STM Report #1
Being the newest member of the STM group I was excited to receive the Reddies this time around which totalled $1800. While I had some projects already in mind that I was going to explore once I received the funds, a move to a regioal provided an opportunity to learn more about the new community I was now living in. I wanted to explore how the Reddies could be used to offer assistance to those in need in this area rather than the city.
My journey over the last few months while researching and conversing with a spectrum of people on the Central Coast was incredibly eye opening and provided me with a new perspective of the challenges people face outside of city. The impact of COVID-19 cannot be understated here, and the contributions made by the STM group this quarter have had a significant impact to those in receipt of the funds.
Despite having visited the Central Coast multiple times over the years I was still relatively unaware of challenges faced by the communities there. In order to get some perspective, and to begin strategizing how to disseminate the STM funds, I set up a meeting with a Community Development Officer at the local Community Centre. This centre is a registered charity and not for profit organisation committed to delivering services to children, young people, families, people with a disability and older people on the Central Coast.
Through my conversation with Lousie I was able to compile an extensive list of support organisations, community groups and individuals to now research to see how best to invest the Reddies. Over the course of the next month I spoke with several of these organisations and individuals, some of which included:
A non-profit community organisation for victims of domestic violence);
An Aboriginal Community based organisation for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people on the Woy Woy Peninsula);
A women’s health centre (which provides essential health services to women such as clinical services, counselling, group work, social activities, advocacy, information and referral, legal advice, drop in and support for women in crisis).
While all these organisations, and several others, do great work there was a significant amount of red tape that prevented the funds being used effectively and efficiently to provide direct benefit to those in need.
While I initially thought I was at a dead end I chose to visit another organisation on my list, a community centre linked to a Baptist Church in Woy Woy. This organisation provides social, community and friendship opportunities for men, women, families, young people, the elderly, and the socially and economically disadvantaged. It has been set up to be open to anyone who is homeless, transient or needing a helping hand. After a visit to see what took place at this organisation it became immediately apparent that I could be of assistance here.
After multiple conversations with the centre manager, I was made aware of the impact COVID-19 has had on the local community. Prior to COVID-19 the organisation provided meals to approximately 30-40 people per day, the number now sits at over 100. The reason for this sharp increase is due to a spike in unemployment and homelessness (something that is very hidden on the Central Coast with many sleeping in cars or sleeping rough at boat yards or in the bush).
Given this increase in demand, the organisation was only able to provide basic vegetarian meals to those in need, sourcing food from donations made by Aldi and Woolworths. It must also be noted that the meals provided were usually the only source of food people would have for 24-48 hours. The idea was then developed to see if we could use the STM funds to provide food with more substance and after a chat with the local butcher we were able to secure enough meat to provide approximately 300 meals which would be spread out over the course of the next month. On top of this a selection of drinks was purchased. A total of $500 was spent on these efforts.
Now that I had a little momentum I was actively looking for the next cause to offer assistance to. After a few false starts, a fortuitous conversation with a local tradie led me to meeting with their partner who is a clinical nurse with the Department of Health and heads up the Specialist Substance Use in Pregnancy and Parenting unit as part of the Central Coast Drug and Alcohol Services. This team specifically deal with at risk women who are pregnant or who have just given birth.
After reaching out to the nurse, we met up to explore how we could work together. It was very clear again here that the impact of COVID-19 has been enormous on the Central Coast with a sharp rise in domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health issues. This was something the team were dealing with on daily basis. Several ideas were discussed as to how the STM funds could be used, however there were several roadblocks that prevented the funds being used efficiently due to policies put in place by NSW Health.
After some time had passed, we spoke again to work out a way to circumvent these barriers some of which included the handling of cash, avoiding funds being wasted in administration costs, and also ensuring funds make their way quickly and directly to those in need. Several ideas were canvased but due to technicalities we couldn’t proceed, some of these included:
Provision of Uber or CabCharge credit (these would assist women so they could keep appointments with support services as the public transport network is poor on the Central Coast and a trip from one suburb to the next can take over several hours)
Provision of mobile phones or phone recharge vouchers (these would assist women so they could connect with support services and family)
We finally struck upon the idea of splitting up the remaining funds to help as many as possible and after a green light from administrators we were able to use vouchers to directly assist those women and children in need. We used the remaining $1300 to purchase the following:
1 x $500 Fantastic Furniture voucher to providing bedding (bed frames and mattresses) to a woman and child(ren) who had recently found permanent accommodation
1 x $150 Fantastic Furniture voucher for bedding
6 x $80 hairdresser vouchers – A local salon had agreed to offer a full service for reduced cost. Many women in Kate’s care had not been to a hairdresser in over year and these vouchers provided those women receiving them with some much needed positivity
3 x $50 and 1 x $20 Kmart vouchers used to purchase kids’ toys
I have heard back from the team and the generosity of the STM group has been recognised and applauded with the funds being put to good use.
As a side note - having spoken with several people about the STM concept many have indicated that they are thinking of starting something similar with their friends or colleagues – a great result.