Donations

As a charity, we are always looking for donations and we use them in various ways:

• Small donations of just a few pounds can help a client who has lost everything, arriving in treatment with just the clothes they stand up in, to buy themselves a couple of changes of clothes from a charity shop. This helps with their self esteem and self worth as well as their ability to keep clean.
• Another use for small donations is to support the football teams. In football, each player has to pay a subscription each week to play, this covers pitch hire, laundry, medical kit, referee fees and the administration of the team. For people in treatment although we are only talking about £4 to £5, this can be prohibitive as they have a personal allowance of just £17.50 to spend on personal items, such as shampoos, soap, razors, stamps, etc., this amount is set down by the DSS. StreetScene supports the team with their kits and equipment, but the Subs can be a problem.
• For fishing, although we have rods, reels and such like there is the cost of permits to fish and bait.
• The gardens are an area we are always looking to improve. All our buildings have grounds which lead onto the road and we like to keep up appearances not only for the sake of our clients and visitors but also for the sake of our neighbours. Allington House has repeatedly won prizes in the Bournemouth in Bloom competition and we would like to keep this up. How we present to the world is important, it shows that we are part of the community rather than apart from it. Money for the gardens is spent on such things as getting good shrubs, garden furniture, garden equipment and summer annuals and any size donation helps.
• For the projects themselves, one of our biggest problems is that of the décor. The houses are used by large numbers of people continuously and the paint work only looks good for a year or two. It's a bit like painting the Fourth Bridge as soon as it's all done you need to start at the beginning again. Each bedroom or bathroom costs around £100 to paint and we have 61 client bedrooms and 16 bath/shower rooms in total, communal areas are usually around twice that.

We do not take any administrative money from donations, the cost of our administration is already covered, so every penny you donate will go to the area of the charity's work you want it to go to.

If you feel you would like to make a donation to our work there are several ways to do it:

• You can email tim@streetscener.org.uk who can send you a 'tax payer declaration' which, if signed and returned with a donation means we can claim back the basic rate tax you paid on the money.
• You post a donation to Tim Howson-Green, Administration Office, StreetScene, PO box 6037, Westbourne, Bournemouth, BH4 0AG.
• You can make a donation online via www.cafonline.org

Further important information for donors:

• If you do donate to us, we don't retain your details, or put you on any mailing list, or give you details to any other party.
• In fact you don't have to give us any personal details at all, unless you want a receipt.
• If you want the money to be used in a certain way and want to donate on line please email tim@streetscener.org.uk to ensure that your money is used in the way you want, as CAF may not give us your expressed wishes.
• Any money which comes in which hasn't been earmarked by the donor will go towards whichever of the above items most need funds at the time of receipt.
• If you have any questions at all about donating to our work, please email info@streetscene.org.uk and we will provide the answer.