'Something that I should have been doing for years' : The story behind Chester's SHARE
It is September 2015. Images of a two-year-old refugee who has just washed up on a beach, are plastered over a Chester businessman's television.
His body is pictured lying face down on the sand, dressed in a red shirt and velcro shoes.
The conflict in Syria had caused many refugees to flee the country, making impossibly dangerous journeys via small boats.
The images of young Alan Kurdi on the screen terrified Adam Dandy.
He looked at his own son, a similar age to the young boy, and knew he had to do something to help.
"That was the trigger point", Adam told me, as we sat in Chester's Shareshac, a day centre for people getting off the streets.
Since that point, he has founded a charity shop in Chester city centre, which raises vital funds for the Shareshac and a voluntary-led warehouse in Mold, both supporting the homeless and refugees oversees.
Adam told Chester Nub News about the journey from that moment in 2015, and how a desire to do something, inspired a much bigger project.
A small team including co-founders, Monica Hogg and Louise Edwards, had put out pleas over social media for warm clothes.
Using empty shipping containers from his business's Sealand farm, they began sending off large quantities of donations to Leros.
The operation snowballed, eventually leading Adam to form a registered charity, in order to take over a derelict warehouse in Flint.
This meant they could properly store and sort through the donations being sent in.
He added: "Within two weeks we filled it with everything from toiletries to boots, to coats and camping equipment.
"We were able to get local businesses in Flintshire and Chester to sponsor each pallet, plastered their company logos on them and shipped out multiple truckloads to Greece.
"We flew out volunteers from Chester and North Wales to meet the aid when it was being delivered and help unpack it all.
"They also fed-back to everybody here: what was required, if it was working, what wasn't working and if we were doing the right thing."
Share also helped to send almost 200 truckloads of aid to refugees in Ukraine.
However, fingers began pointing to the issues facing people back home, on Chester's own streets.
Adam knew that he had to listen to the criticism and look at it differently.
Comparing the plight of refugees seeking a place to call home, to Chester's issue of homelessness, Adam said: "People on the streets have got the same need: they're all homeless and they're looking for a safe place to live."
From this point, the acronym, SHARE, came alive: Supporting Homeless Assisting Refugees Everywhere.
Leaving two of the founders to manage the aid warehouse and operations in Greece, he decided to set up a charity shop in Chester, in a bid to generate enough income to support people in the city, whilst continuing the project abroad.
Soon enough, the Shareshop was born. He described it as a 'quirky' charity shop, which operated in the conventional sense, along with a café.
Explaining the concept, he said: "You're selling things to raise the money but under the same roof, people are also coming in who've slept on the streets."
The charity was designed with connection between the donator and the person receiving the aid in mind, it was to be transparent and traceable.
He said: "Ultimately, that money might be funding a CEO in London in an office on a quarter of a million quid a year. If we were going to do a charity, I wanted it to be run on a shoestring.
"I didn't want any unnecessary expenses whatsoever.
"I wanted as few paid members of staff as possible and I wanted the person who was making the donation to feel like they had a connection with the person who was receiving it."
Recently, SHARE launched a sponsor a bed for the night campaign, where local hotels provide heavily discounted rates for people to donate an overnight stay.
It enables the team to find people sleeping rough and walk them into a hotel for a few nights.
Adam said: "The best thing about it is it allows us to get people's trust and hopefully they will come and see us the next day and we can try to work through with them a solution.
"Nine times out of ten, they've got the right to services: they just don't know what the services are, or what they're entitled to.
"What we realised quite early on was we need more available properties in Chester. So we launched a buy a brick campaign.
"If you've got an addiction and you're also paying off a debt, you're in a vicious circle that really prevents you from taking an accommodation that's often in Ellesmere Port.
"If you went to beg in Ellesmere Port, you probably wouldn't make anywhere near as much money than if you begged in Chester with the tourists and the races and everything else.
"You've got no chance really of conquering somebody's addiction problem if they're on the streets with no roof over their head."
After finding the cheapest house in Chester, within walking distance to the city centre, they sold lego bricks for one pound each.
Share managed to raise £70,000 for the scheme but after three years they were still £40,000 short.
With help from a mystery business owner from Tarvin, they were able to buy and renovate the house which has helped move people off Chester's streets.
Fulfillment had always looked like ensuring success for the family business, until a conversation with a man in the Chester Shareshop changed Adam's perception of purpose.
He said: "I felt like I'd done something that I should have actually been doing for years and that's when the penny dropped.
"I think I realised I was doing something which meant something to other people. The buzz that gave me was a much higher buzz than money ever could be.
"You know men on the streets die at something ridiculous like 45 years old. For women I think it's 43 years old.
"t's more than just being homeless; It's more than just a word.
"It's more than a label; we're actually allowing people to kill themselves."
Shareshac has plans to implement a drug and rehabilitation program to help support those battling addictions, whilst living on the street.
Adam said: "One of the most important things we'll probably do over the next five years is try to help people tackle that addiction.
"I think by doing that, the housing will have much more of an impact.
"We've got to find a way to provide sheltered accommodation near Chester city centre, at the same time tackling the drug addiction."
Alongside tackling addiction, Share are working on getting people back into employment or volunteering programmes.
He said: "You've also got to fill somebody's time, otherwise the voices will take over and the addiction will be straight back in.
"By filling their time with employment or volunteering work, I think we'll be able to make a massive impact going forward."
New chester Jobs Section Launched!!
Vacancies updated hourly!!
Click here: chester jobs
Share:
