ISSUE 35 AUTUMN 2009

FrontlineFrontline

In this issue...

2 President’s Message

3 Thank you!

4 Ellen’s Story 6 Rosa’s Story

8 Creative corner

A NEWSLETTER FOR SUPPORTERS OF MATTHEW TALBOT HOMELESS SERVICES

2 For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

There are more young women experiencing homelessness than young men.

Dear friends,

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 homelessness. I am also delighted to have this op-portunity to introduce my-

self to you, as the new President of Matthew Talbot Homeless Services.

Your generous and compassionate support of our work through regular giving, appeal donations and bequests, is highly valued by the volunteers, staff and most importantly, the people we assist everyday. I am most honoured to have the opportunity to work alongside you in bringing hope, comfort and relief to the lives of the people who need it most.

Without your support we would not be able to make a difference to the lives of people like Michael and his two children. Michael was living rough and strug-gling with a serious drug addiction. He was finding it difficult just to look after himself. Two years ago, the mother of his two children, Haley and Andrew, unexpectedly left them and disappeared. Michael was shocked and distraught, and knew that he had to make drastic changes to his life in order to look after his children.

Michael worked with the staff and volunteers of Vin-centian House to overcome his addiction and to learn the skills he needed to become a good father. Michael now has a steady job and is enrolled in a TAFE course so that he can help Haley and Andrew with their homework. Michael now takes his children to school out in western Sydney every morning, comes back into the city for work, then goes back west in the af-

ternoon to pick them up and take them home, help with their homework, cook dinner and put them to bed. With your support and his own determination and love of his children, Michael was able to resolve his problems with drug addiction and become the fa-ther his children need.

Later this year, with your support, Matthew Talbot Homeless Services will re-open Vincentian House with new facilities and programs. Vincentian House aims to help families like Michael, Hayley and An-drew, make changes to escape homelessness and pov-erty and secure a positive future.

I was reminded recently, that generosity and compas-sion begins very early in life; when 6-year-old Christo-pher decided to fundraise for Matthew Talbot Home-less Services after seeing a homeless man on the streets of Sydney while out with his parents, Peter and Lesley. That night, Christopher found it hard to sleep as he was very worried about the man who he said “had no

shoes and only four coins on his piece of cardboard.” With the help of his parents and his school, Christo-pher held a lolly guessing competition and just after Christmas personally presented former Matthew Tal-bot Homeless Services President Barbara Ryan with a cheque to support our ongoing work with the home-less. This edition of Frontline demonstrates how you and people like Christopher help us to bring hope, com-fort and relief to the homeless who regularly face inse-curity and despair.

Yours sincerely,

Beverley KerrPresident, Matthew Talbot Homeless Services

““Your generous and compassionate support of our

work ... is widely known and highly valued...

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12 3

THANK YOU!

NEWS - VICTORIAN BUSHFIRES

Thank you for your generous support of the Matthew Talbot Homeless Services 2008 Christmas Appeal. Even in the wake of a global financial crisis, our gen-

erous supporters continued to help change the stories of the homeless during the Christmas season.

Christmas can be a very difficult time for people who live on the streets. Your support helped us bring com-fort, hope and companionship during one of the most lonely times of the year for those living without a home.

Matthew Talbot Homeless Services will be there for the long-term, helping people to rebuild their lives af-ter the onset of homelessness. Together with your help we will continue to bring relief and support to those most in need. Thank you.

The Society’s response to the Victorian bushfire trag-edy was overwhelming. A warehouse in Rowville, Victoria, became the focus of the response, as 2,700 volunteers stepped up to collect, sort and dispatch truckloads of material donations from around Aus-tralia. The donated warehouse, the size of the Mel-bourne Cricket Ground, was literally filled with goods which included food, clothing, furniture, white-goods, tools and machinery. With the immediate crisis over, the warehouse is now winding down, and the goods being dispatched to the 99 centres around Victoria where fire survivors will be able to access what they need, when they need it.

In Sydney, State Council fielded countless calls from people wanting to help. A band of tireless volunteers and the Lewisham staff produced more than 20,000 disaster collection envelopes for distribution to par-ishes. The Sydney Vietnamese Catholic Community alone raised $70,000.

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12

ELLEN’S STORY - A YOUNG LIFE OF FEAR

4 The number of families with children seeking assistance has increased by 30% over the past 5 years.

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12 5

ELLEN’S STORY - A YOUNG LIFE OF FEAR

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12 5

Ellen’s letter to Therese Reine is written in an impec-cable script, accents over the “e’s” giving the name an exotic French twist. A carefully drawn pink heart in-dicates this is a letter of real affection.

At age 10, Ellen has a lot to tell the wife of the Prime Minster but mainly she just wants her to know how good life is since she and her mum came to live at the Marian Centre.

“About a year ago, my stepdad abused my mum and me,” she writes. Spelling mistakes have been painstak-ingly rubbed out, and words reformed. “When we escaped from home, I was feeling so scared and kept asking mum, ‘Where are we going now’. She kept say-ing, ‘I don’t know’. We cried sadly on the footpath… without Marian Centre and Matthew Talbot Home-less Services mum and I would never have survived.”

Ellen’s proud of that letter. It’s a joyous, optimistic and unprompted note from a child, given back her child-hood. Her school writing book – from “the best school I’ve ever been to” – is full of stories about lions and dogs, with a heavy smattering of “Great” stamps from the teacher. She’s safe now. Life is back on track.

Ellen is just one of the hundreds of children who call the Marian Centre home in any one year. The dining room is lined with high chairs and prams and stroll-ers are corralled under the stairs. A storeroom is piled high with boxes of nappies. Hokey pokey ice cream is on the menu tonight.

While their mothers are given the support and assist-ance they need in the challenging task of rebuilding their lives, the children are now free to be what they haven’t had the chance to bein a long time. Children.

Memories of their other life, however, aren’t far away. Ellen is creating an elaborate box out of paddle pop sticks, when she suddenly stops and looks up. “They locked me in my room,” she says. “My mum was screaming …..” Tears begin streaming down her tiny

face. She bites her lip. It’s moments before she can speak again. “I like it here,” she whispers.

Ellen’s conversation is peppered with references to the court proceedings associated with family violence. She’s worried there is no apprehended violence order in place. “Mum doesn’t have it yet,” she says. “She needs to have it.” But then she’s back to her craft, gig-gling because she’s made a mess with the glue.

It’s a poignant juxtaposition, young lives of fear and hurt now surrounded by warmth, love and fun. Some of the little residents are withdrawn, others aggressive, when they arrive. But a skilled and dedicated childcare team slowly coaxes them back to a happier and more confident place. The magic here is in the normalcy – the sweet hum of gentle routine, something these children have rarely experienced.

Indeed, as Ellen and the older children get on with their pasting, along the hallway in the toddler’s play-room someone has lined up all the plastic sheep in a straight line. A little girl is carefully watering the sand-pit as another two-year-old hoons around in a red car, honking the horn and waving. A baby sleeps in her pram under a tree.

It’s a haven here; a haven from the hurting, pain and humiliation they’ve experienced or witnessed. It’s a new beginning.

“Well, if you asked me what I love about the Mar-ian Centre,” Ellen says, “I would say it’s the childcare workers – they’re great”.

Another child, working alongside her, looks up quiz-zically. “Oh, that’s funny,” she says. “I like it because you’re not allowed to have guns”.

The Marian Centre and the many other women’s and family refuges run by Matthew Talbot Homeless Services would not be possible without your support. Ellen and the other children who call the refuges of Matthew Talbot Homeless Services home, thank you.

““It’s a poignant juxtaposition, young lives of fear and

hurt now surrounded by warmth, love and fun.

The number of families with children seeking assistance has increased by 30% over the past 5 years.

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 126 The number of older Australians in housing stress has doubled over the past four years.

ROSA’S STORY - NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Rosa can’t stop crying. It’s the shame, she sobs. She feels so ashamed. What did she do so wrong in life that she ended up like this? “I don’t understand,” she weeps. “I just don’t understand”.

She’s sitting in the loungeroom of Our Lady of the Way refuge in Sydney’s outer west. It’s a comfortable, cosy room, but it’s not the home she shared with her husband and family for decades. It’s not hers. At 60, Rosa imagined a very different life than this one; one in which

she basked in the comfort and security of a life well lived.

Rosa is homeless. Like the other older women in the refuge, she shudders at the

word. Homelessness is something to do with other people, not people like her. She’s a well-groomed woman, with adult children who she adores. This can’t be her story. How did a gradual sequence of events lead to here … a single bed and a few photos on a side table?

Our Lady of the Way is the only refuge in NSW to take only older, single women,

most of whom are escaping domestic vio-lence. The oldest resident was 84. The women

living here at the moment are all in their 50s and 60s. Unlike in other refuges they don’t have

to cope with the challenges of young families. But there are challenges enough; displaced mature

women suddenly sharing with stran-gers. One kitchen. One bathroom.

Lost families.

Life had gone as planned for Rosa before all of this. She’d raised her children when her husband be-came ill. He suffered degenerative brain damage, was un-able to work, and the illness lead to

dementia. He became a wan-

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12 7

BEQUESTS

Wills and BequestsYes, 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’.

www.vinnies.org.auPlease tick the appropriate boxes:

Please complete the following details and post to: PO Box 259, Petersham, NSW, 2049

All her life Dorothy had a heart for others and those who knew her will long remember her generosity and compassion for those who were homeless and marginalised.

Dorothy wanted to continue making a difference and through her Bequest her care continues.

Since she passed away in 2004, 234 formerly homeless people have been affected by her Bequest and now have hope for their future.Dorothy’s legacy continues to make a difference.

Title: Full name:

Address:

Phone: Email:

““Like other older women in the refuge, she shudders at the word.

Homelessness is something to do with other people, not people like her.

derer. Rosa moved him out of the city to a smaller community where he was less likely to get lost.

And then the story started to turn, so slowly she couldn’t see it, the shifts were so subtle. Her husband deteriorated further, his medical expenses increased. She couldn’t keep up with the bills, so her daughter offered to buy her home from her. She signed it over, but the money never came through. She went to stay with another daughter while her husband was trans-ferred back to Sydney for high dependency care in a nursing home. The slide to homelessness had begun.

That daughter was having troubles of her own; she didn’t want her mum. Rosa moved in with her sister. “All my life I gave to my children and my sister,” Rosa says disbelievingly. “All my life I was there for them.” Her European background meant she had a cultural

expectation that she would be scooped up and cared for. Her sister said she couldn’t stay. Was it three steps, or four, that made Rosa homeless? No matter. Sud-denly, she had nowhere to go.

She’s making the best of it, gaining support from other women who have found themselves homeless. They’ve

all got scars; physical or emotional. She’s having coun-selling for the first time ever. The crying in public is new for her. “I’ve always bottled up,” she says, her hand over her chest.

The future is too much to imagine. She wants her home back, somewhere she will never have to leave. It’s what all the women here want. It’s going to be a long road to find it.

For now, though, she knows she is lucky. Our Lady of the Way turns away women every day. Most seeking refuge are fleeing abuse, by partners or children. Elder abuse takes many insidious forms, sometimes physi-cal, often financial or emotional.

“The worst thing about this,” Rosa says, wiping her tears, “is that no-one wanted to help me. As a mother,

ROSA’S STORY - NO PLACE LIKE HOME

as a sister, I never thought I would be alone. I never imagined I would not have a home.”

Our Lady of the Way would not be able to provide older single women with refuge from homlessness without your help. Thank you.

The men at Matthew Talbot Homeless Services have been working for several months on a new mural outside the hostel in Woolloomooloo, Sydney. Sponsored by the City of Sydney, it was part of the Ozanam Learning Centre’s art and recreational program, designed to help the men develop skills, confidence and self-esteem.

Artist Stephen Cory (left) was one of the key contributors to the mural, which was opened by singer Jimmy Barnes, seen here autographing the wall. The men at the Talbot developed a relationship with Jimmy Barnes, who has become an unofficial ambassador for homeless people, when they sent him an artwork during his time in hospital following a heart attack. He told the crowd at the opening that he, too, had, in is life, “stood at the brink and looked over.”

‘Frontline’ is produced by Community andCorporate Relations (CCR),

St Vincent de Paul Society NSW.

Copyright 2009

Editor and Designer: Rachel Anne IrvineWriters: Dane Hiser, Marion Frith,

Jessica Moss-WellingtonResponsibility for the content of this

publication is taken by Julie McDonald.

Because we respect the privacy of thepeople we assist, names in this newsletter

may have been changed, storiessummarised and pictorial models used.

For more information about Matthew TalbotHomeless Services telephone: (02) 9560 8666

or visit: www.vinnies.org.au

All correspondence can be sent to:Publications Officer

CCR, St Vincent de Paul SocietyPO Box 5, Petersham, NSW, 2049

Email: rachel.irvine@vinnies.org.au

Printing by B&C Mailing

35FRONTLINEISSUE 35, AUTUMN 2009

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