The Gatehouse is an open-door drop-in café for Oxford’s homeless and vulnerably housed, based at the St Giles Parish Rooms, 10 Woodstock Road, near the centre of Oxford.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic the last few months have been a period of considerable change for us, and our operating model will continue to adapt to changing conditions over the coming months. Having temporarily shut the drop-in centre for 3 months and run home food delivery and remote personal support services, we finally re-opened with a takeaway café at our centre in late June. This takeaway café service is likely to continue into 2021, until we are able to fully open up the centre safely again.

We are currently on the lookout for a limited number of volunteers to help us run our sessions, although for the time being it is likely that you would be placed on a listing for emergency cover rather than booking regular weekly sessions, as we are operating with a minimal number of helpers to keep the risk of Covid-19 transmission low. Each session takes up less than four hours of a volunteers’ time. If you would like a challenging experience where you can make a difference you can join our volunteer team by contacting us at admin@oxfordgatehouse.org  See oxfordgatehouse.org/volunteer for updates about volunteering.

We have an Autumn & Winter Appeal running from now until the end of March 2021, with a target of £20,000 to fund our two food provision services over that time. See our JustGiving page or read details of other ways to donate on the Donate Money page of our website. All donations, however large or small, are welcomed, and if you are able to help us promote our appeal via social media sites that would also help hugely.

More information about the Gatehouse can be found on the News page of our website where you can download a copy of our Autumn 2020 Newsletter. Check out our social media pages too.

In addition to our long running facebook page (oxfordgatehouse) we are also active on Twitter (@GatehouseOxford) and Instagram (thegatehouseoxford). Follow us on all of these sites to keep track of the latest news at the Gatehouse.

Find out more about The Gatehouse on College’s Univ in the Community page.

Published: 2 October 2020

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