A NEW public awareness campaign aims to offer people “kinder ways” to help Bradford’s beggars and rough sleepers than by giving them money directly.

The Council-funded initiative, called Bradford Cares, also hopes to spark a public debate about the thorny issue of how best to help people living on the streets.

The initiative’s slogan is ‘There are kinder ways to give’, but organisers say they won’t be telling people not to give spare change to homeless people. Instead, they hope to offer a convenient alternative way to help, by setting up a ‘one stop shop’ website where people can find out about the local organisations which help the homeless and make donations.

The website, due to go live later this year, will also offer practical ways to help, from donating clothes to volunteering with local charities.

One of the organisers, Martyn Johnston, of co-operative agency Chapel Street Studios, said: “We don’t want to tell people what they should or shouldn’t be doing. We want to encourage a kind and compassionate attitude towards giving. We want to make that more convenient for people to do.”

The initiative aims to drastically cut rough sleeping and begging in the Bradford district and more than 30 local organisations are involved, including the Bridge Project, Inn Churches, Hope Housing, No Second Night Out, Arch and Lifeline.

It has received £17,000 of funding from Bradford Council’s Safer and Stronger Partnership.

Members of the public are being encouraged to take part in a new survey, opening today, on how rough sleepers should be helped. To take part, search social media for #BradfordCares.

The survey will form part of a study the initiative is conducting into people's attitudes towards helping rough sleepers and beggars, due to be published next month.

There are currently around 15 rough sleepers in the district, according to Bradford Council. A spokesman said that “not all people begging on the streets of Bradford are homeless” and that there were services available to help rough sleepers into accommodation.

The announcement comes just weeks after councillors in Shipley sparked debate by urging people not to give money directly to beggars in Saltaire and Shipley.

Yesterday, Councillor Hawarun Hussain (Green, Shipley) said she hoped the new initiative would help offer people alternative ways to help beggars. She said the reasons people found themselves on the streets were “complex” and they needed a lot of support to turn their lives around.

She said: “It’s incredibly hard not to give. I have done it myself. It’s incredibly hard, if someone says, ‘Have you got £1, or £2?’, to say no.”