FOR REFERRERS
The Areas that We Cover
We cover Guildford, Godalming, Farnham, Aldershot, Ash and the villages around Guildford.
Outside of these areas, within half an hour drive of Guildford, we will do what we can.
"Families who are struggling financially have found
the support of The Besom make a massive differences to their day to day lives and the environment they can provide for their children."
"It helps them to feel they have some control back over their situation and gives them a sense of pride that they can provide their families with the essentials needed."
Home School Link worker, Guildford
The Things that We Do
We are offered a wide range of items, and groups from local churches often offer their time. So we are able to offer a wide range of services which are listed below:
Household Items
We are able to take good quality furniture, white goods, kitchen items, duvet based bedding, curtains and TVs.
All furnishings, sofas and mattresses require a Fire Safety label. We are able to take electrical items and PAT test them before giving them.
We can only accept used furniture and
white goods that are of good quality, in
good condition and clean (not stained).
If we are unable to accept your furniture,
a number of other charities, may be able
to help.
Starter Packs
These consist of essential kitchen items, such as cutlery, crockery, a kettle, toaster, kitchen utensils, pots and pans, and cleaning products
Christmas Hampers and Toys
Imagine Christmas without presents, decorations, or special food: this is a reality for many people today.
At Christmas time we love to give away luxury Christmas Hampers and good quality toys to those we have met.
If you or a group you are part of would like to put together a Christmas Hamper, please do get in touch and we can send you a leaflet.
Clothes
We are able to accept Adult's Clothes and Children’s Clothes for under 5s.
Emergency Food Packs
These packs include essential foods items, toiletry products, cleaning products and sanitary items
Baby Items
We are able to give baby items such as cots and pushchairs.
Decorating and Gardening
Groups from local Churches are able to offer time wanting to give to their local community. They are able to help with painting and decorating and with gardening or garden clearance.
This is often at a weekend. Besom has decorating and gardening equipment and a transit van, and is able to provide a free service.
Special Skills
We are sometimes able to help with specialised activities such as fencing, putting up curtain rails, plumbing or even providing a cooked meal for someone.
However, this is dependent on those offering.
Everything we provide is free.
If you contact us then we will arrange to meet at your client's house for an assessment and, once you and your client are happy, we will take the next steps (see below for the Referral Process).
Contact us via email info@guildfordbesom.com or phone 07929 037101
The Referral Process
Step 1 Referral
We require a referral for all those that we help. The Referral must come from a Professional who will contact us by email or phone directly to inform us of someone who needs either decorating or gardening, furniture or other household items.
Note that we only accept referrals from a Professional person and not from the person being helped.
Step 2 Visit
For Group Activities, initially we meet with the Professional and the Client to see what work needs to be completed.
We sometimes perform a home visit to assess what items are needed, but this is normally done over the phone or by email.
When visiting clients we have a policy to not visit alone and may ask the Referrer to attend initial meetings.
Note: We provide the paint and all the equipment to our teams and all our services are completely free to your Clients.
Step 3 Organise (Group activities only)
Next, we search through the list of groups from Churches who have offered their time to match them up to the Referral.
Step 4 Action
For Group Activities, the group comes for a day, usually on a weekend, and carries out the work. For delivery of household items our van/car team delivers the items as they become available.
Instructions for Applications
1. Please check the postcode of your client in order to make sure that it is within the area that Besom covers.
2. Please send the details of the individual or family by email (encrypted where possible using Egress), if you can. The information that we need is:
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Name
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Address
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Phone number
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Items needed
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Work needed
Any risks that may be present (please assess the risk as far as possible before you contact us).
We don't need to know the background to the client’s situation and why they need the items.