We caught up recently with Liz Hurrell, (Love Your Neighbour Coordinator) and Miriam Hargreaves, (Women’s Project Manager) who head up social transformation at Harbour Church in Portsmouth. They shared with us some of the incredible work they’ve been doing through their Love Your Neighbour Hub, its impact and how being part of a wider network of other Love Your Neighbour Hubs around the UK encourages them to know they are part of something bigger!

Vision for social transformation

Our vision at Harbour is to come alongside people at their point of need. In the first instance that might be about listening without judgment or supplying people with emergency food parcels. Then it’s about helping to play our part in seeing people’s lives transformed by Jesus - we just have the privilege of being there and providing that support whilst He is doing that.

We often find that people come to us first for emergency care, which enables us to help with some of the causes behind that, and sometimes it's the other way around.

“We don't know the person that comes through the door. We have no idea what their situation is and we don't ask them. What we can do, is be an ear to listen.”

Local partnership

We work in partnership with other local churches, agencies and charities. One area of collaboration locally is with churches and charities who provide some sort of food support e.g. a food bank, a pantry, or a community meal. We get together once a quarter to discuss how we can work together, support each other, and share ideas.

We also access training from places like Advice Portsmouth as well as other places in the city trained to help people in specific areas. This could be anything from writing a CV, searching for a job or filling out a benefit form so that we can help people to move forward.

We have other partners we work with through our women’s support groups too. We may refer people to a women’s refuge, the local authority or Stop Domestic Abuse.

Points of connection between churches also work well. For example, Portsmouth City of Sanctuary use our space as well as space in another church down the road. It’s really important, because people can look at the church working together, making a difference in the city, and filling a lot of gaps that aren’t filled by other agencies.

Working in partnership has other benefits too. If we come across people who need recovery support for example, which we don’t offer, there are places locally that we can refer them to. This means that we can focus on the work God has called us to do.

“People can look at the church working together... making a difference in the city.”

One to one support

Portsmouth is a port city which means that there are many women in the area who have been trafficked to work in the sex industry. We run a programme called Vista which supports women who may have been sexually exploited in their country of origin, or here, or both. Some women have their refugee status, others are in the asylum process and need advocacy and support to access the right services. There is support in the city but there can be barriers for some of the women to access it such as confidence, language, depression or anxiety, or simply not knowing where to start.

We’re now part of a task force working at the international port just down the road because we’ve been able to highlight cases where women have been trafficked into the port who have gone unnoticed. This has been a great connection because we’re showing them what can be done, how the port staff can be trained, and looking at how we can change things going forward.

We have also just started doing outreach into Chinese massage parlours. Many of the women there don’t speak much English and don’t get to leave the massage parlour often, so we’ve set up ‘WeChat’ to help with online English lessons.

It's been wonderful to just come alongside some of these women, no one asks them tricky questions and we just accept them. Some of them have got involved in volunteering on one of the teams at our projects bit by bit, which helps them grow in confidence, and some have ventured into church, and little by little have felt accepted and safe.

“You can find that as you see one need, you realise there are other needs, but you have to be wise about what you can do because you can’t do everything."

Safe Harbour and Spa 61

We have two other key programmes that we run at Harbour too. Once a week we host Safe Harbour, which is a community meal.

Spa 61 is our monthly pop-up pamper morning for any woman in the city who needs a bit of TLC. We provide a safe, confidential space for women to receive a warm welcome, free beauty treatments and a delicious lunch.

Having the support from the Love Your Neighbour team has been great. Being part of something bigger just feels good! It’s the sense that we’re not just plugging away on our own, but we’re part of a whole network of people doing similar stuff all over the UK. That feels like quite a powerful thing. It’s a sense of being part of a ‘can do’ network and it feels good to be part of.

Love Your Neighbour Hubs facilitate community-based support through wrap-around care, such as mental health groups, drop-in cafés, and supportive relationships. Find out more about our Hubs here.

Harbour Church Hub Spotlight