St Mungo's
Leading homeless charity, St Mungo’s, offers support and care for over 1700 vulnerable men and women in over 100 housing projects across London and the south.
The Business Challenge
Homeless people have problems seeking jobs if they have no private telephone number. Potential employers and agencies need to be able to contact them with details of job interviews, often at short notice. Without regular access to telephone services they may miss important calls. In addition, they may not stand an equal chance against other candidates in the marketplace if potential employers know they are homeless and difficult to contact.
Solution
A partnership between London-based charity Tech4all, Resilient Networks and St Mungo's has brought about the launch of a new service called VoiceMail4All. This service gives London's homeless people their own 0203 telephone number which allows callers to leave voicemail messages and a freephone 0808 number for message retrieval. The service is available elsewhere in the UK including Leeds, Wakefield, Brighton and Medway.
Results
Having a private telephone number at which people can leave messages 24 hours a day allows homeless people to find jobs, stay in touch with family and friends, be contactable by resettlement workers and look for accommodation. They can register free of charge at St Mungo's projects or online via other homeless agencies and can retrieve their messages from any telephone line. By having a 0203 number they are removed from the stigma of being homeless and, unlike a mobile phone, it cannot be lost, stolen or run out of battery.
"VoiceMail4All helps me if there are urgent messages that I need to get, rather than waiting for a letter to arrive for appointments. I have recently moved into my new flat. Without VoiceMail4All it would have been very difficult to liaise with the agency who was helping me"
VoiceMail4All Client, Brighton.