A NEWSLETTER FOR SUPPORTERS OF THE ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETYISSUE 26 SPRING 2009

One oiceOne oiceVV

In this issue...

2 Thank you!

3 Vincentian House

4 Cameron’s Story

6 Jim’s Story

8 Creative corner

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

THANK YOU!

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Mental health is predicted to be a leading burden of disease in Australia by 2020.

Dear friends,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the latest edition of One Voice, and to thank you for your generous support through regular giving, appeal donations and bequests.

We’re at the time in the year when Spring is upon us, bringing the wonderful renewal and hope it symbolizes. It’s the moment when we are reminded that the cold of winter will always pass, and that sunny days will always follow. In that sense the season is a metaphor for the work we are able to do thanks to your help – to facilitate new beginnings by helping the darkness pass for countless Australians. And indeed, the coming warm days are of themselves a relief to those doing it tough, with a respite from the pressure of finding warm clothes, bedding and the money for heating bills.

It’s appropriate then that this Spring we will be opening our new Vincentian House in inner-city Sydney. The existing facility will be replaced by a new,

purpose-built centre that will have 24 family units and 11 single women’s units. The service will make a real and tangible difference to the lives of people in need and their children, by providing stability, education, continuity and family focus to break intergenerational poverty.

In this edition of One Voice you’ll meet Cameron, and Sara, and their children; two single parents who suddenly and out-of-the-blue found themselves with nowhere to live. Both families came to live at Vincentian House where staff worked closely with them to rebuild their lives. With your support, both have now moved into their own homes, where our outreach teams continue to offer help when needed.

When I read through One Voice I was humbled once again by the difference we are able to make together to individual’s lives.

Sincerely,

Barbara RyanPresident, St Vincent de Paul Society NSW

We extend a huge thank you for your overwhelming support of the St Vincent de Paul Society’s 2009 Winter Appeal. The generosity of our supporters over the typically bleak winter months brought great comfort and warmth to many people who needed it most.

Vinnies in NSW continues to provide support to people in crisis the thoughts and expressions of whom we showcased in a journal which shows how they feel TODAY. We hope that these windows of insight will highlight how easy it is, with a little generosity, to make TOMORROW different for people in many areas of need.

Thank you.Jimmy Barnes at the State Library exhibition of the TODAY journal.

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

NEWS - PROVIDING A FAMILY FOCUS

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

Sara is a single mother with three children, Gabrielle, 16, Damian, 13, and Stephanie, 11. Sara was evicted from her private rental house after a relationship breakdown, unable to continue to pay the rent on her own. The stress and pressure of the break-up, losing her home, and feeling like she was failing to provide for her children, led Sara to develop severe depression. She moved into Vincentian House where staff worked closely with her. With support, Sara’s depression stabilised and she began to see the strength she had as a mother to have gotten her children through this stage of their life with minimal disruption to their schooling and well-being. Sara and her family now live independently in a community housing property. In October, Vincentian House will move into new and larger purpose-built premises with 24 family units and 11 women’s units. Your support is enabling Vincentian House to triple in size and offer care and

support to single women, single fathers and mothers, as well as two-parent families.

Through your generosity, Vincentian House will offer stability, education, continuity and family focus to break intergenerational poverty.

The Kids Engaged in Education Program (KEEP) is designed by Vincentian House specifically for children and young people such as Gabrielle, Damian and Stephanie. The program is underpinned by a set of seven strategies designed to encourage children to maintain meaningful engagement in school and education-based activities. These include: school attendance; homework and tutoring assistance; in-house activities; assessment and referral; parent education; community connections and positive role models; and the promotion of healthy living.

NEW VINCENTIAN HOUSE OPENS TO FAMILIES IN NEED

44 59,000 low income or underemployed Australians went without meals in 2004.

CAMERON’S STORY

5For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 1259,000 low income or underemployed Australians went without meals in 2004.

CAMERON’S STORY

At 47, Cameron never thought he would be without a home. He’d worked all his life, and the positions he’d held in the hotel industry had usually come with accommodation.

But last year, he changed jobs to work at a small finance company. The late nights and shift work had caught up with him and he felt the new job would offer opportunities for career advancement. He thought this was a job that would provide a more secure future for him and his children, aged 16 and 20.

However, leaving the hotel industry meant he and his children had to move out of the pub he was managing. He didn’t think finding a rental property would be a problem, so he and his daughter moved into a cheapish hotel while they found a place.

Until that moment Cameron was a working family man, whose problems were no greater or less than anyone else’s. Life had had its usual ups and downs. He was a hard and proud worker. The notion of unemployment was something he had rarely considered.

Then, without warning, the finance company folded. Cameron was out of a job, shocked and shaken. Suddenly he was trying to pay the hotel bill from his savings. Without a salary, the search for a permanent home was forced to come to a grinding halt.

Understandably, the money soon ran out and the pair was evicted from the hotel. It was a bitter irony, given the decades he had worked in the industry. Incredibly, his ex-partner, with whom his son was now living much of the time, had also found herself experiencing a similar crisis.

Cameron and his family are the new face of homelessness. Until then, he’d never needed any assistance; he was new to poverty. He wasn’t plagued with drug or alcohol issues, he had a family, and he didn’t want this to be his story.

He had no choice in the end but to move with his children into a Vinnies-run centre, the Vincentian House Family and Women’s Service. Its inner-city location meant his son had to get up at 5am to get to his school in Western Sydney, and his daughter was facing a long commute to her job. Tragically, travelling between mum and dad’s had become traveling between two homeless shelters at opposite sides of the city.

Cameron’s story is unfortunately symbolic of a recurring theme as the recession takes hold: people who, despite being proactive and not being impeded by some of the more traditional casual factors of homelessness, cannot secure stable accommodation.

Staff at Vincentian House were struck by Cameron’s dignity and determination. Each day he diligently

applied for about 10 jobs. As he said, “At best they say you are too old, or too experienced, or not experienced enough. Most of them, you get no reply.” He worked with centre staff to pursue his simple dreams of employment and stable housing for himself and his family. He’d been there six months, straining at the bit, when his efforts finally hit pay dirt: he got at job. Finding a home soon followed.

Now, less than a year after he was rendered homeless, Cameron and his children are back on track, thanks to the crisis support and continuing outreach of Vinnies.

He is just one of the hundreds of individuals and families we work with to ensure their experience of homelessness is a passing one. For some people, with much more complex and challenging needs, the road back is longer and harder. But, no matter their needs, we stay with them until they are back on safe ground.

“I tell you.” Cameron says. “When you’ve been there, all you know is that you never want to go there again.”

““At best they say you are too old,

or too experienced, or not experienced enough. Most of them, you get no reply.

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 126

JIM’S STORY

One out of every five Australians will experience some form of mental illness each year.

In his own words, Jim’s mental health “wasn’t too good”. He’d struggled with it for years, trying to fight off the demons and manage the side effects of strong medication. Most days it was just too hard, and he’d succumb to his illness, languishing for days at a time alone, and lonely, in his bed-sit.

“You can’t know what its like to have a mental illness unless you do,” Jim says. “It’s worse, I reckon, than just about any other illness because it’s your head. You can’t do anything without your head working right: lose your legs you get a wheelchair. Lose your mind…” He sighs.

A few years ago one of Jim’s health workers introduced him to the Vinnies-run Compeer program, a friendship program for people with mental illness. Volunteers are teamed up with a person who could do with a friend and the pair spend time together each week doing what friends do; going to the movies, having a coffee, a walk in the park, a day at the beach … those ordinary, pleasurable activities that give life its richness. The program helps pull people out of loneliness, and help them experience the power of a

simple, true friend.

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12 7One out of every five Australians will experience some form of mental illness each year.

Wills and BequestsYes, I would like to receive an information pack about remembering the St Vincent de Paul Society in my Will.

Thank you, I have already included the St Vincent de Paul Society in my Will. Please enrol me in ‘Forever Friends of the St Vincent de Paul Society’.

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

Please complete the following details and post to: PO Box 19, Petersham, NSW, 2049

During his lifetime John Huntley

did what he could to help.

And in his Will he remembered

the St Vincent de Paul Society.

The recent purchase of a

wheelchair has enabled Helen

to get out and about at last,

and 26 young people have

been matched to a Mentor

who will help with their reading

development. John’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.

Title: Full name:

Address:

Phone: Email:

JIM’S STORY

Jim’s Compeer friend is Bill. They’re both in their late 40s. Bill runs his own business and has a busy family life, but he knew joining Compeer was an important thing to do. “I’m one of those people who has never had a day’s loneliness in my life,” he says. “And it’s something I don’t think any human should have to endure, not when you look at how many people there are in the world.”

His wife, Grace, is also a Compeer volunteer and on the days Bill goes out with Jim, Grace is off with her friend Samantha.

“

“You can’t know what its like to have a mental illness unless you do...

Most weeks, Jim and Bill go fishing. They take the rods down to the rocks in eastern Sydney and wait, usually in vain, for the big one. They talk, and laugh … and enjoy moments of companionable silence. They grab a bite to eat.

“That’s my best day,” Jim says. “When we head off fishing, I feel so wonderful. I just know its going to be a beautiful morning.” Some weeks, Bill is the only person he talks to.

Compeer is a very worthwhile program that was started because of a generous bequest left to the St

Vincent de Paul Society over a decade ago. A kind donor whose son had experienced mental illness left a provision in their will that enabled Vinnies to begin the program. That bequestor saw the chance to make a lasting legacy that would change lives, in memory of her late son. Her son had been lonely for much of his short life, and she had witnessed the emotional ravage it had wreaked, compounding his anguish and isolation.

A bequest is a powerful tool. It’s a final gift that leaves the donor’s hand print on the world they leave behind.

It’s like a passing of the baton; the goodness I have been shown in my own life, I now pass on to you.

Jim doesn’t know anything about Vinnies’ bequest program. And if you asked him, he’d probably say it doesn’t affect him. Yet, of course it does. Those moments with the sun on his back, the line in the water, and a mate at his side didn’t happen by accident. They were a gift, a gift from someone he will never know but whose spirit lingers in the shadows of those happy, joy-filled days.

For information on remembering Vinnies in your will contact our bequest team on (02) 9560 8666.

The St Vincent de Paul Society Assisting Refugee Kids (SPARK) program is an example of the Migrant and Refugee Team’s work in supporting refugee kids and their families in their transition into local communities.

In 2008, the Refugee Council of Australia’s theme for Refugee Week was A Place to Call Home. The SPARK program collected stories and drawings from 100 primary school children of refugee background illustrating what A Place to Call Home meant to them.

Vinnies used these stories and pictures to help support a submission to a government inquiry. This submission details the experiences of students, families and individuals of African refugee backgrounds, accessing the specialised programs and services that Vinnies offers. These images, giving life to real experiences, prove that a picture really does tell a thousand words.

Thanks to your support, refugee kids are able to find a place to call home.

CALL THE DONATION HOTLINE: 13 18 12 OR VISIT: www.vinnies.org.au

CREATIVE CORNER

26ONE VOICEISSUE 26, SPRING 2009

‘One Voice’ is produced by Communityand Corporate Relations (CCR),St Vincent de Paul Society NSW.

ABN: 46 472 591 335Copyright 2009

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

Andy Marks, Jessica Moss-Wellington

Responsibility for the content of thispublication 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 the St Vincent dePaul Society, telephone: (02) 9560 8666

or visit: www.vinnies.org.au

All correspondence can be sent to:

Publications and Design CoordinatorCCR, St Vincent de Paul SocietyPO Box 5, Petersham, NSW, 2049

Email: rachel.irvine@vinnies.org.au

Printing by Lindwall & WardDistribution by B&C Mailing

If you wish to enclose a cheque (marked ‘not negotiable’) or money order, please make payable to: ‘St Vincent de Paul Society’.

Post to: PO Box 19, PETERSHAM, NSW, 2049

The St Vincent de Paul Society follows the National Privacy Principles. If you do not wish to receive any more mail from us, please tick this box. Note: Donations over $2 are tax deductable. A receipt will be mailed. 09

OV

02X

To make a one-off or regular donation to St Vincent de Paul Society, simply complete the details below and post to: PO Box 19, Petersham, NSW 2049

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