Build Your Gift
Create a personalised gift for someone experiencing homelessness. Select from hot meals, emergency support, and essential items below. Give someone facing homelessness this winter exactly what they need.
How it works
1) Choose your gifts
Winter turns homelessness from hard to dangerous. A warm coat, a christmas dinner, a hot breakfast, a dry pair of socks; each one keeps someone safer through the cold months. Choose a gift below to help make that happen.
2) Add a message of support
A short note reminds someone that a stranger thought of them. You can also send an e-card to a friend or family member, showing them the gift you've given in their name.
3) Our volunteers will get to work
Staff and volunteers like Maggie and Clare turn your donation into direct support, on the ground, for people who need it the most.
Read more about the impact of your gifts
From Crisis to Hope
Carmel was thrown out of her home by her abusive boyfriend. With nowhere to turn and her support network diminished, she found herself cold, isolated and desperate just before Christmas.
After a brief stay in emergency accommodation, Carmel found HARP. She was greeted with warmth, given breakfast, and assigned a support worker who truly listened.
HARP provided Carmel with accommodation at their women-only housing. Through counselling, financial support, and their recovery programme, she began to heal from her trauma. In 2018, Carmel moved into her own flat and now works as a face painter at children's events, with hopes of expanding into a small business.
"HARP helped me at a time when I had no one else. I was completely broken and didn't have the strength to help myself. I honestly don't know where I would have ended up without their support."
A Full English
A hot breakfast is a small thing that makes a hard morning easier. Your donation helps fund breakfasts at our day centre, open 365 days a year, so no one has to start the day on an empty stomach.
£3.50
Christmas Dinner
For someone with nowhere to call home, a hot Christmas dinner offers more than food. It's a seat at the table, company, and often the first step toward support that helps them leave homelessness behind.
£10.00
Welcome someone in from the cold
Cold weather turns a night outdoors into a real danger. Your donation funds a warm bed and four walls, somewhere safe to close the door against the cold.
£33.00
A Hot Shower
A hot shower can be hard to come by when you're experiencing homeless, and a basic one when you're not. Your donation helps fund showers at our day centre. Open 365 days a year, giving people a place to wash, feel clean and maintain their dignity.
£1.00
Women's toiletry set
A toiletry set sounds small until you've gone without one. Your donation helps welcome a woman off the streets this Christmas, with all the essentials.
£11.00
Travel to a job interview
A job interview can be the turning point that ends someone's homelessness, but a fare can stand in the way. Your donation helps cover that cost, so the people we support can get there and take the chance.
£3.50
Help someone avoid eviction
Support today can keep a home tomorrow. Your donation helps fund our work to prevent homelessness through advice, and practical support. With your gift, someone at risk of losing their home could keep a safe place to live and take the first step toward a more secure future.
£68.00
Emergency Food Parcel
Rent or food shouldn't be a choice anyone has to make. Your donation funds an emergency food parcel for someone struggling to keep a roof over their head.
£19.00
A Personal Christmas Gift
Your donation can help fund a personalised Christmas gift, chosen for someone we're supporting, something that's theirs and picked with them in mind.
£20.00
1:1 Emergency Support
Homelessness rarely has one cause, and it rarely has one fix. Your donation can help fund 1:1 expert support, someone to work through the problems behind it with, and a real path to leaving it behind for good.
£16.00
Winter warmer bundle
Your donation can help provide warm clothing, blankets, or socks for someone facing it, small things that make a real difference.
£16.00
Men's toiletry set
A toiletry set sounds small until you've gone without one. Your donation gives a man experiencing homelessness the basics, soap, a razor, a toothbrush, the kind of self-care that rebuilds confidence in an otherwise difficult time.
£11.00
Christmas Pudding
Christmas pudding won't fix homelessness, but it says someone remembered the small things too. Your donation helps funds one for someone experiencing homelessness this Christmas.
£3.00
Buy it all
Get one of each essential and make a massive difference to people experiencing homelessness this Christmas.
£215.00
Your Christmas List
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! We're a registered charity number 1099126.
We're also registered with the Fundraising Regulator, a voluntary scheme for charities committed to legal, open, honest an respectful fundraising
Yes! We have around 120 regular volunteers and we're always looking for more. Click here if you'd like to find out more.
For many of the people we support, Christmas is a lonely and isolating time. Many have lost contact with their friends and family. We're doing everything we can to support them, but your message can show them someone out there (a stranger like you!) does care.
Every item in this store represents meals and emergency support provided by HARP in Essex. We see immense demand for our services all year round, especially at Christmas time when the streets are freezing cold. Your donation (and any Gift Aid contribution) will help us provide hot meals, emergency accommodation, and vital support to people in need. To ensure we can respond to urgent needs as they arise, we may allocate funds across our meal and emergency support services where they're needed most. Whatever happens, we promise that 100% of your donation will be used to help people experiencing homelessness in Essex.
