What is the Oxfordshire Rough Sleeping Charter?
It is a partnership of the many organisations working within Oxfordshire to end rough sleeping for good.
“To ensure that nobody sleeps rough on our streets of Oxfordshire.”
The Charter was co-created by the Oxfordshire Homeless Movement and Oxford’s homelessness agencies, charities, voluntary organisations and Oxford City Council and anyone can sign up to the charter on the Oxford Homeless Movement website.
Homelessness will only be solved with multi-agency collaboration. Within the Charter, there are some guiding principles about how to approach issues relating to rough sleeping and supporting those affected by it.
One of the guiding principles is to ensure that people who experience rough sleeping are given the same opportunities as others to access information, work, training, volunteering, leisure and creative activities as the rest of Oxford’s community. At Homeless Oxfordshire, this is what we strive to do. Thanks to the help of our donors, partners and supporters, we are able to give tailored development opportunities to the clients we work with.
With a truly collaborative approach with other agencies in Oxford, the issue of homelessness will continue to remain present on the political agenda and it will help to educate and inform residents and businesses within Oxfordshire. Raising community awareness and understanding of rough sleeping and homelessness will lead to more funding, thus helping us to find lasting solutions.
Ultimately, the Charter exists to reinforce the messaging, expertise and work of individuals and groups so that we can adopt a combined and united approach to ending homelessness. Homeless Oxfordshire has been around for 30 years and has a strong presence in our area and we are delighted to work with other agencies who share the common goal of making homelessness a thing of the past.