Frontline Frontline ISSUE 36 SPRING 2009
In this issue... 2 President’s Message 3 Thank you! 4 Shane’s Story 6 Karen’s Story 8 Creative corner
A NEWSLETTER FOR SUPPORTERS OF MATTHEW TALBOT HOMELESS SERVICES
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE I am pleased to share with you our latest edition of Frontline and to thank you for your ongoing support of our work with people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. As I write this, the worst of winter is now behind us, and it is always a relief for the people we assist when the promise of warmer days and nights can be felt in the coming of spring. It’s never bearable being homeless but the biting winter cold makes the experience even more desperate. On one of the coldest nights this year, the St Vincent de Paul Society held its CEO Sleepout, in which more than 220 business leaders slept out at Luna Park to raise awareness about homelessness, as well as funds for Matthew Talbot Homeless Services.
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A staff participant at the Ozanam Learning Centre, helped her transform her desperate, angry words in her journal into a powerful song called simply ‘1am’. When Karen performed it that night, many in the audience were brought to tears. Karen’s song spoke of hope and it is that hope that is the basis of the work we do. Karen is on stable ground now; and her future looks brighter thanks to your support. Later this year we will open the new Vincentian House which means we will be able to offer even more families the hope that Karen has gained. The existing Vincentian Village is being relocated, expanded and refurbished to care for three times the number of homeless women and families.
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Dear Friends,
The solutions aren’t always easy but with support and resources most people can move through homelessness so it becomes a just a part of their life journey.
Your generous and compassionate support of our work ... is widely known and highly valued...
It was a humbling event for participants, most of whom have contacted us to say the event changed them; that one night of deprivation has given them a greater understanding of what it would be like to be homeless. One of the most powerful moments of the night was when several people who have been assisted by Vinnies spoke, and sang, for the assembled crowd. One of them was Karen. Karen is a 26-year-old woman for whom life has been hard, resulting in a chaotic accommodation history. Suffering depression and a borderline personality order, she finally found shelter in the Society’s Vincentian Village, where she discovered a singing voice she didn’t know she had.
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This work is only possible because of the trust and support you give us. Each day we see the real and powerful effect of that help. Lives are changed; and people who have been imprisoned by their disadvantage are set free. Thank you. Yours sincerely,
Beverley Kerr President, Matthew Talbot Homeless Services
Poverty and severe hardship affect more than one million Australians.
THANK YOU! Some of the less-known outcomes of the global financial crisis are those faced by people in temporary and insecure housing arrangements. For many, the cycle of homelessness is hard to escape, and is a closer reality for more people asa consequence of the global financial crisis.
Thank you for your generous support of Matthew Talbot Homeless Services 2009 Winter Appeal. The generosity of our supporters over the bleak winter months brought great comfort and warmth to many people who needed it most.
Matthew Talbot Homeless Services will be there for the long-term, helping give people choices for their future, and to rebuild their lives after the onset of crisis. Thanks to your support, we can continue to bring hope, comfort and relief to over 900,000 people in NSW annually. Thank you.
NEWS - FROM CRISIS TO HOPE Lisa now has a part-time job in the community services field and is about to move into her own apartment where she will continue to receive support from the outreach team. She has been able to deal with Jake’s passing and is now re-establishing her self in the community. In October, Vincentian House will move into new, larger, purpose-built premises with 24 family units and 11 single womens’ rooms. Your support is enabling Vincentian House to triple in size and offer care and support to single women, single mothers, single fathers and mothers with at least one teenage son (who are not catered for by many services). Vincentian House will offer the opportunity for caseworkers to connect clients to other services such as Centrelink, counsellors and the Homeless Persons Legal Service who will visit Vincentian House to work with clients ensuring that good support is made available. Lisa, a social worker, suffered severe post traumatic stress and suicidal inclinations following a tragic motor vehicle accident. Three years later, Lisa’s partner of six years, Jake, was diagnosed with leukemia and fell into a coma. Evicted from the family home by Jake’s adult son and daughter, Lisa was forced to sleep in her car, until she was referred to Vincentian Village. After four months of intensive support from Vincentian House, made possible by your generosity,
With thanks to your generosity, Vincentian House will provide stability, education, continuity and family focus to help children avoid intergenerational poverty. Vincentian House will work with another Matthew Talbot Homeless Service, the Ozanam Learning Centre, in focusing on educational intervention, with an aim to restore confidence and hope and enable people like Lisa to achieve independent living and employment.
For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12
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SHANE’S STORY
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Western Sydney rates extremely poorly on health, income levels, education and housing.
SHANE’S STORY
Shane’s been sleeping in his car, having been evicted from his flat near Wentworthville when an injury meant he was unable to find work. “I try and sleep during the day”, he says. “It’s too dangerous at night. You’ve got to stay awake, you know, be on guard. “I reckon the hardest thing about being homeless is not knowing how everything works. Nobody tells you where you can get food or how to apply for housing. There’s a whole stack of forms and you’ve got to figure it all out by yourself. It’s really hard. “I’m not afraid of putting in a good day’s work. There’s just nothing around at the moment. And it’s a bit hard to go looking for work if your address is the back seat of your car. No one wants to know you.” With homelessness on the rise in Western Sydney,
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Cheap Meals’ guides for Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains. She hands these out to people accessing the van. It’s another example of people pulling together to help each other out. Move beyond the major centres of Parramatta and Penrith and into the suburbs and the story is the same. “Homelessness and unemployment are the biggest problems we’re seeing out here at the moment,” says John Stone, Manager of the St Vincent de Paul Society’s Caroline Chisholm Centre. In the space of two years, the number of homeless people seeking assistance from the centre has increased six-fold. This is unprecedented. The centre staff are coping the best they can. Fortunately they offer a range of services broad enough to provide assistance to most people. Travel even further out west and the situation is no better. The Blue Mountains township of Katoomba is also experiencing a sharp increase in the severity and rate of homelessness. Steep rental increases and the ongoing shortfall in affordable housing supply across Sydney is forcing people to look elsewhere
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“I’ve been out here for about 2 weeks,” says twentyeight year old Shane. He cups his hands around a hot mug of tea, his face drawn and tired. “It’s been a bit tough lately but it’s really good to come here and be able to talk to somebody”, he adds, forcing out a beleaguered hint of a smile.
It’s too dangerous at night. You’ve got to stay awake, you know, be on guard.
Shane is one of a growing throng of homeless people seeking help through a range of St Vincent de Paul Society services.
for accommodation. Many come to regions like the mountains, only to discover the housing and employment situation is no better.
Alison Bryett runs the Vinnies Night Patrol Van in the Parramatta and Penrith areas. “We’ve always had steady flow of homeless people accessing the van”, she says, “but we’ve never had the numbers we’re seeing this year.”
More than 125 years of helping the homeless, beginning at St Patricks Church Hill and progressing through to the 37 facilities and programs comprising Matthew Talbot Homeless Services today means the Society is well placed to address the growing crisis of homelessness head on.
“Most winters, people will head north and try to find work fruit picking or labouring. This year it’s different. Work has dried up and affordable accommodation is scarce so we’re seeing a lot more people in trouble.” Finding regular supplies of fresh food can also be a problem in an area like Western Sydney where services are spread over a large area and run by various organisations. To help overcome this problem, Alyson has worked with other agencies to compile ‘Free and
There will always be new and demanding challenges in the area of homelessness. Without doubt, the changes we are witnessing in Western Sydney are cause for concern, yet with the help of our generous donors, Matthew Talbot Homeless Services will continue to show people they do not have to face this crisis on their own.
credit card donationsvisit visit www.vinnies.org.au www.vinnies.org.au oror phone 1313 18 18 12 12 ForFor credit card donations phone
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KAREN’S STORY For Karen, 26, who has been homeless for about six years this is a huge moment. She’s unbelievably nervous as she approaches the microphone. She is about to sing, for the first time, a song she has written about her experiences to an audience of more than 200 business leaders at a major Vinnies fundraising event. Her heart is racing. It’s a haunting and powerful piece, called simply ‘1am’; a reference to that awful, still, moment in the middle of the night when the loneliness and despair is amplified. The room is captivated by her performance which is raw and strong. Suddenly homelessness is not an abstract notion. Here it is. This is homelessness: this young woman with the lovely voice; this real person; Karen. The audience gives a rapturous applause. Karen bursts into joyous laughter. She cannot believe what she has achieved. This performance is, in many ways, a turning point for her. She has overcome her fear and her shyness and taken her life and turned it into something important. Few who hear the song will forget the lyrics.
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Family breakdown is one of the most common factors placing people at risk of homelessness.
KAREN’S STORY
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her bourgeoning musical talent through the Ozanam Learning Centre. One day she was sharing her journal entries, an unfiltered stream of thoughts and feelings, with one of the staff, Daniel, who works on the music program. She should, he said, take those words and the emotion within them and put them to music. Together, they played around with them for a while and the song that was to become the hit of that evening two months later was born.
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It’s been a long and complex journey that’s brought Karen to this point. She has struggled for years with depression and borderline personality disorder before finally being diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her accommodation history was chaotic after she’d fallen out of the private rental market, and a pattern of moving from one temporary place to another soon was set. Any notion of stability was long lost. She passed through hotels, and refuges; violence, rebellion and alcohol stalked her.
Here it is. This is homelessness; this young woman with the lovely voice; this real person; Karen. Family dynamics were also messy, and Karen’s onoff-relationship with her mother failed to survive the pressure. In hindsight, she says “a lot of my problems could have been avoided if they were dealt with early.”
After Karen performed to the crowd that night she was on a high. The feedback was overwhelming and humbling. She’d been heard. And after years of being all but invisible, lost in the shambles of her life, she had now been seen. She was back…
Early this year, Karen moved into Vinnies Vincentian House in inner-city Sydney. Once in stable accommodation for the first time in years, and with the support of staff, Karen was ready to accept mental health treatment, the first step in rebuilding her life.
Slowly, the pieces have begun to fall back into place. Karen again sees a future, and that future looks good. “A good friend told me I should be a counsellor and that’s exactly what I’m going to be,” she says. “I’m now starting to get to a place where I can use what I have learnt to help people.”
With your support and the help of staff at Vincentian House, Karen has been able to get back on top of that life. She was given the opportunity to develop
Your support has brought stability, hope and confidence into Karen’s life. Thank you.
BEQUESTS
Wills and Bequests www.vinnies.org.au Please tick the appropriate boxes:
Yes, I would like to receive an information pack about remembering Matthew Talbot Homeless Services in my will. Thank you, I have already included Matthew Talbot Homeless Services in my Will. Please enrol me in ‘Forever Friends of Matthew Talbot Homeless Services’. Please complete the following details and post to: PO Box 259, Petersham, NSW, 2049 Title:
Full name:
Address: Phone:
Email:
During her lifetime Margaret Laurie did what she could to help. And in her Will she remembered the Matthew Talbot Homeless Services. The recent purchase of a computer has enabled housebound Gordon to keep in touch with his family, and 26 young people were sponsored to join our motivational skills program. Margaret’s legacy is making a difference and will still be enjoyed for years to come. Bequests help us to serve those who are in need in concrete & practical ways.
For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12
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CREATIVE CORNER
36 FRONTLINE
ISSUE 36, SPRING 2009
‘Frontline’ is produced by Community and Corporate Relations (CCR), St Vincent de Paul Society NSW. ABN: 46 472 591 335 004 Copyright 2009 Editor: Marion Frith Designer: Rachel Anne Irvine Writers: Dane Hiser, Marion Frith, Andy Marks, Jessica Moss-Wellington Responsibility for the content of this publication is taken by Julie McDonald. Because we respect the privacy of the people we assist, names in this newsletter may have been changed, stories summarised and pictorial models used. For more information about Matthew Talbot Homeless Services telephone: (02) 9560 8666 or visit: www.vinnies.org.au All correspondence can be sent to: Publications and Design Coordinator CCR, St Vincent de Paul Society PO Box 5, Petersham, NSW, 2049 Email: rachel.irvine@vinnies.org.au Printing by Lindwall & Ward Distribution by B&C Mailing
The laneway outside the Matthew Talbot Homeless Services hostel in Woolloomooloo, Sydney, is where a significant number of men spend their days. It’s a long, bleak laneway that cuts the hostel from the neighbouring streets. One of the men has made it his life’s work to decorate the laneway’s brick wall with his own street art. Day after day he carefully prints random, single words in each brick; words that mean little to the passersby who are captivated by the artwork. There’s an order and a symmetry that is haunting. What does it mean? Well, only the artist knows, and it actually doesn’t matter. The words give structure and order to a man whose life has lost it. It gives him pride and sense of purpose, and it fills his days. And whenever the wall is painted over, he painstakingly starts again. Clearly, its creation is a journey not a destination.
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