Sheffield charity seeks to raise awareness of dangers faced by homeless women with new campaign

The Her Street Life campaign is being run by Just Works - the Cathedral Archer Project’s partner social enterprise - which aims to raise awareness of the increased dangers homeless women face and the gender-specific hazards they encounter.

People are being encouraged to get involved by asking questions they may have about homeless women, and interviews will be conducted with service users themselves to answer the questions.

Social franchise and sales manager at Just Works, Daniela Orrego, said: “So far, we have received a great response from our community. We have a couple of flyers about this campaign on the Printed By us store in Meadowhall and people have been sending their questions to us.

“Myself, Danielle and Chris are interviewing people from our team that have experienced being a homeless woman, to answer public questions and raise awareness of what the homeless feel like as a woman.”

A recent survey by the homeless charity, Crisis, found that one in two current or recent rough sleepers had been intimidated or threatened with violence, and one in three had had things thrown at them.

It is also a worrying concern that the life expectancy of rough sleepers is just 45 for men and 43 for women.

Exposure to cold weather, hunger, illness and increasing stigmatisation is only adding to the problems faced by homeless people, with figures of rough sleepers increasing year on year.

The #herstreetlife campaign wants to share the stories of those with lived experiences to ensure authenticity.

Danielle and Chris are leading on the campaign and have first hand experience of homelessness themselves, like many of their fellow colleagues.

Just Works employs people who are recovering from homelessness and other difficult circumstances and they are paid the real living wage.

The Cathedral Archer Project offers a range of services to the city’s homeless people, from a hot meal to washing facilities to longer term emotional support.

Questions can be submitted by scanning the QR code on the flyer.

For more information, visit here.