Students and staff from the University of Lincoln have given up their time to give the Nomad Trust homeless shelter a fresh coat of paint.
As part of Make a Difference Day, around 10 volunteers repainted the outside of the Monks Road shelter on Tuesday, November 1st.
Another group of volunteers also helped staff from the Nomad Trust tidy the garden at their long stay shelter.
Jane Kilby, volunteering co-ordinator for Lincoln Students’ Union said: “We looked at all the organisations in the area looking for volunteers.”
“We thought the Nomad Trust was a worthy cause so I contacted their manager and she snapped my hand off.”
The Nomad Trust offers emergency shelter for anybody who finds themselves homeless. They also try to raise awareness of the severity of the homeless problem in Lincoln and work to remove the negative stigma surrounding it.
Brenda Sheils, services manager at The Nomad Trust said: “It was really nice to be selected by the students. The university has a really big impact on the city and it’s a great way to pass the word around about what we do.”
The theme of this year’s Make a Difference day was ‘combating community isolation’ and Sheils believes the volunteers achieved this on Tuesday.
She said: “The homeless really are isolated. Whatever we can do to improve their environment helps make them feel more valued whilst they stay here.”
The volunteers repainted the exterior walls of the shelter which Brenda said looked “quite weather beaten, tired and rough”. After the students work, she said the shelter “looks clean bright and cared for.”
Although the main aim was to make the shelter a nicer place to stay in, volunteering co-ordinator
Jane Kilby said that the day benefited students too. “There are lots of reasons why students volunteer”, she said. “It’s an ideal way of developing employability skills and try out a new career choice.”