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Cornwall Museums Partnership

#RDNetwork: Homelessness in Rural Communities

During 2020 the Cornwall Museums Partnership Twitter page will be handing the reigns over each month to local organisations, who will be guest hosting our Rural Diversity Networking hour; #RDNetwork. 

In February, St. Petrocs kindly took over our Twitter page to discuss homelessness within rural communities. Please continue reading to hear all about their experience of our #RDNetwork Twitter Takeover…

We were invited to take part in the Rural Diversity Network Twitter Takeover on 24th February. What a different place the world was then! We were staggered by the level of engagement in the event which opened links from the length and breadth of the country. Those links and the interactions which took place are as relevant now though as they were then. In fact, never has there been a time in which collaboration has been so important.

We are incredibly grateful to be asked to take part and hope that we can continue to engage in such supportive relationships. We also hope that communicating some of our own experiences may be of some use to others.

The questions we asked were: –

  1. What do you think the arts & culture can offer people experiencing homelessness?
  2. Are there any local examples of museums working with people who have experienced homelessness, or any other out of County examples that could be applied in Cornwall?
  3. We really want to know what role should museums and galleries play in tackling homelessness?
  4. What kinds of activities would you like to see museums engaged in to tackle homelessness?

As an organisation which gives support to homeless people throughout Cornwall, museums have proved to be an asset to the work we do. Support for those sleeping rough, and for residents in our supported accommodation has been forthcoming both from an organisational perspective, and on a client by client basis, which assists individuals to progress in their interests and their progression towards a stable and settled life. It is only when people have ambition to pursue personal or professional interests that they can start to focus positively on their future. Museums can do this for many of our clients, and we are fascinated by the way that looking at the past can help people develop their futures. CMP makes that relationship stronger.

Jess Rawlings from St Petrocs took over the Cornwall Museums Partnership Twitter profile for St Petrocs.

‘’We had an incredible response on the night of our takeover, it was a fierce hour of tweets, at points I was struggling to keep up with the notifications! The whole thread was absolutely bursting with positivity, kindness, knowledge, and fantastic examples of things that have been happening both in the past and planned for the future across the Country. It was a really fast way of discovering relevant information, new opportunities and making connections and I am so grateful that we were invited to be a part of it’’

 

On the night we had organisations such as the Museum of Homelessness, who offered great insights and suggestions.

Other organisations were taking part, such as the Falmouth Art Gallery, Penlee House Gallery and Museum and the Curator of the Workhouse, Courthouse & Prison & Police Museums also joined the conversations across the hour.

Not only were great suggestions shared but also offers of support for future work.

We would like to thank everyone who joined the conversation and made it a truly informative evening, and most importantly thank you to the Cornwall Museums Partnership for inviting us to host the hour.

-St. Petrocs

St. Petrocs’ ambition is to end street homelessness in Cornwall. They provide accommodation, support, advice, training and resettlement services to single homeless people in Cornwall and strive to provide the best quality of service possible to those people, aged 16–65, who find themselves homeless and for whom no provision is made within the community, either statutory or otherwise.

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