The Lantern Trust

11/08/2026

📢 We're Recruiting! Join the Lantern Trust Team 📢

Are you passionate about supporting people to overcome homelessness, build confidence, and create brighter futures?

🌟 Lantern Trust is looking for a Housing Support Worker to join our dedicated team. This is a full time and permanent position, working Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm 🌟

This is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of individuals experiencing housing difficulties and homelessness.

You'll work alongside a supportive team, helping people access the services, guidance and encouragement they need to move forward positively.

✅ Rewarding and meaningful work
✅ Supportive team environment
✅ Opportunity to change lives every day
✅ Based in Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester

If you're compassionate, motivated, and committed to helping others achieve their potential, we'd love to hear from you.

🔗 Apply here:

https://uk.indeed.com/job/housing-support-worker-3cd53b79e1092554

Please help us spread the word by liking, sharing, and tagging anyone who may be interested.

11/08/2026

Our work is literally life saving and we wouldn't be able to keep up with the increasing demands being placed on our service without our communities support. Our community is made up of our customers, supporters and stakeholders but also local businesses. These businesses not only raise awareness of our work but also raise essential funding.

One of our new drop in spaces is the Lantern Community Hub, situated in St Mary's Street. A welcome and accessible drop in space for all of our communities support needs that acts as a Single Point Of Contact for all of our services. No referral needed, you simply just pop in. Its location is 56 St Mary's Street and offers support include : housing support, access to all Lantern support teams, Access Wellbeing and soon partner agencies as well.

We are proud to have our sponsors who have enabled this project to happen St Jude's Care Ltd Kingsley Home Care - West Dorset Wilson Tominey Group Weyline Taxis Weymouth

07/08/2026

📈 The Lantern Trust continues to grow its impact.

In 2025/26, we supported a record 1,467 individuals, helping more people than ever before access the support they need.

Key highlights from the year:

🏠 84 people housed into secure accommodation.
🤝 16,723 interventions delivered across our services.
👥 1,467 people assisted, the highest number in our history.
⭐ 681 people with complex needs supported.
📞 878 new referrals welcomed into our services.

These figures represent thousands of opportunities to rebuild lives, improve wellbeing, prevent homelessness, and provide support when it is needed most.

Behind every statistic is a person, a story, and a brighter future.

Thank you to our staff, volunteers, funders and supporters for making this impact possible. Together, we're changing lives every day. 💙

A huge thank you to Dorset Council Weymouth Town Council The National Lottery Community Fund Ellen Cooper Dean Charitable Foundation Albert Hunt Trust, St Jude's Care Ltd Kingsley Home Care - West Dorset Wilson Tominey Group Weyline Taxis Weymouth Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust NHS Dorset Crossways Travel Jan & Peter Bligh Weymouth Precision Engineers Hall & Woodhouse TML Manufacturing Weymouth & Portland Primary Care Network

31/07/2026

We believe that everyone deserves a home and with the right support, can once again thrive. We decided to purchase our own accommodation to become part of the solution and provide our customers with their own front door. Accommodation is just the beginning and this is when our comprehensive support offer gives our customers the help needed to thrive. Our Supported Accommodation Officers then put in place our intensive support offer, as well as access to all of the Lanterns hub services.

Thank you Alli and Mon for all you do!

Well done Malcolm in securing your forever home 🏠

A huge thank you to Dorset Council who fund our services and enable us to help our community.

A man who spent 10 months living in his van is calling for greater support and awareness for people facing homelessness.

26/07/2026

Amazing from our team at The Lantern Trust Charity Shop representing us in the seafront yesterday ❤️ raising awareness and funds for our work ❤️

23/07/2026

📢 WE'RE RECRUITING! 📢

Our partners at Alongside Charity are looking for a Complex Lives Navigator to join the innovative Reach Out Project in Weymouth. This is an exciting opportunity to work with people experiencing rough sleeping and complex needs, helping some of the most vulnerable members of our community access the support they need to build safer, healthier and more independent lives. The role is part-time (30 hours per week) and based in Weymouth.

🤝 About Reach Out

The Reach Out Project is a powerful collaboration bringing together a number of organisations committed to supporting people facing homelessness, rough sleeping and multiple disadvantage. Partners include:

• The Lantern Trust
• Alongside Charity
• Waythrough
• Shelter
• The Bus Shelter Dorset

Together, we combine our expertise, resources and specialist support to provide a coordinated response for people with complex needs. Through outreach, housing support, substance misuse services, advocacy and practical assistance, Reach Out helps individuals move towards stability, recovery and long-term independence.

💙 Could this be you?

As a Complex Lives Navigator, you'll: ✅ Engage directly with people sleeping rough
✅ Provide specialist support around substance misuse and complex needs
✅ Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team
✅ Help individuals access housing, treatment and recovery pathways
✅ Build trusted relationships through a trauma-informed approach

If you're passionate about making a real difference and want to be part of a partnership that is changing lives across Dorset, we'd love to hear from you.

🔗 Apply here: https://ats.sensewp.com/external/e1895948-1967-9235-ce06-764edbdbc21a/528a1585-a90c-4c34-9ad9-aa999312af27

Please share this post and help us find the right person to join this fantastic partnership team.

The Bus Shelter Dorset Shelter Alongside Charity

22/07/2026

Big news! 🛑

The 200-year-old Vagrancy Act has finally been officially repealed.

As of June 2026, rough sleeping and begging are no longer treated as criminal offences in England and Wales. This historic shift moves the focus away from fines and arrests, pointing vulnerable people toward housing, healthcare, and real support instead. New laws will now target aggressive organised begging rather than penalising poverty. 🏠❤️

Our CEO Mike Graham says :-

"The Lantern has always believed that when you replace punishment with support, all can thrive. We have built our hubs to be able to respond to the support that our communities needed. The Safer Street Partnership is something that has proven this approach. Myself and David Parr from Dorset Police came together to reduce ASB by offering support when there were issues. The result, reduced ASB and more people receiving support. The approach was based on Operation Luscombe but instead of looking to punish, we looked at offering more support. The only way this is able to work is by having a whole person support offer and collaboration. We welcome the law change and will always look to support rather then punish"

Thank you Lloyd Hatton MP for South Dorset for supporting our vital work in Dorset 🤝

20/07/2026

We welcome the update from the new PM, Andy Burnham, Andy Burnham

This is a significant and welcome commitment. For those of us working on the frontline of homelessness, it reinforces something we've long believed: ending rough sleeping is possible when organisations, communities and public services come together with a shared purpose.

At The Lantern Trust, we were at the forefront of the response to rough sleeping during the COVID pandemic. Through our Safe Sleep project, delivered in partnership with local churches, we provided emergency accommodation and support for some of the most vulnerable people in our community.

When COVID restrictions were introduced, we had to act almost overnight. Working closely with our partners at Dorset Council, we successfully moved people from a church hall setting into safe, secure accommodation. It was a remarkable demonstration of what can be achieved when everyone pulls together.

From that response grew the Rough Sleepers Pathway, strengthening collaboration between agencies and creating better support for people experiencing homelessness. Together, we saw rough sleeping fall in Dorset against the national trend, something we are incredibly proud to have played a part in.

But our work is far from finished. The next challenge is prevention: ensuring people get the right help before they reach crisis point.

That is exactly what The Lantern Trust's Specialist Hub is designed to do. By bringing a wide range of support services together in one accessible place, we help people access the advice, guidance and practical support they need across all areas of life, from housing and finances to wellbeing, employment and community connection.

If we are serious about ending rough sleeping for good, we must continue building on the partnerships, innovation and prevention-focused approaches that have already shown they can make a real difference.

Thank you to Dorset Council for funding our services

08/07/2026

When we talk about Integrated Neighbourhood Care, we are talking about prevention. Support offered in assessable venues in a way we can all engage in. No referral red tap, just open access to our support.

The Lantern Community Hub is evidence of this approach working and people accessing all Lantern services from a community setting. This builds on the other hubs we have established over many years.

All of this is only happening because of our partners who sponsored the space and made this happen 🤝

A huge thank you to Kingsley Home Care - West Dorset St Jude's Care Ltd and Wilson Tominey Group for sponsoring the space and for literally supporting a life changing provision for our community ❤️