“The homeless are still the priority, but each and every visitor to the Wellspring is an individual, with their own history and their own needs.”

Mr Andrew Ayres

Chairman

Every single person who suffers homelessness is an individual with an individual set of circumstances and needs. At The Wellspring we assess each and every case of homelessness. Over many years The Wellspring has built up a knowledge base of different ways of tackling homelessness and its root causes.

Homelessness has been increasing in Stockport every year for the last 10 years and we don’t envisage things changing anytime soon as further cuts to services and benefit reforms impact on people.

We are constantly looking at ways to improve and develop our services to offer a better service to anyone who finds themselves homeless or at risk of homelessness. The Wellspring is open 365 days a year and the staff team are always available and willing to support anyone with any issue.

Wellspring project staff offer a support planning service to everyone who is homeless. This is basically a tick list of what needs to be done by an individual to get back in to housing. We can then break each step down and set targets to tick each step off. The more an individual does to address their homelessness then the more chance they have of getting off the streets quickly.

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What causes homelessness?

Some people become homeless for absolutely no fault of their own, for other people homelessness is the result of their own poor choices. People are exactly that, people.

People make mistakes and poor choices and sometimes everyone needs to gain some positive direction to rebuild and undo damage that has been done by the poor choices we have made in the past.

Homelessness is a symptom of something else, it is the result of an individual mixture of many things, each case that we come across is different in some way. Many different things can cause homelessness.

Relationship breakdown tends to be one of the most common causes. But welfare cuts, financial hardship, unemployment, benefit changes, addictions, compulsions, criminality and behaviour can all be contributing factors, along with many others.

Do you need our help?

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some stories

  • I want to be free from this life. In the picture the handcuffs are beginning to come off. I have started to make better choices to be free of my old life, of prison and drugs. One day, when my children are old enough to come and find me I want to be clean from drugs and be able to explain to them what I’ve been through. I want a better life for them and for myself. I want a brighter future.

    Angel Delight

  • My art is important to me, it feeds my life.

    Bowden Wilde

  • I wanted to bring my dogs into my picture because my dogs Toby and Sindy, are my life. They sleep with me, they have a bath with me and sit on my knee when I’m watching telly. I decided to collect things from around my flat to put in the picture as well, it’s like bits and pieces from my life.

    Darren Jones

  • Coming here and going to church give me strenght. Wellspring is a comfort to me as I can talk to staff about anything. The staff are wonderfull and doing art work helps me feel more confident.

    Sandra Davies

  • I started coming to The Wellspring in March 2014. I was a broken woman who was physically and emotionally damaged by being in a violent relationship.  The Wellspring has helped me in every aspect of my life. I will always feel indebted to everyone at The Wellspring. Who have supported me on my journey and they still continue today. For all my support I have received I am so grateful for The Wellspring, especially the project workers.

    Jane

  • Making this picture brought back memories of fishing, it`s the only hobby I have. I can’t afford the bait, the licence and everything else. It`s the nearest I`ve got to the real thing for years!

    Ernie

  • I’m a complicated person because of my experiences, if someone was to take the time to figure out the pieces and sort them out they would realise they make quite a pretty picture. It’s also my interests, my skills, everything I do is like a jig- saw. My head’s like a jigsaw at night, creating, putting things together.

    Nathan Sassen

  • When I retired I thought I can’t just sit at home so I’ll try painting again. A friend of mine came here and he told me about the art class at The Wellspring, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’ve been coming here about 4 years now. I come here to paint; I like the atmosphere and the company. You get fed up staying at home.

    Jack Gorton

  • My picture is called The Brighter Side of Life. The past is disappearing, I don’t dwell on the past, what I’ve done, I’ve done. I’ve had one blip since I’ve come out of detox. It took time for me to get my head round the fact I’m not drinking.

    Stephen B
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