A campaign to stop people giving money to beggars in Bath is being relaunched today, Thursday 27th November, in a bid to address the ongoing problem of street begging in the City.
The “Your Kindness Can Kill” campaign, which was originally launched in May this year, has been created by the charities and support organisations in Bath who provide practical support for the homeless to help them promote the message that simply giving money directly to beggars does not help solve the problem and in many cases makes the problem worse.
To date the campaign has been successful in reducing the number of people begging on the streets as well as signposting services to those genuinely homeless however, at this time of year when people tend to be generous in their donations the group feels it is timely to remind people about their campaign.
Samantha Grief of The Big Issue Foundation said: “There is lots of practical support for people who are homeless in Bath and we are working together to reduce the problem.
“We have street pastors, outreach workers and the police proactively looking out for people who need support and making sure that anyone who finds themselves in this position knows where to go to find help as well as to stop people begging.”
Andrew Cooper, Chief Executive of the Bath Business Improvement District said: “At this time of year people do tend to give generously to charity and we are keen that we help the homeless support charities collect donations which help them operate a year round service.
“When we launched this campaign in May we had a really positive response, from the outreach workers, the police and the charities all reporting that the situation of people begging on the street had improved and more homeless people were engaged with the support groups.
“It seems appropriate now during this season of goodwill to raise awareness of the message once again to ensure the people most in need are helped.”
The group behind the campaign are DHI, Julian House, The Big Issue Foundation, The Genesis Trust, Bath & District Business Crime Reduction Partnership, The Reach Floating Support, Bath & North East Somerset Council, Avon & Somerset Police and the Bath BID company.
The group hope to encourage those who usually give money to beggars to donate responsibly instead by giving money to the organisations supporting the homeless in Bath using a text giving campaign.
To support the campaign please text the words KIND20 £3 to 70070, all monies raised will be shared equally between the local homeless support groups.
For more information about the campaign, see www.yourkindnesscankill.co.uk.
