Visiting

THE VISITING SCHEME

PHOTO GALLERY

It took years of prayer, discussion, and research before we finally got the Visiting Scheme off the ground. It was originally envisaged that volunteers would visit recently rehoused people in their bedsits/flats:

1. to give them something to look forward to

2. to act as a "safety valve" if problems arose

3. to serve as conduits to sources of medical, housing, benefits and other types of advice, if these were needed

However, with most of our original volunteers being female, and all of our original clients being male, we decided that home visits might be misconstrued. So we changed to meeting for a cheap and cheerful meal (all that ASLAN can afford!) in a café or a pub. We also decided to include rough sleepers as well as the recently rehoused in the scheme.

We meet with our "clients" for two hours (from 7.00 to 9.00 pm) every other Monday.

Prayer is at the heart of all that we do. Each client has a mini-team assigned to them, consisting of a visiting pair (ideally male & female) supported by a prayer partner who prays at home. The prayer partner gets a call from each of the visitors at the end of the visit, so that the visitors can "unload" and commit issues to prayer over the coming two weeks.

The full team also meets once every six weeks (on a non-visiting Monday) to discuss current issues and for an extended time of prayer.

As this work is both intense and challenging, we only accept volunteers with at least one year's experience in ASLAN, or who have prior experience of mentoring/counselling/working amongst the homeless.

Though the work is demanding and occasionally stressful, it is nonetheless hugely rewarding. We have seen people leave the streets for good. Others attend Christianity Explored or Alpha courses. Yet others take up new hobbies, new studies, even new careers.

In the Visiting Team, we feel we are on the "cutting edge" of helping people to become reconciled with their society and their God.

Due to the personal and confidential nature of our work in this area, photographs of the work are not appropriate. However, we show below a picture of the original Visiting Team at a team meeting in 2003

WANT TO READ MORE?

You can read Barry Jubraj's article on Page 4 of ASLAN News 2002 (I Have Gained More Than I Ever Gave) or Alison Fiddian-Green's article on Page 7 of ASLAN News 2003 (Slow and Steady Wins the Race)

click here for ASLAN News >>

HOW TO VOLUNTEER

Click below to fill in an online application form

click here >>

Or email our Project Support Manager

click here to email Claudia >>

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