers: Oh Lifeshare! Early 90s, I was working at Lifeline as a substance misuse under 19s worker. And I was seconded by Manchester DAS to go to Lifeshare because they'd identified a very small pocket of young men that were selling sex in the city and it wasn't about sexuality, it was about survival sex.

So off I trotted. Lifeshare were just amazing, doing amazing things and I just stayed with them, as I say, as a seconded worker and then as a volunteer, then as a worker. And, it's just been in my blood. I've been our support worker care manager and actually was on placement at one point on a BA social work with the sex workers project.

Oh my goodness, that is about 20 years plus ago. But anyway, showing my age. So, I'd say from going from a placement student to now as executive officer with a really lived experience. Went back as a mature student as I say, to not necessarily to go down the statutory social work route, but to work within the voluntary sector to be a little bit of a voice for the voiceless, but it's been my passion and still is.

[00:04:41] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It's great that you're giving voice to the voiceless.

Lifeshare's Mission and Services

[00:04:44] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Tell us a little more about Lifeshare. What does it do?

[00:04:47] Judy Vickers: So Lifeshare founded in 1984. General status came 1989. Our major, we have seven day a week, 52 weeks a year service. We do Friday, Saturday, Sunday breakfast and respite for people who 're living without a home, could be rough sleeping in the city, living in temporary accommodation, food and fuel poverty, data poverty.

When we open our doors at seven in the morning, we don't ask questions unless you look under 18. Then we might just ask you, but we're welcoming of all. On average, we see 350 to 400 guests every weekend between the Friday and Sunday. Monday to Friday, we run the offices. We are situated in the Gay Village, and we have drop ins, food banks, resource banks, digital support.

We recondition devices and redistribute out in the community; we do lots of services and Christmas is coming and we are the only service that does a seven day. So, we open our doors from the 23rd right through to the 29th of December.

And that's three meals a day run by mainly volunteers, a few paid staff. And we have doctors, nurses, opticians, hairdressers, doggy wellbeing, entertainment. And it's a really great experience.

It's a bit argumentative at the minute whether it's our 34th year or it's our 35th year of doing Christmas. And one of my volunteers, she said, it's my 34th Christmas day with Lifeshare and she has, she's our Christmas angel and she's done 34 years of Christmas Day.

We've got lots of different volunteers. Some of the clients, they don't come at any other time of year other than at Christmas, because it really is, it can be a very lonely time for some people. Some volunteers just come at Christmas to volunteer because they like to see the guests that they've seen over the years.

And we like to see ourselves as a little bit of a family, and we have a fantastic collaboration from Manchester Business and Sally Penn, Sally Sparkle. She gets her little elves going and Maxine Peake comes on Christmas Day too. She's our patron. So it really is a fantastic Christmas at Lifeshare.

[00:07:16] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Oh, sounds really lovely. And we'll be definitely releasing the episode before Christmas. So shout out to anyone listening who can come and support in different capacities.

Challenges Faced by Lifeshare

[00:07:27] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Have there been some challenges you've had to overcome, not looking back 34 or 35 years, but maybe looking back the last couple of years?

[00:07:34] Judy Vickers: Oh, I think not just our, Lifeshare, but I think just in general, a lot of charities, because, we've gone through austerity, we've gone through COVID 19, lockdowns, cost of living crisis, could list them, change of government, crash of government, different MPs, false promises.

But, so it's been really difficult as an organisation, especially I think coming out of COVID, because we used to be predominantly relying on grant funding, but grant funding certainly was a core cost and a salary provider sort of thing.

And then a lot of trusts have that much of a backlog of applications. It's took them a while to get through. And then that has a bit of a knock-on front when, if you have short term funding. So you've maybe only got a year's funding for somebody like my digital worker. She was absolutely amazing. We did some amazing workshops, but it was only a year's funding.

And then despite putting about six or seven bids in for, to continue. We weren't successful. And bless her, she comes back as a volunteer and helps. It's really hard but we carry on. You've got to look at different ways, different fundraising.

We've got one of our amazing corporate partners Andrew. He's climbing the three peaks on Christmas day for us. We're going to blog it and I talk in a good blog, I don't know how to do that, but, live up the three peak and live from the kitchens, but the young ones do, the mulled wine to don't hate to the poor guy up the mountain with the blog.

You've just got to try your best but realise that people's funds are short so you can't keep knocking on the same door as the ones every year and expect them just to be able to throw money at you but we endeavour, 40 years we've seen Absolutely, 2012 was bad. That was a bad year, sort of thing, for I think, everybody. And then we went into the benefit reform in 15. And, it's been so unsettled.

It's been difficult. But we endeavour and we're very lucky, we have some fantastic volunteers and supporters. And without them, without our volunteers, we wouldn't be able to deliver anything. They're the heartbeat of the organisation, their commitment humbles me, it really does.

[00:10:02] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I love that about volunteers being the heartbeat. Like you said, somebody who couldn't get the grant funding but came back as a volunteer anyway, shows their passion and shows the support and the impact that they can make together with you.

The Issue of Data Poverty

[00:10:15] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: You've spoken a few times about data poverty. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about data poverty?

[00:10:21] Judy Vickers: Think about it, data poverty, so everything is an online platform now, our young people think everything's shop online and it arrives in the next couple of hours, they order it online, they've got the smartphones, you're on a bus or a tram and there's 5-year-olds on little iPads and things like that.

You've got to do your universal Credit Journal online. If you are in work or out of work, you've got to apply online for your benefits, for your housing if you want to bid on housing. So if you've not got access to a device, access to WIFI or a smartphone to do that, you're going to be left behind.

For me, the government, if it wants people to do the benefits system online, should provide free WIFI for all. Don't set me off on that. I actually was invited to the House of Lords to come and have a talk, and then when I told them what I'd be telling them, because you have to write your speech up front, they were like, oh, we were going to be doing this another day!

But it's true, it's important. For Wednesday at midnight, the property that if you're lucky enough to have a duty to be able to bid on a property, so they'll go live at midnight. And everybody's sat there with the brews, the biscuits, ready to bid.

If you're in a doorway or you're sofa surfing on somebody's couch or whatever. By the time you get to a library where you can get free access, it's 10 in the morning. There's 500 people have bidded on it before you,

That's the datapoverty. If you shop online, I don't know what the figures are now, so don't quote me, but it used to be something like on average, if you shopped online, you'd save 346 quid a year. You're left behind basically.

[00:12:10] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I hear you. I thought it was about just the devices, but it's also, like you said, it's a device and...

[00:12:15] Judy Vickers: able to do it. Oh that was another thing they're pleased with actually. I got students to go out and we mapped the whole of Manchester on free WIFI zones, so where you can actually just sit and, log on and do your bidding.

But the problem is now is. I don't want to get too political, but we do have anti-social behaviour teams in Manchester, and if you're not really looking crisp and shiny, and you sat on a bench, and even if you're in the WIFI zone, and you are doing, you're trying to get on your journal, you will be moved on.

It's constantly dispersal, so it's difficult, but there is free WIFI zones where you can sit and do this journal or do whatever you need to do, register with the doctor, book online for the vets, apply for new winter fuel payments to see if you're eligible for it.

My dad's 93. He says, I'm not doing anything digital. I said Dad, I said no, I'm not. And sometimes they don't want. Dad's lucky he has got us, but what is for somebody who's alone, who hasn't got enough.

[00:13:19] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I can totally understand. I do a lot of this for my in-laws, and it's just, if they didn't have somebody else to do it, it would be very hard.

Impact and Achievements

[00:13:27] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Tell us a little bit about the biggest impact you would say that you've made so far.

[00:13:32] Judy Vickers: As an organisation, think it's getting the male voice some to the sex workers for um, raising getting health needs. We raised the issue that Spice was going to become an issue and a public health warning in the city. I got in touch with Vice and got Ben up from London and we did the Spice Boys in Manchester. And we went around and trained school nurses and all sorts, so I was quite pleased with that.

And then Leisha brought the digital, Manchester Digital Collective in just before lockdown. It was fantastic, really, that then when lockdown did happen in 2020, we were geared up then that we could share devices, we could share smartphones. We were the first organisation, even though I've lobbied against street feeding for years and years, when lockdown happened, we were the first one with a food service on those streets.

And then we did the seven days of provision all the way through lockdown humanitarian aid with a partnership with Barnabas and Mind and Audacious and Manchester Council. That was quite cool. We've done all sorts.

But I think we've and anybody who knows me, will know that I advocate for the social injustice. And if I see it, I will call it how, it should be good practice and we should all work within a legislative framework with a passion. But it's not just me, you can speak to any of our volunteers, any of our staff, and I think the same passion comes through. They wouldn't be getting up at five o'clock on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday morning if they weren't passionate.

[00:15:13] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: For sure. In fact, Barnabas was also on the podcast and it's great to know all these lovely homelessness charities doing much.

[00:15:20] Judy Vickers: Was it Yvonne?

[00:15:22] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Yvonne, yes,

[00:15:23] Judy Vickers: My best friend Yvonne, she's lovely.

[00:15:25] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: She's absolutely lovely.

What does being nominated for Spirit of Manchester Award mean to you?

[00:15:32] Judy Vickers: It is really nice to be nominated. We've worked with MACC for many years and to then be recognised by the wider community. We've been nominated for, some of our trustees have been nominated for the campaigns. It is a really quite a good pride, pride for the organisation.

[00:15:50] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: And you were talking about other awards you've been nominated about. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? I

[00:16:00] Judy Vickers: Nominated last year for the I Love Manchester Awards for the best sort of impact and difference that we made and things like that. We won a Corporate Responsibility and a Business Award from Manchester Airport for adapting a real work programme.

That was quite funny that evening because I didn't know I was going to be called out and I was wearing these ridiculously high shoes. And we were sat right at the back of this huge hall and next minute they're calling my name out. And I was like Betty Boop tottering the stage. I thought I'm going and now all the lads are cheering from the construction company. They all knew about it and if I'd known anything about it, I wouldn't have worn these shoes, oh, but that was really good.

[00:16:45] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Like the imagery of you tottering along to collect the award.

[00:16:49] Judy Vickers: Because I thought it was, literally get out of the taxi into the event, sit there, cheer for everybody and get back in. No. And I had to go up with my legs to get up on this stage. Oh, it's funny.

Advice for Starting Community Movements

[00:17:02] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What advice would you have for people looking to start a similar movement in their local community in another part of the world? We've got listeners from 50 countries.

[00:17:12] Judy Vickers: Think really is know your community. Because it's one thing you could think, Oh yes, this person needs this or this community needs that. No, you have to go and actually listen to the community, spend time in the community, see what is missing and what difference?

Because I always think, one, you don't want to reinvent a wheel. Two, you don't want to duplicate provisions so that you're all falling over each other. I think that's why around about 2015 we formed the Coalition of Relief and me and Mikey Thomas went round all the different organisations who were doing street outreach, who were literally falling over each other, and we mapped them out, invited them to monthly meetings, did safeguarding training, taught them public liability, first aid, and things like that, because you've got to work within a good practice.

And you've got to work within your community. See what other groups that are out there. No issue, no matter what it is, whether it's homelessness, substance misuse. I don't think one organisation can fix that. What's that saying? It takes the village to bring up the boy. It's a bit like that really.

Know your partners and, be transparent in what you can, what your offer would be. And then look at who has the same, the same feeling. And collaboration, I think, is important, especially because resources are so tight. ,

So working in collaboration and doing more of a collaborative bid. And obviously whoever holds the bank and, make sure that person's accounts and everything are you've done your due diligence. That I think would set people in good stead, really, wherever you are in the world.

[00:18:59] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Great tips. And I like that very much about almost first starting with the basics of knowing your community, listening to the community and identifying what they want. And then finding the right partners and taking that collaborative approach. Like you said, it takes a whole village to fix something as big as homelessness, which has so many causes.

[00:19:21] Judy Vickers: And food poverty is universal, isn't it? It's global. Data poverty is now global. It's there. You find a model. When I say don't reinvent the wheel, look at who's delivering a good model in your area.

We were with Cracking Good Food. And when we tackled food poverty in 2012, we did a program where we were trained, the trainer and the young people then learnt that process, learnt about one pot cooking, learnt about growing. Now that idea and that model my daughter in law is going to, she's Gambian, is going to use in Gambia to do a grow project in Gambia.

And then the cooking, then the one thing. So the model and the way that we did it is fine, and I was like Majula, how do you know they want you to do this? And she's so then when she went back to Gambia, she then did her research, spoke to. Got everybody to agree that, yes, this was a great idea, we're going to get the mangoes.

We spoke to First Chair about that thing. So the models that worked well can be globally used in a way.

[00:20:31] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I like that very much. And not just expanding it to Manchester, but taking it almost global. And in fact, Tracey Torley from Cracking Good Food is also one of the guests in the season.

[00:20:43] Judy Vickers: Tracey is lovely and yes, we're looking at doing a similar project now. We're just putting the I's and T's on a similar project again using that model.

But again, it's fun. And funders, they don't just, some of them want a little video made or something else to go with it. And you're thinking oh my goodness, it's for five thousand pounds and it's a one off five thousand pounds. It's difficult. Long term sustainable funding. We'd all be really happy with. I'm sure my colleagues have said that

[00:21:15] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I know that this is a real concern in the charity sector with the economy and all of those things.

Signature Questions about Manchester

[00:21:21] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I'm now going to move to the signature questions that I ask all my guests. And this is about Manchester. So if you could choose a famous landmark in Manchester to represent you, which one would it be and why?

[00:21:34] Judy Vickers: I think it would be probably Queen Victoria statue at Piccadilly Gardens because when I was at school, and we used to be go clubbing and we used to always meet at Queen Victoria. Back then, when we're talking sort of late 70s, early 80s, my friend, if you missed the last bus home, you could actually slide in and sleep. I never did it, but the boys used to do it, but we always used to. You can't do it these days but that, I'd say that, and also, she always reminded me of me Auntie Annie.

[00:22:11] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Great one to shout out to both for your, for nostalgia and family relationships.

What's the most important life lesson you've learned so far?

[00:22:22] Judy Vickers: Never take anything for granted, I think. , I'd say really that because I just thought that my world did carry on like it did. So just don't get complacent.

[00:22:33] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: And it's cherishing every moment, life is uncertain on so many fronts.

[00:22:38] Judy Vickers: And don't do to anybody else that you wouldn't done to yourself, and always remember a smile costs nothing. That's what my mother always said, and you never know, it can just change somebody's day.

[00:22:50] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Absolutely. Really important one. I think this bit about, never taking anything for granted, but also always paying it forward, always being thoughtful of people is so important.

[00:23:02] Judy Vickers: So my mum said, always that smile, and Aliki, who is my best friend, who lived in the house in the semi-detached, and so we're like sisters, her mum used to always listen to Elky Brooke, and she'd say, no, Belle's a singer, and you paint on your lipstick, no matter how you're feeling, put your chin up, and go out. So sometimes, it's pucker up, smile and just carry on.

[00:23:26] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Like that a lot.

How to Get Involved with Lifeshare

[00:23:28] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: How can people get in touch with you and how can they find Lifeshare?

[00:23:32] Judy Vickers: We're on social media, so we're at Lifeshare UK on Facebook, Instagram. What are the other platforms? mainly Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Follow our socials. Keep up to date with what's going on with that. And then you can go via the website and that'll give you a little bit more information and news.

You can apply to volunteer on the website. So if you click on that, it'll show you different opportunities like it's coming up to Christmas so I'm looking for driver volunteers, I'm looking for Christmas elves who want to work on the project. And then there might be, we get what I call digital champions who might help somebody do a CV or, and they don't even have to be in the building. They can log on with somebody. They could be in their office, and just log on at a certain time like me and you are doing.

And then what else do we have? Oh, we have like food bank, helping, sorting donations, clothes, there's various things. And then there's contacts. You can just drop a message and we'll get back to you on that one. And there's a number on the website at the minute. We're having a bit of an issue with the landline, so it is a mobile number for getting in touch with us at the minute. But everything else is just there.

So another thing that we do every year in the lead up to Christmas, we get together with Manchester's finest artists Megan Swain, Valentine for all those, I can't name them all, but we've got seven designs this year, we're doing t shirts, they'll be being launched next week, so check our website out, get somebody the most exclusive t shirt ever, and check out Lifeshare's socials for the release of those.

And the theme that we gave the artists was End Homelessness Now, so Manchester's artists were given the brief, End Homelessness Now. And have a look what they've come up with.

[00:25:31] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Sounds lovely. I'll make sure I include it in my show notes.

Oh, thank you so much, Judy. It's been a wonderful experience to talk to you today, and lots of laughter alongside a very serious subject,

[00:25:45] Judy Vickers: Thank you Deepa, it's been absolutely great to talk to you.

Outro

Thank you for listening to the final episode of Season 9 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast: social impact stories from Manchester. I hope today's episode has inspired you to reflect on your own purpose and how you can contribute to making positive change.

The Meet the Mancunian podcast will now take a two-month break until February 2025, while I plan and record Season 10. In the meantime, there are 108 wonderful guest stories to listen to.

I'm truly grateful for this amazing community of listeners. Your stories inspire this podcast and I look forward to hearing more of them.

If you'd like to share your story or connect, visit my website at meetthemancunian.co.uk or find me on social media, @MeettheMancunian on Instagram and Facebook, @MancunianPod on X and @MeettheMancunianPodcast on YouTube.

Thank you again to my wonderful listeners, you inspire me. Together, we are a community dedicated to uplifting Manchester and supporting Mancunians. Remember, we can make an impact together. Thank you for tuning in and being a part of this incredible community. Your involvement helps amplify the voices of those making a difference.

Together, we can inspire even more positive change in Manchester and beyond. Remember, no act of kindness is too small. And by working together, we can truly make a meaningful impact.

Thank you for listening.