As a Groundswell Listen Up! Community Reporter, I have been given the immense privilege to interview a few select Groundswellians, who, in my opinion are just plain awesome. Well, let’s face it, every Groundswellian is awesome! 

In this series, our wonderful Jane Cook, Groundswell’s Complex Needs Manager has agreed to have a chat with me. 

For a bit of background, Jane has been working with Groundswell for a while and has made quite an impact with us for the work she has achieved so far. She is absolutely loved by all of us and we are so lucky to have her on board, and indeed for her to take her valuable time to have a chat with me.  

What I certainly can say, for sure, is how incredible her 38-year career in health inclusion and homelessness has been so far.  

She’s supported probably thousands of people. She has changed the lives of many, without a shadow of a doubt and certainly for the better. 

In the early part of her career, she worked as a nurse in a homeless hostel for men in London Bridge which was pretty much run by one of the Kray brother’s friends. IMO, that was a pretty cool claim to fame, but truthfully, I doubt very much that was the only thing that made her tick.  

Let’s go back a few more years and explore the very start of Jane’s incredible career as a homeless health general nurse.  

She trained to be a general nurse in the east end of London.  

Jane told me that she absolutely loved her training. There was a huge community spirit and established some true, life-long friends.  

I can only imagine the community spirit during her east end days. The fun knees up at the local pubs, the sing-a-longs and that great community spirit whereby the neighbours actually knew each other’s names, to the point that when you walk the pavements, many warm greetings would have been exchanged.  

If only that warm community feel still existed.  

Still, Jane and I continued to reflect on an incredible career.  

Her work in the east end was essentially as an Accident and Emergency general nurse which somehow led her to work in various homeless hostels across central and southeast London.  

She started her homeless career in nursing at a hostel in Westminster in Great Peter Street. She was one of two nurses at a clinic room there.  

Her career progressed not far down the road to Edward Alsop Court homeless hostel. It had 320 men. In those days, the hostel was exactly what you would expect. Large dormitories and rows of beds in which the homeless men lived for about 6-7 months. The building was once an old snooker factory.  

Today, Edward Alsop Court is a well-run hostel, which is owned by the Salvation Army and run by Look Ahead. There is no telling how long a resident would live there now. Perhaps a year or more for some and even decades for others.   

From what I have heard of those institutions, back then, shoes were sacrosanct and when they would go to sleep, often some of the men wake up and would find themselves literally shoeless.  

Later on, Jane worked at another hostel in Tooley Street in London Bridge. It housed 120 men and the place would be freezing in the winter, given there was no heating. And there were far too few toilets.  

This was the hostel that was run by the Kray brother’s friend. Jane recalled that every week, he would drive up in his (posh) Jaguar and collect the rent money.  

The conditions of that hostel were so bleak that word got round and a Channel 4 reporter documented the appalling situation and broadcast the story on TV. 

Given the public outcry, not long after, Southwark Council took control and Jane became the head heath honcho. I expect her influence made a huge impact and the quality of life for the residents were much better; many of whom lived considerably longer than the average 45 years! 

When she completed her tenure there, she worked at a day centre behind Guy’s Hospital. 

Those were just a few stories in Jane’s amazing career which she reflected to me. Without a shadow of a doubt, there were many more to recall, but time was short. 

Beyond her paid work, it should be noted that our Jane made an impact in other ways. 

Not only over the course of her career to support homeless people, but she continued voluntary community work in her own time. 

“I co-founded the national homeless health programme which is run by the Queens Nursing Institute (QNI). I chair the London Network for Nurses and Midwives (LNNM).” 

Jane co-created an incredible network of frontline nurses and health care professionals. QNI’s programme brought together around 2000 frontline staff to help set certain standards of good practice and sharing resources. This fantastic project was established in 2009 and is still running with more members every year.  

Only a recently, the LNNM had a very successful annual conference with around 175 members who came together to share their experiences and wisdom to support each other and discuss even better ways of working, i.e. good practice.    

Community is certainly a passion.  

As well as that, she continues to support families who have experienced homelessness, Travellers, refugees and vulnerable migrants.  

She pursues other voluntary work with various other charities and community groups supporting families to access community kitchens. 

Not necessarily a Gordon Ramsey chef herself, but she does like a bit of a do in the kitchen.  

Currently, as part of her own community work, she helps various faith groups to teach young people how to make basic foods. Perhaps a bolognese, lasagne and simple recipes that virtually anyone can do with basic kitchen equipment and ingredients.  

I asked her what an ideal solution to the current homeless situation we are in now would be?  

She replied with simply how we need to learn from New York.  

How so, I asked.  

She recounted an incredible success story from Manhattan.  

There was an old run-down hotel that housed homeless people called Breaking Ground. Basically, a terrible place that no one in their right mind would choose to live. 

A social worker visited and was shocked at such poor living conditions and worked hard to find philanthropic people who lived in Manhattan to help refurbish the hotel.  

Rather than awful shared bathrooms and other shoddy living conditions, through the work of this social worker, enough funds were built up to change a flea circus to a sparkling living community. Residents would be able to access social support, employment support, community support, literary workers, and further support. Much of this was achieved from Ben and Jerry’s (the ice cream people) and the quality of their living spaces became very high standard. The residents even had en suites and air conditioning! That would certainly be a model that the UK government could learn from. 

I asked her opinion about homelessness and if there is a “cure”. 

She simply answered, for more homes to be built.  

Without a shadow of a doubt, Jane has certainly had some incredible highs and lows working in the homeless sector over the past four decades and I can certainly say with absolute confidence how lucky Groundswell is to have someone with the incredible knowledge, wisdom and experience.  

Currently, Jane supports some of the UK’s best frontline workers from Groundswell as our Complex Needs Manager.  

Thank you so much for your time chatting with me Jane and I look forward to speaking again really soon.