Homelessness with Homelessness Australia and StreetWork

On todays show I interviewed 2 guests who brought great depth and breadth to the homelessness episode. Glenda Stevens from Homelessness Australia and Tim Sheerman from StreetWork. I hope you will be as inspired as me when you listen to the podcast. I think I say amazing and inspiring way too many times but to be honest I say it as it is - they are amazing, what they do is amazing and I am inspired.

How often do we simply walk past a homeless person without giving them a second glance. 

How will my decision in Canberra affect 24,000 people?

The main driver for 
homelessness in Australia 
is domestic violence

Homelessness Australia with Glenda Stevens

Glenda brought the statistics alive helping us to understand the people behind them. One of the key points...the younger age groups make up the highest number of homeless and the greater number of those are women leaving home due to domestic violence. The children in the statistics are often the children who arrive with those women, children who have a breakdown in relationships with their families, or children who have left care. It is a very grounding interview and well worth a listen. We will cover more on domestic violence in upcoming show on International Womens Day 8th March 2015

Even these statistics are now slightly out of date... the figures are going up

These young people are incredible 
once they are given an opportunity

1. The Homeless population is made up of middle-aged man
2. People who are homeless sleep on the street
3. People choose to be homeless
4. People who are homeless just need to get a job
5. Homeless people are dangerous
6. Homelessness is simply about housing and "roof-lessness"
7. Homelessness will never happen to me
8. We will never solve homelessness

Taken from Homelessness Australia website

StreetWork with Tim Sheerman

Tim offered us an insight into the lives of some of the young people we deem to hard to work with in other areas and he reminds us how easily misunderstood these young people can be. 

Streetwork pioneered outreach youth work - they build relationships and trust and walk beside young people facing a crisis in their lives. Their youth workers go out to where the young people are, whether that is the shopping centre, the train station, the local park or their home. They provide a supportive scaffolding when the warning signs of a crumbling life appear and are able to prevent the final stages of disconnection from society such as homelessness, mental health problems, leaving school or imprisonment.

Young people have 
a metal detector for fake

StreetWork always need volunteers as they do not look for government funding. The best way you can support is:

• Attend any of their fundraising events as a guest
• Support the organising of the event, like waiting tables!
• Advocacy - Advocates are needed to support young people when they have been arrested - we are there to check they are OK and understand what is going on. 
• Become a mentor - many people want to help but this is quite a specialised area and not as needed as the others

​There is no age limit so please get in touch and see how you can help. Check out how you can get involved by using this link
 
For details of the YOUTH events like the Thursday BBQ in Chatswood run by Streetwork check out this link

Lots of young people 
don't know they are homeless

Home is more than bricks and mortar -
home is safety, security, belonging, love - it shows we have a place in society

City of Sydney Street Count

I was privileged to take part in the City of Sydney street count this year. They run these street counts bi-anually and they are used to collect accurate and up-to-date information about the number of people sleeping rough in the local area. They also help to monitor the progress of the City and its partners in reducing the numbers of people experiencing homelessness in the local area..

Street counts assist the City’s homelessness unit to develop responses to homelessness according to need. Results are regularly used to advocate to state and federal governments, along with potential partners, for the resources necessary to achieve enduring solutions to homelessness.

If you would like to see data from the street count for the last few years or learn more about how you can get involved then check out this link. 

This year they had about 200 volunteers, we went out in pairs between 1 and 3, were extremely well looked after by Sydney City Council and Mission Australia Team. I am in awe of what goes on during the night on our streets. 

There is much harshness in our world but what I saw that night was deep care.

Resources

Streetwork
Homelessness Australia
City of Sydney Street Count
Domestic Violence in Australia
Homelessness NSW
Other websites of interest:
Link2Home
YFoundations
Thanks ag

Thanks again to the Glorious Music Team for the use of their music in my show. Both tracks come from their dance albums below. Check them out...the title music is Groove Your Foundations and the sting and closing music is Tango with Truth