'Never give up’ - an inspiring Easter message

“Never give up” is the message this Easter from one member of staff at The Salvation Army in Wales. Ray Faulkner is a support worker on ‘The Breakfast Run’ organised by The Open Door Project in Newport, delivered by The Salvation Army from a building in School Lane.

Ray’s life was out of control for many years as he experienced exclusion, racism and the feeling that every door was closed to him. With nowhere to turn, he was pulled into street gangs, crime and the criminal justice system. But Ray refused to let his story finish there.

Ray was born in London in 1962 and due to severe asthma was sent by his mother and father to Jamaica and raised by his grandparents. Aged 16, he returned to the UK and settled in Bristol with his mother, experiencing racism for the first time.

Ray said: 

“I arrived in the city a week after the 1980 riots. It was a volatile place. Getting a job was not easy for a young black lad fresh into the UK from the West Indies. It was a culture shock as I’d never experienced racism back in Jamaica. I rebelled and pushed back against life. My anger and aggression got worse. I felt harassed by the police. So, I was drawn into the only thing left which was gangs and street crime and I started to get into trouble.”

Ray enjoyed a job at a sandwich bar in Bristol market which sparked his lifelong interest in preparing food. But he often ended up in trouble with the law spending time in custody. Eventually, he was handed a longer jail term, which he describes as a ‘life sentence’ before being released in 2018. 

After his release he successfully applied for a job as a support worker with The Salvation Army providing food and support on a breakfast run for people experiencing homelessness.

Ray added: 

“When I came out of prison, I was volunteering and cooking food for people experiencing homelessness during the Covid lockdown. This employment opportunity with The Salvation Army was like the heavens opened and God stretched his hand down to tell me this was my time.

“My message is don’t give up, there is always hope. This was the beginning of my new life. My role involves going out very early in the morning to see people experiencing homelessness wherever they are bedded down, whether that is living in a tent, down an alleyway or underneath a bridge. I offer them breakfast, a hot drink and a piece of fruit, and I use this as an opportunity to begin to build trust and rapport. My goal is to help people into accommodation and more structured support. Knowing that I can help and make a difference is the best thing since sliced bread.”

Newport’s Outreach Programme Manager Zoë Mathias says when Ray applied for this role, it was clear he had found his purpose and they had found a colleague. 

Zoë said:

“Ray’s story is one of new beginnings. After facing racism, hardship, and more than 20 years in prison he chose hope instead of anger. On release he devoted himself to helping people. Ray has shown strength and compassion using his own experiences to connect with and uplift those who can feel forgotten. He has flourished here becoming a valuable member of the team.”

Newport’s Outreach Programme runs seven days a week and is open to anyone who is rough sleeping in Newport and the wider area. It helps around 70 people at any given time. In the past 12 months it has supported 263 people with three-quarters of those moving on positively.

The latest Welsh Government figures show Newport with one of the highest homelessness rates in Wales. In 2024–25, approximately 187.9 households per 10,000 in Newport were assessed as homeless, the equivalent of around one in every 53 households.