Milestone for homeless charity
A Perth charity supporting homeless people is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Churches Action for the Homeless (CATH) will be marking the milestone later this month with a special open day at its Ladeside day centre on St Catherine’s Road on Friday, July 27.
The open day, which will run from 10am until 3pm, will have entertainment and games on offer, with visitors being given the opportunity to see what services the charity offers to the wider community.
Andrea Pullar, who is an adult literacy worker at CATH, said: “We are having our 25th anniversary celebrations for CATH this year to mark 25 years since we got charitable status.
“At the open day we will have entertainment, a raffle and games, and everyone is welcome to pop along.
“It will be really good because we want to engage the whole community and let them see what services we provide. It is not just for homeless people any more, we are for the whole community and we want everyone to have access to the day centre.
“We have a range of services at CATH, for example we do adult literacy groups and outdoor activities and we want people to have the opportunity to access that.
“And other organisations if they want a place to meet of an evening can book out our space, and we have a mini bus that people are welcome to book out as well. We have a small meeting room for appointments too.”
During the open day there will also be a charity raffle, and Andrea has been busy contacting local football clubs - including St Johnstone FC - to donate items. Local businesses are also welcome to make donations to the CATH raffle as well.
Andrea hopes the open day will be a good opportunity to promote their annual sleep out.
CATH’s annual sleepout takes
Some of the participants from last year’s CATH sleepout place each winter outside St John’s Kirk in Perth city centre, and looks to raise awareness of the plight of homelessness, as groups and individuals camp out on the cold street for the night.
Andrea continued: “We have confirmed the sleepout date which will be November 21 at St John’s Kirk from 7pm until 6am.
“If people are interested in taking part and putting a team together, they can contact myself or the day centre and we can send them out a pack for registration and such like.
“There were slightly more people at last year’s sleep out than our first year, so we want to get the word out about it sooner this year to get more people involved.
“All the money raised will go towards services for CATH, so all the money is getting ploughed back into the charity. It would be great to see a good crowd for the sleep out this year.”
Andrea Pullar can be contacted at the Ladeside day centre on 01738 633077.