Women facing homelessness, exploitation and substance misuse have been supported with hot food, safety equipment and health advice through Spark and partners’ women’s outreach programme, which runs night‑time support sessions in the Dixon Street area of Blackburn.
Over the recent cold months, the outreach delivered more than 100 hot meals thanks to the warm food grant, alongside a wide range of harm‑reduction and safety support. In total, teams distributed over 40 naloxone kits to help prevent overdose deaths, more than 70 sets of clean injecting equipment, dozens of rape alarms and condoms, and provided on‑the‑spot health, safeguarding and housing support.
The work reached around 25 women through repeated night‑time outreach, many of whom face the highest levels of risk and are often unable or unwilling to engage with traditional services.
One woman supported through the outreach said simply: “This saves my life.”
The programme has been brought to life by strong working partnerships between Spark and Public Health, St Luke’s Church, Streetlight, Lancashire Women as well as volunteers from Blackburn Food Bank who cook the food that is provided.
Staff describe the work as life‑saving because it directly reduces the risk of overdose, violence and serious illness at the point of greatest danger. By providing naloxone, safety equipment and trusted contact alongside food, the outreach helps prevent emergencies from escalating into hospital admissions or deaths, while keeping women engaged long enough to access longer‑term health, housing and treatment support.
Beyond supporting individuals, the work has delivered wider social value for the community, helping to reduce harm, improve night‑time safety and lessen pressure on emergency and crisis services by enabling early, preventative engagement rather than late intervention.
While hot food provided an immediate reason to engage, the wider impact relied on the coordination of multiple services in a single, trusted outreach setting, allowing women to access health, safety and support at the same time rather than being passed between different organisations. As part of this, Spark have been able to provide structured treatment around substance misuse through this work.
Jo Clarke, Service Manager at Spark, said:
“Food brings people to us, but it’s the coordination that keeps people engaged. Through the outreach we work closely with sexual health services including Brook and Renaissance, alongside St Luke’s Church, housing colleagues, police, and local volunteers. When support is offered in one place, by people they trust, we see real engagement – and without that joined‑up approach, this kind of impact just wouldn’t be possible.”
The outreach continues to operate on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, providing consistent, frontline support to women who face significant barriers to accessing help through mainstream routes.