About Us

OUR BACKGROUND AND MISSION

The Good Shepherd has a long history of supporting the most disadvantaged people in Wolverhampton and Christmas Eve 2022 marked the 50^th anniversary of the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd opening a night shelter in the city.

Our mission is to end homelessness, support recovery, and create pathways out of poverty. We achieve this by providing crisis support including food, practical support, and interventions to relieve homelessness, support to prevent people from becoming homeless and interventions and activities that support recovery from homelessness, mental health, and addiction.

We deliver services in a way that makes people feel valued and always try to hear their voice.

Our key strategic goals are:

1. To be a provider of quality care and support driven by our values

2. To be a trusted and responsible employer

3. To be an innovative and dynamic charity

4. To remain a strong and financially viable charity

OUR WORK

Wolverhampton is a diverse city, and we have people access our services from 61 different countries of origin. There’s a fantastic community spirit and sense of togetherness and we work closely with local partners from grassroots voluntary groups through to the local authority and statutory partners. Because we’ve been in the city for so long, we have an excellent relationship with the local community, charities, community groups, and the people that use our services.

Wolverhampton has real strengths, but it’s also a deprived city with high levels of poverty and inequality putting in the top 10% of deprived areas in England. Wolverhampton has some of the highest unemployment rates in the country with the youth unemployment rate almost double the national average. These challenges drive our work, and we support people who are marginalised and disadvantaged including people experiencing homelessness, poor mental health, migrants and new communities, unemployed/low incomes, families with support needs, and people with complex and multiple needs.

Since 2003 we have provided a regular food service in the city and, more recently, have expanded the support we offer to include a day centre, meaningful activity programme, Housing First service and private sector supported lettings scheme. We also host a multi-agency hub bringing together a wide range of agencies including health, education, training, and support services.

At the Good Shepherd our staff are trained in Psychologically Informed Environments and Trauma Informed Care. We value lived experience and believe everyone has the capacity to change and achieve their full potential.

We are passionate about collaboration and we are ambitious for the people that use our services.

WAYS TO SUPPORT OUR WORK

You can find out how to support our work HERE

OUR VALUES

Hospitality

Go the extra mile
Make people feel valued
Treat people with dignity and respect

Compassion

See and hear the person
No time limit to our services
Support people to gain a sense of purpose

Truth

Have Integrity
Live our values
Trust our service users and act in a way that encourages them to trust us

Respect

Value lived experience
Respect and learn from each other
Involve service users in decision making

Justice

Promote Equality
Be on our service user’s sides
Know and fight for people’s rights

OUR STAFF

Our dedicated and diverse team are vital to the services we offer. With their range of skills and experiences, each member contributes to the growth of Good Shepherd, whilst ensuring that our services are of the highest standard. We also value the importance of lived experience among our staff and over half of the workforce have personal experience of some of the issues faced by our service users.

Management Team

Tom Hayden – Chief Executive Officer

Helen Holloway –Business & Finance Manager

Lee Smith – Operations Manager

Surinder Kapur – Team Leader

Chris Cole – Project Manager

Lucy Cox – Project Manager (Food & Advice Service)

Lucie Tait-Harris – Project Manager (Cafe & Community Shop)

Support Team

Tina Lane – Senior Key Worker

Leon Barrett – Senior Key Worker

Paul Burns – Key Worker (Housing First)

Dawn Walls – Key Worker (Housing First)

Eve McCalla – Key Worker (Housing First)

Paul Berry – PR/Fundraising

Kate Penman – Key Worker

Karen Hancox – Volunteer Co-ordinator

Kath Flynn – Key Worker (Food & Advice Service)

Project Team

Louise Hand – Head Cook

Michael Collins – Project Worker

Admin Team

Gorn Graham – Administrator

Vicki Smallman – Administrator

Brothers of the Good Shepherd

It was back in 1972 that the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd first started helping people in Wolverhampton and we are delighted that the Brothers are still heavily involved with the charity in volunteering with both the food and support services.