Maidstone Christian Care has come a long way since Patricia McCabe and pupils of Maidstone Girls' Grammar School first started a soup run serving sandwiches and hot drinks from the boot of Pat's car. That was in 1986 when the Maidstone Round Table gave the group a grant of £500 to start a project for homeless people.
Over the next few years, alongside the soup runs, local churches offered the use of their premises so that on some days volunteers from MCC could provide hot meals for people in need. The United Reformed Church in Week Street was supportive from the beginning over the years before we had our own premises. Very early on Sunday mornings MCC Breakfast Volunteer Team, took over their kitchen and church hall to serve a proper cooked breakfast to the town's homeless men and women.
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For a number of years, over the Christmas period, the United Reformed Church became a shelter from the cold for rough sleepers. One hall was lined with beds made up on the floor and in the other the tables where hot meals were served. On The Day there was turkey, Christmas pudding, a brightly decorated tree and presents for everyone. Some people chatted or played board games, others just wanted to sleep, feeling safe and warm for a while.
Maidstone Christian Care had been registered as a charity (1048081) in 1989 and in 1995 became registered as a company limited by guarantee. A few months later the first Day Centre opened in a ground floor flat in Lenworth House and we were able expand our service to homeless and vulnerable men and women.
The Path to Lily Smith House
Around 9 years ago we were asked if we would run a new day centre which was to be built alongside a hostel in Knightrider Street. The project was unusual in that it would comprise a day centre and hostel on one site.It would be built on land owned by the national housing association, English Churches Housing with an initial grant of £2.2 million from the Government's Safer Communities Fund. Maidstone Borough Council, English Churches Housing and Maidstone Christian Care would become partners in the new venture
In a search carried out befor the work could start on the Knightrider Street site, archeologists unearthed some interesting historic find including medieval ditches dating back to the 13th and 14th centuryries. The project involved the refurbishment of a 15th century Grade 1 listed building and the construction of two new buildings, one four storeys high and the other two storeys. Work started early in 2003 and was completed at the end of July 2004 when we moved in.
The Lily Smith House complex comprises 30 rooms for single homeless people, 10 move on flats, 2 units which will provide emergency accommodation for families in crisis and of course the Day Centre. Whilst we are working in partnership with the hostel, MCC remains totally independent of the hostel and responsible for running and funding the new Maidstone Day Centre.
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