TAP for Bristol

Homeless people currently isolating in a new Bristol city centre hostel are to be given personal budgets to help them move on to stable accommodation, thanks to a £5,000 grant raised through TAP for Bristol, the city’s new contactless donation scheme for homelessness.

This is the first donation to be made from funds raised through TAP for Bristol, a network of nearly 20 contactless donation points around the city, set up by the Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) in partnership with Caring in Bristol last year. People can tap their contactless credit or debit card to give £3. Half of the money raised is being used for homelessness crisis support and half for homelessness prevention work.

The new £5,000 grant will help Bristol mental health charity Second Step set up personal budgets for 50 clients to buy essential items to get set up in new homes after isolating due to the coronavirus outbreak. Support workers will ask clients how they would like to spend the money. Items bought could include mobile phones, clothes, toiletries, all of which are essential to finding work, along with furniture, bedding, kitchen equipment as well as training courses or travel to connect with family, post COVID-19 restrictions.

A second grant of £5,000 will go towards funding a money advisor and a housing advisor to support people at risk of homelessness through Caring in Bristol in partnership with local housing advice service CHAS and debt advice charity Talking Money. The most common factor leading to homelessness in the UK is the loss of a private rented tenancy. The charity has warned that even more people are facing home insecurity, and that there will be a sharp increase in evictions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will give capacity to proactively reach out to people who are at risk of losing their home to offer advice and support.

These new grants are being made as TAP for Bristol approaches its second £10,000 donation target, thanks to the generosity of members of the public, who will have donated a total of £20,000 since the scheme launched in September last year.

Reaching the second £10,000 will trigger the next round of grants to local charities supporting people in Bristol who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, particularly as charities gear up for crisis recovery following the coronavirus pandemic.

Generous members of the public have helped TAP for Bristol raise £10K to support homeless people and homelessness prevention in just four months.

Launched by Bristol City Centre BID in September 2019, the new contactless donation initiative has been enthusiastically embraced across the city. Vicky Lee, BID’s project lead on TAP for Bristol, says: “We want to say a huge thank you to the people of Bristol for their generosity in donating money to tackle homelessness in our city, and an equally big thank you to all the businesses that have contacted us to host TAP points.”

Half of the money will be made available to Caring in Bristol to carry out its life-changing homelessness prevention work. The other half will be turned into small grants available to local charities, organisations and community groups to support named individuals into safer and more stable lives away from the streets. Reaching the £10k milestone means TAP for Bristol partner, Quartet Community Foundation, has opened the first call for grant applications. Organisations working on the frontline with those who are street homeless are being urged to apply via the Quartet website.

Read our full press release Tap hits £10K.

TAP for Bristol: new contactless donation system now in 20 locations and raising £1000 a week

Bristol now has 20 ‘TAP for Bristol’ contactless donation points around the city centre raising  £150 per day to support homeless people.

This is believed to be the fastest growing donation system of any city after dozens of business and organisations have come forward to request a ‘TAP for Bristol’ point on their premises.

‘TAP for Bristol’ is the UK’s first-ever contactless donation system to raise money for homelessness prevention services as well as directly supporting people who are currently homeless.

The scheme is being delivered by Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) in partnership with Caring in Bristol and Quartet Community Foundation.

New TAP Points in windows and on hand-held devices are now operating at No1 Harbourside, below the Watershed, three Tesco branches in the city centre (College Green, Marlborough Street and Millennium Square), The Ibis Hotel, Small Street Espresso, and several pubs in the old city including Small Bar, Brew Dog and the Volunteer Tavern.

The most recent TAP Point, installed last week, is now operational at Wapping Wharf  in the window of Better Food Company.

‘TAP for Bristol’ aims to help make Bristol the city that solves homelessness. The scheme launched in September this year and has already raised £6600 through its contactless donation points where people can tap their credit or debit card to donate £3. It is on target to raise £10,000 by the start of 2020 when the funds will be divided equally between Caring in Bristol and local frontline services facilitated by the Quartet Community Foundation which is managing, monitoring and evaluating all donations.

Caring in Bristol will use the money to deliver new homeless prevention and early intervention support services to people who are vulnerable to homelessness. This will include a new group of trained volunteers working in partnership with local debt and housing advice agencies to give additional, timely support to those at risk of becoming street homeless.

Quartet will invite local charities, organisations and community groups to apply for funding on behalf of named individuals to support them into a safer and more stable life away from the streets. Homelessness organisations will be asked to outline their proposed support for the specific needs of an individual, for example buying a bike for someone to attend interview or get to work; funding transport to get to college or rehabilitation sessions, buying clothes for an interview or white or electrical goods for their home.

Keith Rundle, operations director at Bristol City Centre BID says:

“It is no surprise to me that our city has embraced TAP for Bristol with such a positive and generous spirit. Countless organisations have contacted us about hosting a TAP Point, which means we now have an impressive 20 TAP Points operational in just 3 months since launching.

“People now have a choice. These days lots of us don’t carry cash, and many have concerns about giving money directly to people on the street. TAP for Bristol offers a simple choice to donate, safe in the knowledge that every penny will be used to tackle homelessness through both prevention work and emergency support.”

Ben Richardson, director of Caring in Bristol, added:

“Thanks to the generosity of the people of Bristol, who have really embraced the new TAP for Bristol contactless donation points, we are on track to hit the fundraising target and release the first investment for our new homelessness prevention programme.

“This will mean that as well as your donation helping people to move to a life away from the streets, it will also help prevent others ever having to be on the streets in the first place. The single biggest reason for people becoming homeless in Bristol is to the loss of a private rental tenancy.

Our volunteers and advisors will work with individuals at risk to give them additional advice and support to help them keep their homes.”

For more information about ‘TAP for Bristol’ visit www.tapforbristol.org and video here

Any organisation wanting to apply for a grant can do so online, via the Quartet website.

Seven new TAP for Bristol points have recently been installed, bringing the new contactless donation initiative to a wider audience across the city and providing even more opportunities to give money.

Find the new TAP points at Tesco stores on Cathedral Walk, College Green and Marlborough Street, the Ibis hotel on Explore Lane, Small Bar on King Street, BrewDog on Baldwin Street and No. 1 Harbourside. These new locations bring the total number of TAP points around the city to 20, and several more will be installed in December – we’ll be revealing their locations on the TAP for Bristol blog soon.

Since we launched the initiative in mid-September, people have ‘tapped’ their credit cards more than 1,560 times on donation points. At £3 per tap, this has raised in excess of £4,600 to help prevent homelessness and directly support those who are currently homeless in the city. The new TAP points are already having an impact, with No. 1 Harbourside’s point raising £500 in its first month.

We hope this significant increase in donation points will help the project reach its first fundraising target of £10,000 before Christmas. This will trigger the first payment to Caring in Bristol’s homelessness prevention services and allow Quartet Community Foundation to start considering grant applications to help those in immediate need.

Four new ‘TAP for Bristol’ contactless donation points, raising money for homelessness prevention services as well as directly supporting people who are currently homeless, have been announced this week to mark World Homeless Day (Wednesday 10 October, 2019).

Since its launch just three weeks ago (18 September, 2019), the new TAP for Bristol scheme has already raised £1000 in contactless donations with Waitrose on Queens Road the highest earning TAP Point, receiving £500 in donations so far.

View our press release for further information
TAP for Bristol marks World Homeless Day 08.10.19