Tag: A Helping Hand

First in Perth: UnitingCare West opens homeless shelter on Saturdays

Post author By revivewa
Post date August 23, 2017

Through UnitingCare West’s Winter Appeal, enough funds have been raised to turn the lights on at Tranby on Saturdays for the first time, on 15 July. Funds won’t last the year yet, so initially only core hours and services, including a free hot breakfast, showers, clothing, groceries and support from experienced staff, are offered from 7.00–10.00am on Saturdays.

With no sheltered Saturday morning services available in Perth for the homeless community, UnitingCare West made it their mission this winter to offer services to those most in need. Tranby, in East Perth, offers free breakfast, shower facilities, support services and a warm venue to the homeless community. As a mission based organisation, all of UnitingCare West’s work is person-centered: starting with the individual, and building programs and supports around their needs. Working where others don’t, UnitingCare West deliberately researches needs and implements solutions, where it finds that individuals are falling through the cracks.

Tags A Helping Hand, Faith In Action, UnitingCare

Stories & Feature Articles

5 ways UnitingWorld gets big change from small change

Post author By revivewa
Post date July 17, 2017

UnitingWorld is the Uniting Church in Australia’s agency for working with people in Asia, Africa and the Pacific as they build lives free of poverty, and share the good news of Christ. UnitingWorld believe the two can’t be separated; they keep this work connected through ecumenical partnerships with churches in their communities, caring for people regardless of religion, politics or other boundaries.

Cath Taylor, from UnitingWorld, shares with Revive how this overseas community services agency is making big change from small change.

Australian Aid Funding

Right now, UnitingWorld is combining donations with Australian Aid Funding to give your gift up to six times the impact for people freeing themselves from poverty. In recognition of both the generosity of Uniting Church donors and the success of UnitingWorld projects, the Australian Government has made special funding available to select programs. UnitingWorld must first raise $1 for every $5 available in Australian Aid Funding.

Building solidarity

UnitingWorld doesn’t believe in charity – we believe in solidarity. We do everything in partnership with others who are committed to building on their strengths, long-term. This means there’s no expectation of a ‘hand out’ and everyone we work with is striving to make the most of their opportunities. This is the mindset that truly yields big change.

Investing long term

Our approach is to invest long-term in people: providing them with business training and solutions to poverty that give practical tools to take control of life. We help people start their own small businesses like breeding livestock, growing vegetables, selling second-hand clothes and repairing furniture or mobile phones. Once the loans we provide are paid back, they’re used again to kick-start someone else’s future.

Wise use of resources

We don’t waste money building things communities can’t use, handing out items that will need to be resupplied again and again, or using staff from Australia when local people can do the job themselves. We listen to and respect our partners because we’ve known them for years and have good relationships with them – they tell us what they need to make changes, and we get them the resources.

Accreditation

We’re accredited with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) through the Australian Government and we pay a decent wage to our administration staff, rather than relying on the goodwill of volunteers. This may sound boring, but it actually means that not only are we using the best ideas to get things done, you can also be sure that the money you give is accounted for, our staff are well-trained and properly recompensed, our partners have sound business practices and no resources are wasted.

To give an end-of-financial-year donation to UnitingWorld call 1800 998 122 or visit www.unitingworld.org.au/freedom

Tags A Helping Hand, Faith In Action, International, Our People and Agencies

Stories & Feature Articles

Papuan students on learning, living and language

Post author By revivewa
Post date June 29, 2017

The 2017 Australian-Papuan Cultural Exchange Program (APCEP) cohort are on a mission to make their world a better place.

A group of students from from Papua and West Papua, where English is a valuable skill, have recently spent 12 weeks in Perth learning about Australian culture whilst studying English language.

“Learning English and being able to converse in English will open many doors for the students. They get to bring back their knowledge and share it with their community,” said APCEP program co-ordinator and host family volunteer, Lee-Anne Burnett.

APCEP began in 2010 and is managed by volunteers from the Black Pearl Network (BPN), a sub-group of the Creative Living Centre, part of Trinity North and Floreat Uniting Churches. The program is in partnership with the Evangelical Christian Church in the Land of Papua.

Tags A Helping Hand, Faith In Action, International

News & Announcements

Support for communities affected by Cyclone Debbie

Post author By revivewa
Post date April 3, 2017

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Stuart McMillan, has asked church members to lend their support to Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) appeals for communities suffering in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie.

“Our Church will be there to support people in need and help Queensland and northern NSW recover,” said Stuart.

“Please continue to pray for the safety and the welfare of all affected communities, as they come to terms with their losses.”

“I ask all UCA members to please try to support our appeals, which go to support ministry in these communities.”

Cyclone Debbie made landfall on the Whitsunday Coast as a Category 4 storm with winds of more than 260 kilometres an hour on Monday 28 March causing extensive damage.

Five days later water, shelter and communications are still limited into towns of Ayr, Bowen and Proserpine.

Torrential rains from the weakening cyclone have also seen rivers in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales reach record peaks, causing major flooding in Beaudesert, Lismore and the Tweed Valley.

Tens of thousands of residents had to be evacuated.

Tags A Helping Hand, Disaster Relief, Remote and rural communities

Stories & Feature Articles

How good is your gift?

Post author By revivewa
Post date December 14, 2016

Australians give a lot of gifts – about $8.9 billion worth last year.

But how good were they? A jawdropping $500 million worth ended up back on e-Bay within a month and quite a few of them are probably nestled somewhere in landfill because really, who needs a Star Wars themed toilet roll holder?

As people of faith, giving and generosity is central to our identity. We Christians are not only good at donating, but at reliably providing mince-based meals in a crisis and giving our time for the school fete. I have a hunch, though, that the early church saw giving as being about much more than ‘one off’ acts of charity. In Acts, ‘everyone was together and shared everything in common, so that no one would have need’ (Acts 2: 42).

This was about choosing to live beside others as brothers and sisters, fully invested in their lives and wellbeing. Life in Christ is not just about good giving. It’s about building long-term relationships that care for people.

Tags A Helping Hand, Faith In Action, International

News & Announcements

Bringing people together at Christmas

Post author By revivewa
Post date December 7, 2016

UnitingCare West officially launched the annual Target UnitingCare Christmas Appeal in WA on Friday 18 November, in Perth’s CBD, at 100 St George’s Terrace Perth. Students from Tranby College helped create a festive environment, singing Christmas carols to those present.

One in eight Australians are currently living in poverty. Many of these people turn to UnitingCare to put food on the table, buy gifts for their children and provide temporary accommodation over Christmas. The annual Christmas Appeal helps to support people through their hard times.

This year, Target and UnitingCare are hoping to raise $1.5 million, which will go towards running many of UnitingCare’s community services. Leave an unwrapped gift underneath the Christmas tree at participating Target stores, and you could be helping women and children fleeing domestic violence, people seeking emergency relief or children in foster care.

At the launch, Sue Ash, CEO of UnitingCare West, explained what the Target UnitingCare Christmas Appeal means for UnitingCare West.

Tags A Helping Hand, Christmas, Faith In Action

Stories & Feature Articles

Longing for change

Post author By revivewa
Post date November 7, 2016

Rev Frances Hadfield is a Uniting Church Chaplain at Bandyup Women’s Prison. Here she reflects on some of the challenges within WA’s justice system.

“I’m so happy to be here.”

This statement was from a young woman aged 19 who had arrived in Bandyup Women’s Prison. I looked at her in astonishment and asked her why. She told me her story.

Things had gone pear-shaped for her and she had been living on the streets for a year; in fear for her life, living by her wits, hungry and tired. She had deliberately offended by stealing from a home with the hope of being arrested. Now she was in Bandyup and she was safe; she had a bed and a roof over her head, she had food to eat and people to talk to. Never mind that her freedom had been taken from her, freedom out there had been too much. Now she could work or study or do a program which would assist her upon release.

In my chaplaincy work and wanderings around the prison, there are so many stories – women who have lost their homes and live on the streets, some with their children. Some might be lucky and have a car to sleep in. But it then gets too much for their mental health and they offend, so they can have the weight taken off their shoulders for a while, and have their children taken over by the Department of Child Protection (DCP).

Tags A Helping Hand, Poverty

News & Announcements

UnitingCare redoubles efforts to address housing and homelessness

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 31, 2016

A national forum of 40 frontline UnitingCare service providers held in Sydney recently has committed to developing a national action plan to work with government to address housing and homelessness in Australia.

“Every day our frontline community services across the country despair at the number of people living in Australia without the fundamental human need of housing,” UnitingCare Australia’s acting national director, Martin Cowling said.

“Our services have told us that the issue is getting worse, not better. In fact, we believe it now represents a national crisis.

“As such, we believe the issue requires strong national leadership and a national response strategy.

Tags A Helping Hand, Housing, Poverty

News & Announcements

Anti-Poverty Week 2016: Interrupting the poverty of family violence

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 19, 2016

It is currently Anti-Poverty Week across Australia. Running from Sunday 16 October to Saturday 22 October events will be held all over the country to raise awareness of poverty and its causes in our nation.

In Western Australia an Ecumenical Anti-Poverty Week Worship Service was held this afternoon, Wednesday 19 October, at St George’s Cathedral in the Perth CBD. The service focussed on domestic violence as a contributing factor to poverty in Australia.

The service was hosted by the Anglican Social Responsibilities Commission and supported by a number of ecumenical organisations including the Uniting Church WA. After a welcome to country from Indigenous Elder Ben Taylor there were two talks on domestic violence and its causational relationship with poverty.

Basil Hannah, chief executive of Parkerville Children and Youth Care, spoke about the effects of domestic violence on children that oftentimes result in living in poverty. He expressed that children affected by trauma have long term consequences. The physical, mental and emotional damage done can result in serious health issues, often misdiagnosed.

“Children affected by trauma are often misunderstood” and this often exacerbates the issues the children face. More than 600,000 children in Australia live below the poverty line. Basil asked “Where is the ongoing outrage?” Basil said.

Tags A Helping Hand, Poverty