Gladys Rapp
The Skylight Ambassador - one year of volunteering
I lost my home in 2005, I was living in Gloucestershire. We went on holiday and when we came back, the council had taken everything. It was all gone, even our bed. We tried to stay with my husband's family but they didn't want us. So we started to sleep on the streets and squat.
We heard about Crisis at Christmas, we had nowhere else to go so went along that year. I was blown away by it all. I saw the Skylight Ambassadors and dreamt that one day that would be me.
When the centre closed on 30 December, I started going to Skylight classes. I went to women's groups, took my literacy and numeracy exams, sewing classes. Everything. I made the most of it all.
That year my partner got arrested and I was on my own. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have all of the classes to go to. Crisis helped me with so much. They helped me get housed. It was a really nice little home but I didn't know how I would manage after being on the streets and being on my own for two years. The first day I moved there, I didn't know what to do. I slept on the floor that night. It was strange; it felt uncomfortable sleeping on a bed. And then little by little I adjusted. I remember putting my bed in the corner, I think it made me feel safe because I used to have nightmares.
After getting housed I started volunteering for Crisis. I was volunteering for two years and then they asked me to be a Skylight Ambassador! I was over the moon. It was really weird at first because I used to be a guest myself and it was sad to see that my old friends were still homeless.
I dedicate my time to volunteering because I want to help people especially homeless people because I understand what it's like, to have nothing to look forward to and feel like everything has been taken from you. Your right to be a human being is taken. Most people that walk past you just stare at the floor like you're not there.