About Us

The Joel Community Trust

The churches in the Kingston Borough have a good record of investing in our local community. In 1993 the churches came together to set up Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness to provide services for single homeless people. In addition, St Peter’s has become a mini haven for a small group of homeless and vulnerable people who gather there and find some measure of refuge. There is a deep-seated need to provide a place to spend time during the day, more regular food, and opportunity to learn and grow, to build self-esteem and address all the underlying problems before they can start to navigate their way back into society. The Joel Community Trust (formerly St Peter’s Church Hall Trust) in partnership with KCAH have developed an exciting project where any homeless and vulnerable people in the borough can find shelter, food and friendship all on the same site at St Peter’s. Our ultimate aim is to ‘restore the years the locusts have eaten’ from Joel 2:25.

The Winter Night Shelter

Did you know that around 600 people are made homeless in our borough every year and more than 50 guests stay in the temporary winter night shelter in the coldest winter months as there is nowhere else for them to go? 14 borough churches offer hot nutritious food, washing and leisure facilities, a bed for the night, participation in the Befriending and Mentoring Scheme, health care and other support services.  

Although our project will be based at St Peter’s, the church-wide response that created KCAH and caused the Winter Night Shelter to be established will ensure that all churches can become actively involved all year round!

We are planning, in partnership with KCAH, to build a community based on the monastic values of hospitality and compassion on the site at St Peter’s, offering a whole range of services for homeless and vulnerable people. We will offer friendship, food and spiritual nurture, threapeutic activities and opportunities for learning new skills. The first stage of our project is to relocate KCAH.  The second will be building an adjacent sanctuary and centre for the delivery of pastoral care for the most needy.