BBC Politics Reporter, Somerset
BBC“To go house and know you have left them – we have needed to tuck girls into foil blankets and simply say ‘goodbye’ – that may be heartbreaking typically.”
Dani Brown has simply spent hours of her Wednesday night driving and strolling across the streets of Bridgwater, Somerset.
She’s an outreach employee with the city’s girls’s centre run by a charity, The Nelson Belief.
Each week she and a colleague go searching for homeless girls who may have their assist.
They load up a van with provides from immediate noodles and sizzling water, to underwear, panic alarms and sanitary merchandise, and exit providing sensible assist and recommendation.
And Sarah, not her actual identify, is aware of what a distinction this “sensible” work could make.
After 5 years utilizing heroin, shoplifting, having her youngsters taken into care, and sleeping “in garages, on the streets, in alleyways”, she has now been clear for 18 months.
Now 38, Sarah “did not really feel fairly so alone” as soon as she discovered the Bridgwater Girls’s Centre workforce after certainly one of many arrests for shoplifting, when she was despatched to jail for her second time.
“That is after I’d had sufficient. I actually missed my youngsters, clearly I at all times miss my kids, however that is when it clicked like nothing’s gonna change till I obtained off the stuff.
“Now, being clear, all the pieces else simply falls into place,” she mentioned.
For the outreach workforce, Sarah’s is a big success story.
Not sleeping tough, she is now in momentary lodging and hoping to go to varsity later this yr.
She additionally sees her son on a regular basis which she mentioned is “superb – I did not ever assume I would get that again”.
And he or she’s been been off methadone for the final six weeks: “I am fairly happy with that,” Sarah admitted.
Different girls Dani and her colleague have seen are nonetheless in tough conditions.
“All the ladies I assist are homeless, additionally they have complicated wants relating to psychological well being, substance misuse, household breakdowns, they is perhaps dealing with violence from a accomplice or one other particular person,” mentioned Dani.
On this specific night she’d managed to see ten girls, three of whom have been new or she hadn’t seen for a very long time.
“They have been in parks, on the town, we have seen girls in tents, additionally exterior the city centre who’ve made what they really feel is a protected atmosphere – however that is a dangerous scenario to be in,” she mentioned.
In addition to handing out meals and provides, Dani and her colleague have additionally given out recommendation.
As soon as a month they’re joined by sexual well being nurses for the night.
On this event they’ve helped one girl get emergency lodging for the night time and despatched emails to “many alternative professionals” to assist others.
Night time-time ‘most dangerous’
“We have got a GP coming in to the centre tomorrow so we have been in a position to get 4 girls to agree to come back in and see the GP who do not presently entry medical assist – having that place of security and that little immediate tonight has actually helped,” mentioned Dani.
Dani mentioned it is tough leaving the ladies she comes into contact with.
“Within the night, via the night-time, that is when girls are susceptible to violence – whether or not that is bodily or sexual – as a result of they’re so weak.”
“The dangers can girls will be put into, and the dangers that come to them once they’re asleep – they’re scared,” she mentioned.
