WE TAKE ACTION
We take practical, mutual aid style direct action. We work with our grassroots partners to uphold people’s rights and ensure people have what they need.
PRACTICAL STUFF
We take practical actions such as food distribution, advocacy, and connecting people with legal and clinical support. This is a continuous part of what we do. Our approach is person centred, long term and unconditional. Every Tuesday, rain, shine or snow we run a community day with great food, an art studio and a gardening club. We run an emergency cold weather shelter in the museum and we have a cupboard full of essentials for humans (and their fur family) that is available to anyone who needs it.
RAPID RESPONSE
In the last decade homelessness has risen sharply in the UK. Inequality is rife and the responses in policy and legislation make things worse. This means that our community is often facing new difficulties and challenges. Whether it is excessive harassment from police and private security firms, racist hostile environment policies or discrimination at the hands of services, we seek to respond where we can. We work in partnership with a range of grassroots groups, larger charities and others to uphold people’s rights. Key partners in this work include Public Interest Law Centre and Liberty.
SHIFT
SHIFT is an intensive 10 month leadership development programme for 10 exceptional people working in homelessness and housing which will run from July 2025 to March 2026. Thanks to funding from the Sarah Jane Leigh Charitable Trust the first year of SHIFT will be free for participants.
SHIFT is the first survivor led trauma conscious leadership programme for homelessness in the UK, born in response to the significant challenges we are facing as homelessness continues to spike. The programme content will include:
Structural trauma and the front line; exploring dehumanised perception and how trauma shows up in organisations.
Exploring the importance of a personal practice and its relevance to social action work led by trauma survivors.
Working with emotions, memory and the body.
Working with personal boundaries, grief and distress.
Working with trauma and the nervous system.
Working with coping mechanisms: Fresh and compassionate approaches to working with addiction, self-harm and suicide ideation.
Unlocking creative problem solving in your everyday life.
Guest facilitators and speakers will include writers, artists, scientists, community organisers and psychotherapists
Our current confirmed list of contributors includes:
Abdirahim Hassan, Founder, Coffee Afrik CIC
Aderonke Apata, Founder & CEO, African Rainbow Family, campaigner and MoH Trustee
Brad Hardie, Co-Founder of Moving the Human Spirit
Christopher Scanlon and John Adlam, psychotherapists, authors and psychosocialists
Dan Glass, Author and Activist
E-J Scott, Founder, Museum of Transology
Gill Taylor, MoH crew and consultant
Jacob V Joyce, Artist
Dr Lasana Harris, Social Neuroscientist
Surfing Sofas MoH Poet in Residence
lead facilitators for the programme are jess and matt turtle, directors of museum of homelessness
In the course of founding and developing MoH, both Matt and Jess have undertaken a lot of development and training focused on trauma. Jess has complex childhood trauma. She also has an MA in Psychosocial Studies and has undertaken the 1 year professional training in Compassionate Inquiry from Dr Gabor Mate and Sat Dharam Kaur. She is trained to Level 1 in Internal Family Systems and is a Trauma Informed Coach (TICC). Matt is also a certified Trauma Informed Coach and has trained with the Polyvagal Institute. SHIFT will be co-ordinated by Miranda Keast who is also a certified Trauma Informed Coach and the programme will be supported by the wider MoH team.
If you have any questions on the programme please contact miranda@museumofhomelessness.org
FIND OUT MORE
Knowledge is survival
Life-affirming knowledge, skills, and power thrive in many communities facing marginalisation, oppression, and injustice. Knowledge is Survival, our summer 2024 workshop series, brought together six groups focused on creative defiance and resistance against challenges like insecure housing, homelessness, and criminalisation. Each workshop leader worked with the Museum of Homelessness to produce a pamphlet, now available online for download and sharing.
OUR ACTIONS
"It's really made me think about who I am. I always used to feel like a foreigner here, but now after this I’m thinking of myself as part of this community in the UK."
— Workshop Participant