On Monday last week, I paid my second visit to Branches Homeless Hostel, in Leytonstone, where I met three very different men who are all down on their luck for very different reasons.
Suffice to say, they are all staying at the hostel and all had stories to tell. But the main reason I went to speak to them was because they are organising a sponsored walk - a way for the homeless to help the homeless, so they say. Obviously, no one could understand better than them the struggles faced on a daily basis by people who sleep rough and so they decided to get together and raise money for the Christian Kitchen, which is a sort of mobile soup kitchen.
It seems I've been spending a lot of time with people who are stigmatised for one reason or another over the last couple of weeks. I've also been covering a story about someone who suffers from schizophrenia being given an ASBO and a group of young people, from two estates with a reputation for violence, who made a short film.
And the attitudes to both are similar - this man has mental health issues, therefore he should be shunned and even punished. These kids have grown up on estates where knife and gun crime are rife, therefore they must all be beyond redemption. This is why it's a good thing there are organisations like SANE, which looks after the welfare of people with mental health issues, and Catch 22, which helps keep kids away from gang culture.
It's also been an opportunity for the WFG to try to do what it can to help these groups - for which we, too, face judgement, albeit to a lesser degree. There are always ways in which people expect or want stories to be written but we can't always pre-empt that completely accurately. This means someone somewhere will probably be dissatisfied, but, as they say, you can't please all of the people all of the time.
Finally, you may have noticed the blog's absence last week (then again, maybe not) - this is not negligence but more because I was utterly swamped. I will do better in future, I hope!
Even more finally, as of this afternoon, I will be away, but as per last time, you can contact the Epping office on 01992 572 285 or email wfnewsdesk@london.newsquest.co.uk to get in touch with someone else at the WFG.
Visit the Leyton/Leytonstone News Twitter at twitter.com/WFGLeyton_stone.
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