STM Report #3

In February I was lucky enough to receive the Reddies to spend on behalf of our Brisbane group. I had a total of $870 Reddies.

I had an idea of how I wanted to spend the Reddies, however, I wasn’t yet sure how I was going to achieve this. Having recently become a parent for the first time (and lucky enough to have a loving partner to share this experience), I wanted to be able to help those single mums out there who were doing it tough without much support.

My initial investigations were slow as I found it hard to get a hold of someone who could help individuals. Most places I contacted would only take a ‘donation’ and they couldn’t say exactly how the money would be spent. Or worst, I couldn’t get someone to return my call – which shows how under resourced some of these services are. I tried forums, national councils and other advocacy services and, finally, I found a community organisation that offers a range of support and advocacy services to individuals and families. They assist families, women, children, forgotten Australians, the homeless, mentally ill and disabled individuals.

My contact at the community organisation works with a Family Support Team who support young women and families who are at risk of homelessness or are homeless by helping them to find stable, safe accommodation and to improve family functioning. They have a partnership with the Health Services Organisation to provide an ante-natal clinic for young women under the age of 21, support services for women and children who are experiencing domestic violence and family violence as well as a service that supports young women to re-enter training, education and employment.

I spoke at length with my conatct about our STM initiative and how I had hoped to assist young mums in some way. My initial thoughts were to try and buy something tangible that mums were struggling to afford – such as household appliances, groceries, rent etc. However, reflecting back to my first few months as a new parent I remember thinking I would give anything to have an hour or two for myself to gather my thoughts, relax and rejuvenate. Luckily, I had a husband who was able to look after our daughter so that I could do this every now and again. Based on these thoughts I suggested to my contact that, if possible, I would like to be able to put the money towards giving a few mums time to get out of the house and treat themselves to some ‘me time’ – whether it be getting their hair cut, going to see a movie, getting their nails done, going out for lunch or something along those lines. This was likely to be a costly outing as we would have to arrange for child care.

My contact was a great help and really embraced our STM initiative. Not only did she help arrange this idea, but she also managed to make our money go further and got people on board to help. My contact has arranged for:

a) a haircut voucher $50 for 8-10 women;

b) pamper day worth $350 for 10-15 women.

The organisation will help by arranging for the haircuts and pamper days to take place on their premises and will mind the children of the young mums while they get their hair cut and/or are involved in the pampering.

The hair cut and pampering days are yet to take place, This is how $850 of the reddies money was spent.

The last $20 of the reddies was spent on an accidental encounter. One Sunday morning I dashed into the city for a quick visit to the shops by myself. My mind was in another place as I paced down Queen St, headed for Queens Plaza and I barely heard the voice of an older lady calling out to me. I automatically waved to the lady indicating that I was in a hurry. I was almost half way down the street when I realised that I probably should have stopped to ask what the woman wanted and if she was in any trouble. It’s funny how you can get caught up in your own little world and almost instinctively wave off anything or anyone who dares to disturb this. After a few minutes of chatting, I realised that the woman needed money for groceries and was living off food stamps. She seemed embarrassed to speak about this. I had $20 in my wallet and gave this to her.