Delightful Concert on Saturday Night in Tring's Victoria Hall to Raise Funds for the Dacorum Emergency Night Shelter and Food Bank

The children from Bishop Wood School were delightful, the London Heritage Brass were of an astonishingly high standard and the audience participation was enthusiastic. Andrew Openshaw, the Minister at New Mill Baptist Church in New Road, Tring, compered the proceedings with the perfect combination of relaxed formality and northern dryness and the organisation of the whole event was first class.The collection among the audience raised £1,250 for the Dacorum Emergency Night Shelter and Food Bank (DENS).Well done, everybody.

Established in 2003, under Chief Executive, Andrew Liversidge, DENS' 250 volunteers help atround 550 people a year - 81% of whom achieve some sort of "positive outcome". DENS help people in need through seven main activities.
The Day Centre is open Mondays to Thursday 11.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and provides daytime shelter, help and support to over 25 people a day.
The Night Shelter and the Move-On Shelter cater for about 150 people in the course of a year, referred by the police, the local borough council and other agencies.
Rent Aid, where demand is well over capacity to cope, helps with rental problems for 70 people on their books at any one time and over 600 different people a year are helped in this way.
The Food Bank provides emergency food for over 3,500 people (one third being children) a year but with support and advice nearly all use the service for only 3 visits or fewer.
DENS Enterprise provides useful equipment and a small revenue stream when items are sold, operating as a Give-Sell-Recycle business.
Equip for Change is a small scale scheme providing personalised help and advice to suitable clients and help 30 or so people a year into employment, volunteering, education towards a qualification or training.

DENS is a well-respected and effective organisation which attracts lottery funding and local authority support for much of its core activities. However to cover all of its costs and to support newer initiatives and services it relies heavily on support from the general public - both financial and as volunteers. Why not look DENS up and send them a contribution to help them help others throughout the Christmas period?