Ahead of our 50th anniversary, we have compiled a short questionaire for interested parties - former staff, service users and friends - to complete.

Click here for the questionaire!

On with the history lesson...

As in the 19th century, so in the 21st, Camberwell has plenty of the problems and human tragedies of the inner city.  St Giles Trust was founded in 1962 to meet those problems and improve the general quality of life.  We have changed dramatically over the years but our belief in the power of people to change remains at our core.  

The people we support have multiple problems such as homelessness, poverty, unemployment, mental or physical health problems, disability, poor basic skills and addiction.  People experiencing these issues frequently become caught up in the criminal justice system and our work has evolved over the years to help offenders resettle and rebuild their lives.

St Giles Trust began in 1962 as the ‘Camberwell Samaritans’ under the auspices of Fr. John Nicholls.  Fr. Nicholls was at that time also Chaplain of St Giles Hospital and had been “appalled by the number of patients admitted having attempted suicide.”  To address this, Fr. Nicholls suggested “the formation of a Trust, in the Parish of St. Giles, Camberwell… for the purpose of assisting persons suffering in soul, mind or body…”
The inaugural meeting held at St Giles Vicarage on 2nd February 1962 was attended by a diverse range of interested parties, organisations and individuals, from Group Capitan Leonard Cheshire V.C.; Mr Andrew Cruickshank (the original Dr. Finlay) ‘representing the theatre’; Dr. Felix Post, an eminent Viennese psychiatrist; the boxer and local celebrity Freddie Mills; solicitors, bank managers, Rotarians, assorted health practitioners and the Chief Welfare Officer for the West Indies.

Significantly, the meeting identified that most cases taken up at the Vicarage fell outside the remit of the State or that crossed multiple departments of the Welfare State.  This attribute of the Trust – bridging the gaps between State institutions and individual - remains a key aspect of our work.

By 1963 money had been raised to fund a full-time psychiatric social worker (paid £1,080 per annum) and to train 16 part-time volunteers.  The crypt of the church was cleared of coffins, which was then reopened by the Queen Mother as one of the first day-centres in London for single homeless people.  

In the first nine months of operation, the daycentre received 314 clients, of whom “…3% were potential suicides, 5% alcoholic, 3% homosexual and that most problems were social ones, including homelessness, financial and employment, many of the latter being unemployable through illness, or personality problems.”  

In addition to basics like food, showers, laundry and a few hours of safe warm haven from the streets, clients could receive housing advice and healthcare.  Our services grew over the next two decades to include refugee workers, a training team, drugs and alcohol advice, a dentist, optician, chiropodist and a district nurse, alongside mental health support and legal advice.  These services became particularly needed after Care in the Community closed large psychiatric hospitals and homelessness in the capital exploded in the 1980s.  

By this time, an average of 100 people a day visited the daycentre, which was more than the staff or the old, damp, cramped, dingy crypt could accommodate.  In the early 1990s plans were made to move to purpose-built facilities at Georgian House, just up the road.  The new centre was opened in 1995 by Prince Charles and remains our headquarters.  As well as housing advice, our work included help with training and employment support in a friendly, supportive environment specifically aimed at people who had multiple barriers to learning or accessing services.

Our work further evolved in the 1990s when we started a housing casework service in HMP Wandsworth to help stem the heavy flow of local prison leavers who presented to us in need of housing support.  The early 21st century marked a shift in our focus away from working with homeless people towards helping offenders resettle and change their lives.  This was brought about by duplication of services in the homelessness sector coupled with a strong link between homelessness and offending, compounded by an unmet level of need in this particular area.

We are now a mid-sized charity working in prisons across London, the south east, south west and East Anglia.  We also work in the community with ex-offenders and disadvantaged people.  We reach around 20,000 people a year.

Our aim is to create safer community by turning lives around and preventing the children of offenders from becoming the next generation involved in the criminal justice system.  The cornerstone of our work is putting offenders at the centre of the solution and believing they have the power to change, given the right support.

We offer practical support around housing, training and help entering the workforce – all factors that reduce the likelihood of someone re-offending.  We enable offenders who wish to change to become trained professionals, known as Peer Advisors, who provide support to others.

Our work has gained recognition and accolades, including two Charity Award wins, two Butler Trust wins, two Justice Award wins, Third Sector Magazine’s Most Innovative Charity and inclusion in the Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For in both 2009 and 2010.  As we approach our 50th birthday in 2012, St Giles Trust remains a local charity but with national ambitions.

We would be very pleased to speak with anyone who knew Fr. John Nicholls or who remembers St Giles Trust in the 1970s – please email alex.mochnacz@stgilestrust.org.uk