You Are Not Alone

Introduction When news of Covid 19 broke I was busy working to help those affected by homelessness, running the largest day centre in Bristol (The Bristol Methodist Centre). We watched the news closely, trying to keep abreast of everything that was happening, whilst also trying to keep the valued services we offer our guests running for as long as possible – observing all the daily updates and evolving guidelines of how the government wanted us – and everyone else – to proceed. At the Methodist Centre we offer a service that runs from Monday – Thursday where our guests can access hot showers, clothing, breakfast, lunch, computers, games, films, books, a health clinic and much much more. It’s a valued place they can regularly visit and receive the help they need, whilst also enjoying the company and companionship we proudly foster – it’s one of the only safe environments they have in Bristol – and devastatingly, soon, we would have to close our doors. We continued to run our service for as long as we could, but with the introduction of social distancing and the difficulties that arose from implementing these new measures, it became very difficult to cope. Our main priority was to keep our guests safe (we have a daily average of 120 guests), but social distancing also meant that our donations (both monetary and food etc) stopped. The Methodist Centre is not funded by the council or any other external funding and the work we do is supported only by donations – which had plummeted to zero. As a result, I set up a small crowdfunding page to help fund the ongoing support service we were planning to offer. I’d decided to open the centre for two days a week during the pandemic (a door only policy) – where we would continue to offer freshly prepared hot food, clothing, toiletries, sleeping bags, tents and other much needed items to those affected by homelessness. It was during this time that Adrian J Walker (author of The End of The World Running Club and a friend of STORGY) contacted me; he’d donated to the crowdfunding campaign and asked if we were planning anything else to raise further funds for homeless people and if the writing community could help in any way? At the time I had no plans for what would soon evolve into You Are Not Alone – and a huge proportion of thanks goes to Adrian in encouraging us to curate and publish this anthology, where all proceeds will be equally divided among trusted charities which help support the most vulnerable within our communities (The Big Issue Foundation (registered charity number 1049077), Centrepoint (292411), Shelter (263710), and The Bristol Methodist Centre (1150295)). Myself and Adrian contacted a bunch of exciting writers we knew and things soon began to snowball – authors wanted to be involved and were only too willing to offer their support and stories. You Are Not Alone is an anthology that’s sole purpose is to help those who have been (in my opinion) largely overlooked during this crisis, those who have been left without a voice – with You Are Not Alone we want everyone affected by homelessness to know; You Are Not Alone - we see you, we hear you, and we want to help. Your voices are important, and above anything else, we care. Huge thanks goes to everyone that has donated their time to this project. From the cover design by Stuart Bache, to all the authors who are included in the anthology; Gemma Amor, Susmita Bhattacharya, Astra Bloom, S. J. Budd, Colin Burnett, Joanna Campbell, Heather Child, JL Corbett, KM Elkes, Maria J Estrada, Tracy Fahey, Kathy Fish, Sian Hughes, Jason Jackson, Ross Jeffery, B. F. Jones, Andrew Leach, Tim Lebbon, Toby Litt, Adam Lock, Tomas Marcantonio, Carmen Marcus, Roger McKnight, Sherry Morris, Benjamin Myers, Hannah Persaud, Rahul Raina, Johanna Robinson, James Sale, Joseph Sale, Anthony Self, Rachael Smart, Daniel Soule, Christopher Stanley, Hannah Storm, Rob Teun, Steve Stred, Stuart Turton, Adrian J Walker, Danie Ware, Aaron White, Rick White, James Woolf – thank you for answering our call! I thank you all – we – thank you all. STORGY has long been a home for authors from across the world and we will forever be humbled by the outpouring of support we received for this special book. We could not have done this without you. Thank you. This book is also dedicated to lost loved ones. You will never be forgotten … You Are Not Alone. Ross Jeffery