CORONAVIRUS
BELIEVE IN BETTER
While having to close Build on Belief because of
coronavirus was like losing a limb, says Tim Sampey,
they’ll soon be back to doing what they do best
The BoB team: Finding other ways to stay connected
W
e never shut
Build on Belief
(BoB) services.
Never. We’re open
every weekend
of the year across London, the only
exception being if Christmas falls
over a weekend, and only then
because there’s no public transport.
We pride ourselves on always being
there – the one constant in the
lives of people for whom chaos
is so often the norm. Yet here we
are, closed for the first time in our
history. It’s like losing a limb.
One of the staff summed it up
best when she said, ‘I can’t believe
it. All those years of addiction and
living on the streets, our battles
through recovery and getting a job
with BoB, and we get taken down
by a sodding virus. It’s like living in
the War of the Worlds.’
It’s strange how you can
run into the law of unintended
consequences by sticking to
your ethical guns. We’ve always
been intensely proud of the fact
that everyone employed by BoB
volunteered for the charity first. That
for half of our staff this is their first
experience of paid employment.
When it became obvious that the
coronavirus was going to be more
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM
With a third of us
in self-isolation,
and the rest stuck
at home, what we
feel most right
now is guilt. What
about our homeless
clients?
than an inconvenience, we dug in
the medical histories of our staff.
Sixty per cent fell into the vulnerable
category, at serious risk were we
to contract the coronavirus. The
same weekend, we had a look at our
volunteers. It was even worse. We
were faced with a choice, knowing
we had no choice. We were going to
have to close.
Many of the staff and
volunteers didn’t want to. No one
raised the issue of their own health
or the potential risk they would
be taking. Instead they came up
with a raft of sweet, if impractical,
suggestions. ‘What if we only
let people in for ten minutes at
a time?’ ‘Couldn’t we limit the
numbers so everyone stayed six
feet apart?’ All unworkable, but
you had to admire their spirit. They
wanted to continue working.
All the staff were willing to go
and help our local service providers
stay open if they couldn’t run their
own services, although for many
either underlying health conditions
or lack of transport made it
impossible. They wanted to be busy,
to be doing something useful.
With a third of us in self-
isolation, and the rest stuck at
home, what we feel most right now
is guilt. What about our homeless
clients? Those whose substance
use means they are still living in
a whirlwind of chaos and daily
uncertainty? The socially awkward
and isolated who leave the house
just once a week to visit us? Those
living in bedsits, trapped in a single
room for the foreseeable future?
Those without access to the
internet and Netflix to alleviate the
boredom of being home all day?
The hungry? The lonely? We have
staff who want to do outreach,
staff who want to set up a new
food bank, and the answer is
always the same. No.
It’s heartbreaking. We are the
staff and volunteers of Build on
Belief. We’re not used to feeling
powerless. We’re used to finding
solutions and getting stuck into
a problem, not staring out of a
window and watching it pass us by.
We’ve managed to keep our two
existing food banks open, but it’s
hard to know for how long.
We’ve set up WhatsApp groups
for volunteer teams and the staff
(the staff one is hilarious) and are
trying to muddle our way through
the technicalities of Microsoft
Teams and Zoom so we can
communicate face to face and do
some online training. We update
our Facebook and Instagram feeds
daily and are working on recovery
stories and tips to post on our
website. We’re going to join the
digital world as best we can and
continue to look after each other.
Today we are glad it’s called Build
on Belief. We believe we will get
through this. We believe things will
get better. We believe that before
too long we will get back to doing
what we do best – helping those
who need it most. Build on Belief. It
does what it says on the tin.
APRIL 2020 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • 9