Amy's Space Needs Your Help!!

Hello and thank you in advance if you manage to reach the bottom of what I promise will be quite a long read …

My name is Debbie Brown and on 1st August 2018 I created a Voluntary Community Group, "Amy's Space

First, an explanation as to why Amy’s Space and not Debbie’s Space …

Amy is my beautiful angel daughter... Amy Louise was born on 1st August 1991, sadly she was born with a congenital heart condition, which we were completely unaware of. She blessed our lives for a mere 17 days and left our hearts shattered when she went to play with the angels on 17th August 1991…

My life up until that point had already been a rollercoaster, the impact of hidden sexual abuse as a

child among many other factors had left me damaged and mostly out of control mentally I was broken and at only twenty-two still so young …

Many years later after years of that rollercoaster lifestyle, which saw me experience, domestic violence many times, sometimes with me as the perpetrator, more often the victim, a reliance on alcohol for a time, which saw me destroy just about anything I touched, including myself, my inner anger had led to me being unnecessarily violent and or out of control in other ways, many unsettled and unhappy times spent in unsuitable/temporary housing, undiagnosed mental health conditions and hidden childhood trauma all had their impact… until in 2010 I became completely homeless, I should explain that by this point I had three kids two boys who were off basically doing their own thing and the youngest a girl who was born on the same day as Amy Louise (8 years and 10 pregnancies later), sadly she and I are now estranged but that is another story maybe for another time… maybe not?

So, I sofa surfed, mostly I could, sometimes I couldn’t it wasn’t pretty, by mid 2015 and after finally revealing the sexual abuse I had experienced as a child to the police and having my truth denied, not by the authorities but by those closest to me, my brain finally gave up and completely broke. I was sectioned for my own safety and diagnosed with 5 different mental health conditions! However, the system sucks and I was subsequently released from the hospital to the streets, just a few weeks later. Had it not been for the people around me at that time I don’t think I would have found the strength to go on… The Local Authority I was under told me that I wasn’t considered a priority to them and they couldn’t help me, gave me a sheet of paper with some resources for the homeless and basically waved me Good Bye, or so they thought, on that list was the name of a hostel locally, Anchor House in Canning Town, who couldn’t help me without a referral from the very local authority who had previously declined me any help, never the less, over the next few weeks I begged the Homeless Unit to refer me over and over again until they eventually caved in and sent the referral… By late September 2015, I had a room… By the grace of whatever angels were watching over me, my journey back to reality had truly begun…

I spent three truly life-changing years at Anchor House, I worked hard both on myself and within the community I had found myself in, until finally, I was beyond relieved and so excited to be nominated for a social housing property…

Phew if you are still here … Thank you for persevering …

In Late July 2018 I moved into my “Forever Home”, I felt truly blessed, grateful beyond belief and so humbled by the outpouring of support I had received. However, I was overwhelmed with a need to give back to a community that had saved me from myself and maybe even given me back a better version ….

So, with a handful of people just 4 days later and on the anniversary of Amy Louise’s birthday, Amy's Space came into being…

Since that time, I cannot even begin to explain here, the impact that decision has had, not only on

my own life but on the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people in our communities!! A quick scroll through the pictures on our Facebook page will show you the sheer enormity of love and

kindness that has been shared with all those in need. We started off with fortnightly street outreach in Canning Town with the support of Anchor House and so many others they became and still are a huge success… Within our first year, we were gifted a space on the Isle Of Dogs for a six-month period, we stayed for nearly three years and at one point were gifting over 200 bags of surplus grocery shopping to those in need on a weekly basis, through the hub we were able to gift so many items to those struggling, everything from a tin of baked beans and a tube of toothpaste to white goods, furniture and clothing, we were able to introduce street rescue packs and back on track packs in our second year and within a short time had added emergency toiletry packs to that list, we have held pop up feeds and hit the streets with our street wagons as often as time and resources allowed, We were able to provide extra support throughout Covid as by that time we had another space in Custom House, and the whole team worked tirelessly throughout that awful time… We have been able to gift, Christmas Hampers for families and Individuals in need on more than one Christmas and always go the extra mile when it comes to our celebrations with our street family, we have included everything we get at home and more for them. I could go on and on but I will spare you as I said a quick look through our pictures on Facebook will give you just a glimpse of all that this amazing team of people has achieved for the lost and lonely, they have come across…

With the loss of the hub in January 2021 a lot has changed, and now post pandemic in 2023 things have become a lot less hectic… We are still providing all that we can for our street family, and those in our community that have nowhere left to turn.

We work closely alongside Newham Wellness Better Together now and have a much smaller team

then in previous years, despite that we still continue to provide Emergency Resources of all kinds to those finding themselves in desperate need, street feeds sadly are now only held as and when we can afford to facilitate them, but street rescue packs and emergency toiletry packs are still very much a much-needed requirement by our service users and when resources/finances allow, ambient food and or shopping vouchers are also gratefully received, we have no official funding or regular funding stream available to us since the loss of the hub, but manage to find any way we possibly can to raise funding or resources…. We have an Amazon Wishlist which is a lifeline to us, our Vinted shop helps us to stay afloat and of course, the GoFundMe Appeal without which so much of what you have read here and see in our pictures just couldn’t have happened… Most importantly of all we have the best volunteers, supporters and followers any team can dream of…

On 1st August 2023 Amy’s Space will be five, Amy Louise would have been thirty-two and next year I will be fifty-five… Time is flying … Who knows where the future will take any of us? All I do know is that being on this Rollercoaster is certainly full of surprises… And I for one am not quite ready to get off…They say that only by experiencing the dark can we appreciate the light … For me the darkness became that light, in fact, it became a Beacon of Hope for So Many…

I won’t always truly appreciate why or completely understand the darkness I have seen or been through but if all that makes a difference to anyone in a horrible situation now and I get to be the person I needed whenever I was in crisis then I win every day…

If you have made it this far, I applaud and appreciate you…!!

THANK YOU

Please Check out our Facebook for updates, donate if you are able, and if not, maybe follow and share our fundraising efforts and donation links, which can be found in the pinned post on the Facebook page with your family/friends and social media platforms, we truly can’t do any of this without all your continued support…

Community is Everything and Awareness is Key

Thank you again for taking the time to read this You’re a Star!!

Much Love Debbie

Email: [email redacted]