Going Homeless for the Homeless 2007 Challenge - Education

The daring adventure for Brian and Peter to attempt cycling 300 miles to Dover, canoeing 30 miles across the English Channel, and then tandem cycle the remaining 700 miles to the South of France is deliberately timed to allow schools to engage in their mission and purpose.

Committed to making a difference, as a partnership Brian and Peter show how together anything can be possible, even though Brian is registered blind.
During the journey, children are encouraged to follow their progress on maps, where daily reports updated to this site can be used to show how the basic care and needs of the homeless across our cities and countries do not vary and are outside of the cultural differences. The journey is intended to be an education for all ages, with a simple better understanding of how homelessness occurs for some, while others may choose to try to better understand the various ways communities care and protect the vonerable and needy within our cities.

We hope to include here enjoyable activities for different ages to engage with our children at their level of understanding to promote increased awareness of homelessness across the UK and France.

Child homelessness

Child homelessness exists across most regions and countries, due to a range of reasons such as relationship problems, violence, and family breakdown problems. As well as suffering the child experiences within a home or from being on the street, perhaps afraid to return home, the child further suffers in being denied access to education and a settled environment to develop.

A lack of affordable family housing and a shortage of sheltered and temporary accommodation can cause families to be constantly on the move, not settling in any place, which ultimately impacts on the education and well being of the children.

The Wellspring Work Within Schools

The Wellspring Center aims to increase awareness of the reasons for homelessness in our communities by supporting activities within schools and colleges across the region.

• School fairs - Peter and Brian with their tandem attend most school fairs, providing the ride of a lifetime to the young children as Pete pilots the tandem round the school grounds, with children from 4 upwards holding tight on the back. Brian chats to the Mums and Dads about the Wellspring, whilst trying to control the lengthy queues itching to have a ride.
• Harvest festivals - these are a big part of the annual school support for our Wellspring Center. Collections of tins and food from schools around Stockport supplies 80% of the food needed by the Wellspring Center kitchen over the entire year.
• Assembly talks - Brian and Peter with or without the tandem will present for 10 minutes the work at the Wellspring, the reasons for their epic journeys to support the charity and the work to support the homeless, and encourage the children to consider how we can all make a difference to better our community support for others.
  The assembly talk helps to explain where the food collected as part of the harvest festival goes to and how it is used to feed the homeless in the neighbourhood.
• Competitions and fun days - the Wellspring tries to prompt homelessness to be discussed at schools and seek fund raising support through the fun activities children can get involved in. For example, poem competitions or fiction writing with a homelessness topic could be arranged, with the Wellspring choosing the best to be printed on the WEB or in some show programme.

  Get Involved

  Please contact the Wellspring for an educational pack and to support this event with your own ideas for engaging homelessness issues in our schools.