Our crisis intervention team is the beating heart of The Brick Project, the team is made up of core staff and dedicated volunteers.

We offer the opportunity for people in distress to seek advice and support. Our team is there for those vulnerable people; facing homelessness or suffering from emotional distress or financial hardship.

The Outreach Team are out in the community across Wigan Borough offering support to those who need it 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Our aim is to eradicate and prevent rough sleeping by offering support to those who are often the most deeply excluded people in our community. We offer support to people who are either rough sleeping, living in a squat or at risk of becoming homeless. Every day we respond to rough sleeper reports which come to us either from the general public or from our contacts at the council. We also work with local businesses who contact us when they are concerned about an individual who is either rough sleeping or begging. When this happens, the team are on hand to respond the same day to offer our support.

Every day, we complete our early morning checks across the borough. When we come across someone rough sleeping, we aim to provide them with options so that they do not have to sleep out another night. We believe that the first step is crucial and this is to support people off the streets and into a safer place where they can begin to turn their lives around with the support they need.

We also work in partnership with other services including drug and alcohol teams, health (and mental health) services, housing and benefits teams, police, probation and prison services, Local Authority and re-connection services.

Another important part of the Outreach service is to encourage people to engage more in the community. We support people with barriers such as setting up bank accounts, problems with benefit claims, ID, food parcel and clothing referrals, referring people to other services (such as the mental health team, GP’s, Social Workers, Complex Dependency Workers, drug and alcohol services). This is part of our enhanced Outreach service.

The Outreach Team are proactive and persistent and do not give up on anybody. We understand that the reasons that lead to someone rough sleeping can be very complex and difficult to deal with. We also believe that with the right support in place people can always find a way out of a very difficult situation.

Jono, 37
“I came to England from New Zealand 12 years ago to find my birth Father – but that did not work out. I decided to stay and started to DJ and worked as an event organiser, got married and had children.

When we split up my mental health worsened and there were issues that I had not dealt with. Now the staff at The Brick have helped me get my life back on track and my wife and I are rebuilding our relationship. I have way to go – but I am getting there.”