It has been a while since I last added to this blog. I took some new work with the Oxford Night Shelter to replace that I was doing with the Oxford Gatehouse and the Homeless College, from which I was made redundant at very short notice - but that's another story.

I've since been re-employed by the Gatehouse and its taken a while to get up to speed again. Lots has happened but due to confidentiality issues I need to leave things to settle a while before I can really discuss my interesting...

Last week Beth asked if there was anything businesses can do to help projects such as Oxford's Homeless College. Well the most sort after thing would be laptops - the world and his wife wants a laptop these days. A while back there was talk of an MIT project for the $100 wireless enabled laptop - not sure what happened although roll out was for third world education projects - although in some ways the homeless are like our own little slice of the third world. Although there again with the price...

Thursday last was positively hectic – a bit like playing five games of chess at the same time – come to think of it ‘Chessworld’ is one useful site I use in my teaching. Chess is just about the best strategy game ever and has probably never been so popular. It’s not just boffins who have the bug – it’s very popular amongst the Homeless and otherwise chaotic. One of the most entertaining scenes in Bernard Hare’s novel ‘Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew’ is all about the stoned chess masters that lurk...

Perhaps as a taster of where I am now a couple of years later I thought I'd just talk about an incident that happened the other night. The session was going well with three laptops connected via wireless broadband. Manic Martin had spent most the session typing out his latest poem in MS word in between popping outside to feed sandwiches to his three legged dog Taurus, and have a *** break (we’re non smoking now – which seems to work out alright, gives everyone a chance to pop out and take a break.)...

The Punters
After a night on the streets most of the punters look a bit worse for wear. It's not that unusual to have to step over a few still curled up in their sleeping bags on the step. I'm told that sleeping on the step outside a nightshelter is the next best thing to being inside. The safe penumbra of surveillance is some comfort during the long night, even if some of the possible dangers come from other rough sleepers. There's safety in numbers I guess.

The dozen or...

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My portfolio of activities includes paid, peripatetic computer 'buddy'? working for the Homeless College in Oxford. My activities are centred on the 'Oxford Night Shelter' and 'The Gatehouse Drop-In Centre'
(See www.homeless.me.uk).

For a long time time I've been interested in the use of computers and the internet in some sort of therapeutic role. (BTW the terms I'm using are provisional so I'm open to feedback and suggestions for something more on the button.)
...