Unsung heroes will be showing the true spirit of Christmas by helping others on Christmas Day. Volunteers giving up a traditional family Christmas for the good of the community include a Lincolnshire woman spending the day with young homeless people at a Blackburn shelter and a group of retired volunteers from Manchester serving food to local homeless people.

Rachel Beck, aged 21 from Stamford in Lincolnshire, volunteers full time through CSV at Nightsafe, a homeless shelter for young people in Blackburn. Rachel explains her reasons for volunteering: “Many of the young people who stay at Nightsafe have no one to celebrate Christmas with and as it is meant to be a time for ‘good will to all men’ I really wanted to show that I care by volunteering at the shelter rather than spending the day with my family.

“Working with homeless people has really challenged my perceptions. Homelessness has a stigma and it is easy to assume that homeless people are unwashed alcoholics but I have met some really bright and friendly people at the shelter. People become homeless for lots of reasons. Many of the young people have had family breakdowns and have no where else to stay. I myself was evicted at uni because I couldn’t afford my rent and if it wasn’t for the support of my friends I could have ended up homeless. But not everyone has such a good support network.”

Alex Highlands, volunteer organiser for CSV’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP) and his team of 60 volunteers will be travelling around the back streets of Greater Manchester on Christmas Day in a fleet of fast food vans to make sure that hot food gets to those people who won’t be celebrating Christmas with their families.

Alex, who also cooks most of the food, says: “We travel all over Manchester, Salford and Bolton and usually feed a good few hundred people. We will start late on Christmas Eve and will carry on into the small hours of Christmas day. Each year we are very lucky to have so many people willing to volunteer and so many local businesses happy to supply us with food, including Turkeys.”

Alex with the help of 200 RSVP volunteers have also prepared around 400 Christmas show boxes, stuffed with tins of food and little gifts, which will be given out to residents of 10 local nursing homes. Many of the recipients of the gift boxes don’t have families or ever receive visitors.

Elsewhere, underprivileged children in Halesowen will be receiving bikes on Christmas Day thanks to the efforts of CSV volunteers.

John Lane, 57, a volunteer project organiser for CSV’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP) and his team of four volunteers repair broken bicycles before finding them a new home. John has repaired over 60 bikes so far and has another 60 waiting attention. The bikes are also given to people who have had their bike stolen or need a bike to help improve their health. John says: “I am really pleased that the bikes are going to go to children who may otherwise not have too many presents this Christmas.”

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For further press information: CSV Press Office: Paul Donohoe 020 7812 0037/07779 624 385 pdonohoe@csv.org.uk or Jason Tanner on 020 7812 0038 jtanner@csv.org.uk

Notes for Editors

CSV (Community Service Volunteers) creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their communities through volunteering, training and community action. Last year 227,000 people gave 5 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV. CSV trains 12,705 people of all ages. www.csv.org.uk