A shelter in Maidstone is appealing for help this winter.

For 12 weeks, between January 3 and March 28, churches and other buildings across the town will be opening their doors to homeless people, and offering them a hot meal and a bed.

This year 15 beds will be available, at a different venue each night, but the charity behind the project is in desperate need of volunteers to staff it.

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Maidstone Churches Winter Shelter is looking for people who are available from 9pm to 7am, especially on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Every night four volunteers stay at the shelter, with the evening split so that two are awake and two asleep at any one time.

Overnight volunteers sleep in a room away from the guests so they aren’t disturbed.

The shelter is also appealing for a cook for Wednesday evenings, and businesses to help with laundry.

Project manager Alexa Kersting-Woods said: “Volunteers don’t need any experience of working with homeless people or previous volunteering, they just need to want to help some of our town’s most vulnerable people on some of the coldest nights of the year”

Last year 77 homeless people were supported by the project, which had 200 volunteers.

Estimates suggest there were more than 3,500 rough sleepers on any one night in the UK in 2015.

To volunteer call 01622 296 450. Alternatively you can help by donating non-feather pillows and pillow cases, fundraising, or hosting a collection tin.