Initiative helps homeless people stay in touch

London-based homeless charity St Mungo’s and charity Tech4All are celebrating the 1,000th client to benefit from the Voicemail4All service for the homeless.

The service offers homeless men and women a free personal landline number and voicemail so they can stay in touch with their family and improve their chances of employment with a contact number for potential employers to contact them on.

Charles Fraser, CEO of London homeless charity St Mungo’s and Giles Keating Chair of Trustees for the charity Tech4All will present the 1000th voicemail4All client with a certificate on June 7.

Steve Morgan, a Voicemail4All service user, said: “St Mungo’s and Voicemail4All was a real lifeline to me. I was sleeping rough on the streets of London and I had nothing. I was invisible to the world and I didn’t know where to turn. I didn’t have an address or a phone number so no one could contact me to give me help or advice. You can’t get a job either.

"I got a number from voicemail4all as soon as I heard about it. The voicemail service can’t be lost or stolen like a mobile can and it doesn’t run out of credit! Within weeks of getting my number I started getting interviews and then I got a job. Voicemail4All helped me move on with my life.”

Giles Keating, Chair of Trustees at Tech4All, said: “Voicemail4all is a ground-breaking initiative, which is having a profound impact on the lives of the homeless, empowering them with the key tool they need to connect with mainstream society. It is a simple, easy, cost-free way for people to communicate with potential employers, family, friends, and the key services they depend on for housing, medical care and so on.

"The freedom to have that option to make contact is always there, and access to a private landline number gives a reassuring sense of stability to the user and to the people they need to interact with. Hence the popularity and growing demand for this service, which is now available via centres serving the homeless across London, with plans for a roll-out across the UK if funding can be obtained.”

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