The Hilltops Health and Wellbeing Action Group with the support of Hilltops Council held a free barbecue out the front of Young Town Hall last Thursday to raise homelessness awareness.
Members of the Hilltops Health and Wellbeing Action Group are from key organisations and businesses within the local area with an interest in improving the lives of those affected by the current housing situation.
This includes Young Crisis Accommodation Centre, Grand Pacific Health, Hilltops Community Hub, Hilltops Youth Action Group, Services Australia, Vinnies (St Vincent de Paul), Mary McKillop Today, Young Community Corrections, Flemings Property Services and LJ Hooker Young.
The key goal of the group is to collaborate on how best to bring awareness to the community, support those experiencing homelessness, or at risk of it, and advocate for more services and facilities to assist those most vulnerable.
The barbecue was run by the Rapid Relied Team and was very well supported by locals passing by as well as those who came along to learn more about homelessness in the local area.
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Last week was Homelessness Awareness Week, an annual event organised by Homelessness Australia to build community support and government commitment to end homelessness.
"During this week, homelessness services and community groups come together to raise awareness of the impact of homelessness, advocate for the necessary solutions to end homelessness and drive change through national and local community events, media and social media activities," Hilltops Council said.
"This year's theme is 'Homelessness Action Now", emphasising the urgent need for actionable steps to address homelessness."
The team from Rapid Relief generously provided the barbecue for free to ensure that everyone could enjoy a meal while learning more about homelessness and how the whole community can work together to create meaningful change.
The front of Young Town Hall was covered with 327 paper people cut outs, each of which represented every single person that Young Crisis Accommodation Centre has supported in the 2023/24 financial year.
The support provided to those individuals included homelessness, risk of homelessness and domestic and family violence support.
When the statistics of those individuals is broken down the reality is heart breaking.
138 of the 327 people received help and support from YCAC for domestic and family violence with 91 of them sleeping rough or in non-conventional accommodation at the time of presenting to the service - not including those who were couch surfing.
131 children were either impacted by homelessness or impacted by homelessness and/or domestic and family violence.
YCAC's crisis accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence was at capacity for the entire period of the financial year.
Locals are being encouraged to step up and get involved to help by either finding out more or joining the Hilltops Health and Wellbeing Action Group by emailing ewhitechurch@gph.org.au or by generously donating to YCAC, visit https://www.ycac.org.au/ for more information.
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