Our Homeless Outreach is an initiative of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Discipleship Centre & Master’s Touch in partnership with United Reformed Church, Buckland.

This project started in the year 2009 in response to God’s instruction to us as revealed in Matthew 5:14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, where it gives light for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.

Our Primary Objective

•  We aim to share the love of Christ by adopting practical approaches.
•  To be motivated by the call to manifest God’s love for all people, and not to be driven by a desire for material or financial gain, by external social, economic or political pressure.
•  To provide services that will benefit vulnerable people in accordance with the tenet of our Christian faith.
•  To contribute to the social and economic development of our local community and to contribute to alleviation of poverty.

What We Do

•  OUTREACH WORK (STREET OUTREACH) Our dedicated volunteers go out fortnightly (Wednesday) to distribute hot meal and drinks to the homeless people around Portsmouth city. Street outreach is very intensive and time consuming, but very rewarding. It requires persistence and tenacity.
•  SOUP KITCHEN: The Soup Kitchen is opened every Wednesday from 6:30pm. It is well known among the homeless people, and agencies working with the homeless people in the city of Portsmouth. The Soup Kitchen attracts other people who are not homeless but just need to socialise, talk and share meal with others. We serve cooked meals, hot drinks, fruits etc.

•  BASIC BANK: Apart from giving out hot meals and drinks every Wednesday, we also provide clothes and toiletries to the homeless people.
•  SIGNPOSTING: Our main focus is to demonstrate the love of Christ to the homeless people by providing them with food, hot drinks, clothes etc. We also make adequate provision to meet their spiritual needs based on the tenet of our faith. Apart from these, we signpost individuals to the appropriate agencies where other needs can be adequately met.

Our commitment to volunteers includes:

•  Providing guidelines for effective operation
•  Recruiting volunteers for specific, explicitly described roles or tasks
•  Actively seek to recruiting Christian volunteers irrespective of their race, ethnicity, sex, age
•  Providing appropriate training that will enable volunteers to carry out their responsibilities or specific task they were recruited for.
•  Reimbursing reasonable expenses incurred by volunteers in the course of carrying out approved volunteering tasks

Our expectation from volunteers includes:

•  Carrying out the aim and objectives of DCH Project in accordance with its fundamental principles
•  Respecting our Christian values and belief
•  Striving to work for the highest standards of quality and commitment to personal development.

Our Fundamental Principles

Our service is guided by the following principles and ethics:

Non Discrimmination

We believe we are called to manifest God’s gracious love for all people. Therefore we will respond to people based on their needs without discrimination based on the race, religion or nationality of recipients.

Gender Sensitive

We believe that all persons are created in the image of God. Therefore, we will ensure that the role and contributions of women are recognized and supported through response

Holistic Approach

We believe that God’s will is for everyone to be saved because the greatest need of a person cannot be met by a fellow human being except God. Therefore, we will include components of spiritual accompaniment that contributes to this vision.

Participation and Dignity

We believe that God gives all people dignity. Dignity is reduced when people are seen and portrayed as helpless victims. Therefore, we will involve the recipients of our services in the identification of needs and priorities.

Professional and Ethical Standards

We believe that our vocation to service calls for faithfulness to our principles and effectiveness in delivery of our services. Therefore, we uphold high professional and ethical standards, and at the same time not discarding the need for the creation of an atmosphere of love, trust and openness.

Partnership Working

We believe that there may be certain expertise and resources that might be lacking within our organisation, which other agencies have. Therefore, we will strive to build a working relationship with other organisations so as to provide holistic service to the homeless people in Portsmouth.

Accountability and Transparency

We believe that all resources are gifts from God and that we are accountable as an organization to those who wish to assist and those who require assistance. Therefore, we will be a good manager of resources that God will be bringing to us.

Evaluation and Quality

We believe that we must learn from experience in order to improve the quality of services we provide to the people we minister to. Therefore, we will commission a critical analysis of adherence to our values, and assess the impact of our services, sharing the lessons learned in ways that strengthen the organization at all levels.