AOU at Homeless Connect Warehouse
A tight-knit group from the Australian Operating Unit (AOU) team visited the Homeless Connect (HC) warehouse in Welshpool to help sort through donations for Homeless Connect Perth. The day kicked off with Volunteering WA’s CEO Tina Williams welcoming the team at the warehouse and providing the team with a background of HC and its importance to the less privileged.
Homeless Connect, a one-day event based on a one-stop-shop model of immediate service provision to homeless people, has been held over the last ten years. It connects government agencies, corporations, community sectors and volunteers in providing a diverse range of free essential services to people experiencing homelessness.
Free services include: housing assistance; psychological support and counselling; legal advice; employment and training services; medical, dental, podiatry and optometry services; massage & natural therapy treatments; a ‘free’ shop facility with food, clothing, toiletries & household items; personal hygiene assistance (haircuts, showers and clothing); identification help (births/deaths/marriages); budgeting advice and financial counselling; breakfast, morning tea and a lunch service – all complimentary.
Tina highlighted that each year Homeless Connect run a donations drive; the organisers request items that service providers have identified as in demand by the homeless and less privileged. The types of items that are needed include toiletries, clothing, shoes, sanitary products and food.
After the team were briefed and watched a short video from the previous year’s event, they all jumped straight into sorting clothing – only the best items were selected and hung up on racks, or carefully folded into boxes, ready for donation. Non-perishable foods were sorted into categories, placed into boxes and stacked up ready to be sent to the Homeless Connect event for the next week. Matching sets of clean bedding were put into sets and packed into bags, shoes were sorted and laced-up and finally jewellery was detangled and sorted for the clothing shop-like racks.
For such a small team, they achieved so much! One volunteer remarked that a positive outcome was:
“Seeing what donations are in demand, and feeling like we’ve helped”
It’s important that the guests at Homeless Connect are provided with the best and only the best, as this is their day to feel special – to feel like cared-for individuals who are treated with dignity and humanity.