St Giles Trust was founded in 1962 as The Camberwell Samaritans by Father John Nicholls, a local chaplain in Camberwell, south London.  Appalled at the level of poverty and distress in the local area, he recommended the offer of a service offering support to those suffering in ‘mind, body or soul’.  Our first ever recorded client was a suicidal young man called Harry, recently released from prison to find his wife had left and the bailiffs were knocking.  

Given the proximity of many workhouses for homeless men and mental health facilities, demand for our services grew rapidly.  The crypt of nearby St Giles Church was converted into one of the first ever day centres for single homeless people and opened by the Queen Mother in 1963.  As well as warmth, food, shelter and company, the centre evolved to offer housing casework and health advice for homeless people.

We remained based in the crypt throughout the 70s.  However, by the late 80s, a sharp increase in the number of homeless people in the capital meant that the cramped crypt was seeing over 100 clients a day.  Funds were generated to purchase nearby Georgian House and convert it into a large purpose built day centre offering extended services including housing casework, health care, dentistry, tenancy sustainment and training for homeless people.  It remains our head office to this day.

As our client number one Harry illustrates, St Giles Trust worked with homeless prison leavers from local prisons.  In the late 1990s, our work took an important turn when we established a housing casework service in HMP Wandsworth to help stem the flow of prison leavers presenting as homeless at the day centre.  The service became in heavy demand and to help address this unmet need, we started to train serving prisoners as advice workers able to provide a high quality service to their fellow inmates.

This work quickly flourished and expanded, marking our shift from local homelessness charity to one of the best known organisations offering support to ex-offenders.  The cornerstone of our work is using trained ex-offenders to offer services and support, using the benefit of their first-hand experiences to offer highly credible, trusted services.

Today, our services reach 15,000 people each year across England.  We have won many awards for our work and have been at the heart of new thinking in criminal justice approaches.  However, the story of Harry would still typically represent many of our clients today.  Whilst there are many more support services and resources to help the needy than in the early 60s, they do not always reach those who need them.  In a time of prevailing economic uncertainty, St Giles Trust will continue to help those at the bottom of the pile.