What’s involved?
Donate
Money to any of the organisations that help the homeless. You can find them below and visit their own web site to find out how you can donate.
Clothes. Get all the old and unused clothes you can find. Ask your family, friends and neighbours for their old stuff. Make sure the clothes are clean and put them in a big plastic bag. Then all you have to do is take them down to those clothing dump bins, near shopping centres or to St Vinnies, the Salvos or other such places. Don’t dump the stuff outside the Op shops though! The bins are there for a reason.
Food. You might have even done this before by donating cans of food for a food drive.
- Organise a food drive with your friends, family, neighbours, club, or whoever to donate to the Salvation Army’s Christmas Assistance.
- Sometimes your local shopping centre will have a food donations bin, particularly around Christmas, outside the supermarkets. Remember when you go shopping to buy something that you can pop in the bins–the food bins that is.
- Buy a copy of the Big Issue, sold by people that are homeless, mostly in capital cities. For only $4 you can get a good read and help out the person you are buying it from. Stop for a chat with the person selling the Big Issue and find out more about them. Even a chat about the weather can make both you and the seller feel better. Find out more about the Big Issue at http://www.bigissue.org.au.
Volunteer
There are heaps of services that require volunteers, such as working in a soup kitchen. Here is a list of the services in each state that you can volunteer at:
http://www.actnow.com.au/Action/Links_to_homelessn...
Find a local social service near you at
http://www.serviceseeker.com.au. Just type in 'homeless' in the ‘search for’ box and your suburb or postcode. There will be a list services for homeless people. Just contact them to see if they provide volunteering opportunities or ways to help out.
Events
Anti-Poverty Week. This is an Australia-wide program held every October. The aim of this week is to raise awareness about poverty and hardship in Australia and worldwide, and to encourage research, discussion and policy to address the problems of poverty such as homelessness.There are so many ways you can get involved during Anti-Poverty Week, checkout how at
http://www.antipovertyweek.org.au.
National Homeless Persons Week is held in August every year and there are a whole range of activities you can do during this week, such as:
Organisations
The organisations listed below have heaps of things you can do to help out homeless people. Check out their sites and contact them to see what you can do.
- Australian Federation of Homeless Organisations (AFHO)advocates for the rights of people who are homeless working towards an end to homelessness. AFHO represents over 1200 homeless services providers. http://www.afho.org.au
- Mission Australia As a non-denominational Christian organisation, Mission Australia provides homeless people with immediate aid whilst offering practical and emotional support to help them turn their lives around. http://www.mission.com.au
- Salvation Army An international Christian organisation and the largest support agency in Australia for homeless people. http://www.salvos.org.au
- St Vincent De Paul This is a Catholic organisation that provides all sorts of services for the poor, with heaps of things to do for homeless people. http://www.vinnies.org.au
- Anglicare is a welfare and community mission of the Anglican Church that helps out many homeless people through a range of services http://www.anglicare.org.au
- Food Bank gets a bunch of manufacturers in the food industry to donate their products to those in need, basically depositing food which is why it is called Food Bank. There are Food Banks in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia where you can donate and volunteer. http://www.foodbankaustralia.org.au
Why should people do this?
I want to do this!
