10.10.16: World Homeless Day 

As we near the wintry, frosty months of the year, as you’re sipping hot chocolate in your cosy slippers – just remember that there are some people out there with nowhere to go. Although rough sleeping is a critical situation all year round, the homeless are at much more risk of illnesses and even early mortality in the winter months[1]. Homelessness in the UK has been skyrocketing the past few years. Bristol, the home of No More Taboo, currently has around 130 – 150 rough sleepers[2] - compared to an average of 50, two years ago. And, two years ago, Bristol’s homeless services thought that number was high. If you see somebody sleeping rough, wherever you may be in the UK, make sure you report it to StreetLink using the app, or the online form, so Street Outreach teams across the country can help them out as soon as possible.

With cuts to benefits and soaring rents, thousands of people across the UK are only one pay check away from homelessness. Rough sleeping is the visible form of homelessness: there are so many people in precarious housing situations, living temporarily with government-run or charitable housing providers, on friends’ sofas and in B&Bs. It’s World Homeless Day today: why don’t you make the effort to do one good thing for the homeless today? Make somebody smile by buying them a coffee, or something they need from the supermarket. Grab yourself a copy of the Big Issue. Contribute to longer-term change and homeless support by donating to a homeless charity or offering to volunteer once a week.

No More Taboo has been working with a myriad of services across Bristol to conduct research into the menstrual health of women living in poverty, both homeless and housed. We want to ensure that they can afford to manage their periods in a clean, safe and affordable way, and break down taboos so that women can speak about their periods in an open, comfortable manner. These services are brilliant at doing what they do, but the considerations around menstruation often are forgotten as nobody talks about it.

We’re one month in – what’s been going on?

On the UK Programme, so far, we’ve worked with 10 organisations and interviewed 35 women, as well as the people who deliver front line work. This has given us an incredible insight into the ways in which homeless services operate in Bristol, and how women living in poverty negotiate and understand menstruation and their own bodies in relation to the situation they’re in.

The experience so far, for me, as a researcher? Eye-opening. Eye-opening to the complexities that come with conducting, analysing and understanding primary research. You can plan and design your methodologies to the tiniest, nanoscale of detail but the whole thing rests on what happens when you rock up to run your interviews.

The organisation and set-up of different organisations means that I have to be flexible and adaptable with my research, but at the same time attempting to homogenise as much as possible the questions that I ask participants. I’ve conducted interviews while decorating cakes at the Bristol Drugs Project women’s group. I’ve conducted them while women were waiting for their meal and a hot shower at the Bristol Methodist Centre. I’ve done them past 11pm at emergency night shelters, such as Spring of Hope and St Mungos Crash Pad, while they were sipping their final hot drink before bedtime.

These situations not only mean you have to change your interview style and approach, but also that you have to be extremely sensitive to the participants. In these spaces, women come to get respite from the outer world, and the last thing they could want is me bouncing up to them to have a natter about their periods. However, almost all of the women I’ve spoken to have had a positive experience from the interviews. They say that it’s encouraged them to think more about their menstrual health, and they now have more understanding about which organisations supply sanitary products if they really are struggling. It’s great to see that No More Taboo’s work is having a positive effect even in the early stages of the project.

So now you have a bit of a behind-the-scenes insight into the realities of conducting research. What’s next? We’re still increasing the scope of our work, looking to run more interviews, and then consolidate it all in a report. But we’re not stopping there. With the results we find, we’re going to plan active interventions alongside services in Bristol to #endperiodpoverty.

Want to get involved!? If you like laughing, eating fresh, delicious food and contributing to the social good come along to our comedy night at Roll for the Soul on 22nd October! We’re raising funds for this project and it’s guaranteed to make you laugh so hard your menstrual cup falls out! (Disclaimer: if you or your menstruating buddies haven’t got reusable sanitary products yet, get yourself over to our online store ASAP and save the earth and your pocket a tonne. 100% profits go to funding our projects.)

Ciao for now!

Shai