St. Mungo's
London's leading homeless charity, St Mungo's, offers support and care for over 1400 vulnerable men and women in over 70 housing projects.
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, Evoxus, SmartNumbers and St Mungo's has brought about the launch of a new service called VoiceMail4All. This service gives London's homeless people their own 0208 telephone number which allows callers to leave voicemail messages and a freephone 0800 number for message retrieval.
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 0208 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.
"I was applying for a job and I was able to leave my own 0208 number on the application form - without that number, I would have had to have left the number for my key worker or the phone in the hall of my semi-independent house. This way, employers don't need to know that I am homeless - I feel like I stand an equal chance with any other candidate now. It also gave me greater control to receive my messages personally in my job search."
St Mungo's client, David Lightbody