Vital phone service for homeless people signs up 2,000th caller

Many of us could not live without a mobile – but if you are homeless and trying to find a place to live, make appointments and find work, a telephone is vital.

John feels he would not have found a job as an accountant without his VoiceMail4All number.

He explained: “Most employers want to know your landline so having a number to put on my CV has been very useful. Most employers ring the landline first before calling the mobile. They do often leave messages.”

That is the value of VoiceMail4All - a free service provided by London’s largest homeless charity, St Mungo’s, on behalf of Tech4all, the charity dedicated to using technology to fight poverty.

The service offers a free 0208 voicemail number to anyone who does not have a permanent place to stay and who does not have their own telephone number.

The 0208 number also comes with its own 0800 message retrieval number, meaning people can pick up messages free from any phone box or landline.

John is just one of more than 700 homeless people in London who used the VoiceMail4All service in 2008, three years after its launch. People have used the voicemail boxes to help them find accommodation, hear from GPs or lawyers, re-establish family relationships, set up businesses or organise appointments with support workers.

Now VoiceMail4All has celebrated signing up its 2,000th client with an event at the Spires Centre for homeless people in Tooting Bec, where a number of individuals have registered for the service.

Lucy, a VoiceMail4All volunteer who lives in Balham, has been going to the Spires Centre to offer VoiceMail4All numbers for two years.

It was during a recent visit that she registered the 2000th client in a group of seven people she signed up in one afternoon.

She said: “I became a volunteer for VoiceMail4All as I wanted to be able to offer vulnerable people something that would make a tangible difference in their lives.

"VoiceMail4All does just that. It gives me a reason to approach and speak to people and find out a little more about the issues they face. I feel I am directly helping people and have a sense of achievement every time someone takes up the service.  It’s also a reality check - it makes me more aware of what’s going on around me.”

Charles Fraser, Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said: “Having a phone number can make a huge difference in rebuilding relationships, finding a home, keeping hospital or doctor’s appointments, even getting a job or not.

"Since its launch in 2005 VoiceMail4All has become part of the fabric of homeless provision in London. We are very pleased to be working with organisations such as Spires to offer such an invaluable tool to over 2,000 people. We are proud of this achievement.”

Giles Keating is Chair of Trustees of Tech4all and winner of the 2007-8 City of London Volunteer of the Year Dragon Award for his work with VoiceMail4All.

He said: “At Tech4all, we invented VoiceMail4All as a way of providing a digital home base for homeless people, providing a fixed point of contact with employers, social services and housing agencies as well as friends and family.

"We are delighted that 2,000 people have now benefited from this service, which is possible only thanks to the collaboration and help from our many partners and volunteers.

"Part of our motivation for continuing to press for this service comes from the wonderful testimonies we hear about how VoiceMail4All has positively impacted people’s lives.”

VoiceMail4All has traditionally been funded by donations from a number of generous charitable, corporate, individual and statutory donors. These sources, however, do not cover the full cost of operating the service, meaning that a subscription model is being introduced whereby partner projects, such as Spires, will make a contribution to overall costs.

Patrick McCabe, Deputy Manager of Spires, said: “We know the value of this service to those people we’re trying to help and we really want to continue to support it.

"The reality is, however, that there’s always a call on our resources. Our aim would be to continue to help support VoiceMail4All as long as we can.”