Filling Station

The Filling Station is an initiative to help the homeless in Swindon that has been running for many years.  Currently a team of volunteers with the aid of their trusty Ford Transit van go into Swindon town centre every Thursday and set up their ‘soup kitchen’ in a local car park.  This team serve soup, hot and cold drinks, hotdogs, and a variety of cakes and biscuits, while building relationships an just taking to the people who come along.  In addition to this the team are able to hand out to each attendee a ‘care package’ which contains a variety of basic essentials, from toothbrushes to blankets, that help them get through the week.  This service is supported by local homeless housing centres, such as Threshold Housing, who provide us with outreach workers that can act as a connection and valuable source of information to the support systems that exist for the homeless within Swindon .  Recently Filling Station have also been provided with Drugs Abuse outreach workers, which again are an invaluable resource to some of Swindon ’s most vulnerable people.    

Towards the end of March we are looking to launch a parallel evening which will take place on a Tuesday night from 7pm to 8.30pm.  In addition to the aforementioned services that are currently offered we hope to have the support of a local NHS Drop-In Centre, which will open for 2 hours outside of their normal operating times to provide basic levels of medical care and assistance to our customers.  This is an exciting new development as it will allow us to provide a holistic service that meets the real needs of those we meet on the street.    

Watch this space for more information.