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The Soap Box is a charity based in Worthing, West Sussex, which aims to provide basic essential toiletries and baby care items to people who suddenly find themselves in crisis situations and who are in desperate need of help. These people have accommodation, albeit often temporary, but are waiting for their benefits to be awarded. Our aim is to help them during this time, which currently could be anything from 3 days - 6 weeks.It is hard to imagine someone in this day and age having literally nothing with which to look after themselves whilst not actually homeless. The reality is that there are people in desperate need among us. Just one example of a typical short-term crisis is a mum with her two young children who have had to leave their home because of domestic violence. They have got no money, only the clothes they are standing up in.
There are also families who, in the current economic climate, find themselves in real financial difficulties and have to spend the money they have on mortgages or rent in order to stay housed and so have nothing left for basics. Also people with alcohol or drug problems and ex-offenders who are trying their best, with help, to reintegrate into society are among the people who will benefit from the generosity of others, through The Soap Box, and will be so grateful for the means to maintain their basic hygiene and dignity.
Social services will put people into temporary accommodation but then they have to wait for benefits to be awarded. Typically this takes a minimum of three days, sometimes much, much longer. This is where The Soap box steps in to give the care needed to bridge this gap in a practical way.
Worthing Food Bank provides a three day food supply for people in short term crisis, while various agencies help them in the long term. The Soap box is going to extend this help by distributing essential toiletries and baby care items to those in desperate need. This will be at the request of social workers and other local support groups. We are a separate organisation, not part of The Food Bank, but they have kindly given us some storage space and will initially distribute for us from their base in the Welcome In Cafe in Crescent Road, Worthing. We are also supported by Queen Street Fellowship.
To be able to provide this help we need to have stocks of basic essentials. Please see the ‘Shopping List’ for a comprehensive list of the items we need and, if you feel you can donate anything at all, we would be extremely grateful for your help, as would the people in need.
These gifts from the community show the people needing our help that there are a lot of other people out there thinking of them and caring for them, this means such a lot.