What we do
The Marie Trust has been responding to the complex and often challenging needs of people affected by homelessness, poverty, and social exclusion since 2009. We place primary value on respecting the dignity of every person who uses our services and aim to help them improve their quality of life in a more resourceful, fulfilling, and sustainable manner.
We do this through building trust and doing what we say we will do and following it through. Conscious that the vulnerable people we support often have experienced historical trauma and rooflessness and where trust, honesty and realistic expectation are vitally important in what support we can and cannot provide, and where we will refer to a more specialised service if we cannot meet the needs someone urgently requires.
How we help
We deliver a wide range of services specifically aimed at supporting homeless or at-risk individuals to access the immediate support they need but most importantly offering routes out of homelessness through our provision of services;
Crisis Intervention Services – Mitigating immediate risk for people who are presenting in distressing situations and require assistance to support their wellbeing, addiction, multiple complex needs and housing. We provide immediate and long-term advocacy, information, support and referral for a wide range of issues: housing, benefits, poverty, addiction and mental health concerns and alleviating homelessness crisis.
Counselling – A psychodynamic counselling approach working with issues related to past trauma and the impact that these can continue to have in the present. We deliver this service at homeless day centres and homeless accommodations to widen accessibility to counselling which often prevents barriers for people to access through traditional NHS routes.
Education - Providing a community curriculum to widen access to education, qualifications and a route out of homelessness. We have formal partnerships with Glasgow Colleges where we deliver accredited expressive art and social subjects programs enabling a smoother transition into mainstream education.
Volunteering - Training kitchen provides real-life work experience and preparation for work and longer-term volunteering. Importantly the project provides opportunities to develop life skills; cooking skills, teamwork, time keeping, giving people a sense of purpose and structure to their week and often developing friendships through being involved and part of a team.
Healthy Living Cafe – Healthy, homemade nutritious food cooked by our Head Chef and volunteering in our training kitchen.