Melbourne's Road Home

Homelessness is an issue that impacts the whole of society and only a society willing to partner together to address homelessness will succeed in alleviating and ultimately eliminating homelessness. The Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation’s ‘Melbourne’s Road Home’ initiative is an outward expression of this belief.

In line with a three year, seven million dollar ($7,000,000) commitment to addressing homelessness in our community, in 2009 the Foundation made two signature grants to innovative projects that are having a genuine impact on homelessness. (See below)

Melbourne’s Road Home, the Foundation’s Homelessness Initiative has over the last two years held effective and engaging forums on homelessness. The 2008 forum focused on partnerships and the 2009 forum “Their Voices”, the personal experience of homelessness.

On August 26 this year Melbourne’s Road Home will hold its third forum. It will be a day to see how far down the road we’ve come, and to answer the question: What can we do to help? By ‘we’ we mean everyone, from community to business to government and everyone in between.

Forum III will be structured according to the different life stages that people might be in when they experience homelessness. Keynote presentations will reflect some of these life stages:

• Ms Janet Jukes – Executive Director, Youth Development Australia. Ms Jukes’s presentation will focus on youth homelessness, and what she believes can make a positive difference. http://yda.org.au/about/
• Ms Fiona McCormack – CEO, Domestic Violence Victoria. Ms McCormack will introduce the topic of ‘domestic violence and homelessness’. http://www.dvvic.org.au/

Following Ms McCormack’s introductory remarks will be a speech by Mr Danny Blay – Executive Officer of No To Violence & Male Family Violence Prevention Association (NTV) Inc. Mr Blay will present on the need for male attitudes toward women to change, and draw further links between domestic violence and homelessness. http://ceh.spyro.ddsn.net/dih-program/speakers/pages/danny-blay.aspx

• Mr Bryan Lipmann AM – CEO, Wintringham Aged Care. Mr Lipmann will talk on the need for good quality and ‘friendly’ housing for older people who have experienced homelessness. http://www.wintringham.org.au/

There will also be presentations by:

•         Mr Wayne Kayler-Thomson – CEO (Secretary), VECCI. Mr Kayler-Thomson will open the forum and give his insights on homelessness. http://www.vecci.org.au
•         Professor David MacKenzie – Associate Professor, Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University. Professor MacKenzie will release homelessness research. http://www.sisr.net
•         Mr Andrew Pegler – Plain English Editor and Copy Writer. Mr Pegler will encourage guests to use plain English when discussing and writing social policies. http://andrewpeglermedia.com.au/writing/studio/about-andrew-pegler/

For more information contact Bill Snaddon, Social Policy Officer, bill.snaddon@lmcf.org.au or 9633 0025.

Within this initiative the Foundation has established the Melbourne's Road Home Alliance. The Alliance is a network of individuals and organisations that stand in agreement in acknowledging that homelessness in Australia is unacceptable. The Alliance meets quarterly and its Declaration states:

“Homelessness affects all of society and only a society willing to join together will succeed in alleviating homelessness and ultimately ending it.”

Enquiries can be directed to Shane Austin (Shane.Austin@lmcf.org.au)

Signature Grants

Salvation Army Project 614

A key part of the Melbourne’s Road Home Initiative is 24/7 Melbourne’s Road Home, a 24/7 Community Response Team capable of providing both a mobile and centre-based response to homelessness in the Melbourne CBD and surrounding suburbs. This service can be accessed via a 24 hour telephone contact system connected to a mobile response team, based at the Salvation Army’s Project 614 at 69 Bourke Street, Melbourne.

The needs of those experiencing homelessness who are in the city, or gravitating to the city, require a service that will link them into support that will meet their particular needs. 24/7 Melbourne’s Road Home is a point of contact and resource to assist in connecting with other Melbourne – based services; including Melbourne Citymission’s Frontyard Youth Services and the St Kilda Crisis Centre. The success of 24/7 Melbourne’s Road Home lies not only with the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and Project 614, but also the community as a whole, as we work together to assist those experiencing homelessness.

Sacred Heart Mission

Sacred Heart Mission is piloting a groundbreaking service delivery model, A Journey to Social Inclusion (J2SI) that tackles chronic homelessness, one of society’s seemingly intractable social issues. J2SI focuses on addressing the underlying causes of a person’s homelessness and equipping them with the skills to reconnect to the mainstream community and build social networks outside of the homeless subculture.

The J2SI pilot involves 40 participants and run for three years from September 2009.

What is J2SI aiming to do?
1. Demonstrate that a long term, well resourced and intensive service model can permanently end a person’s chronic homelessness.
2. Demonstrate the economic benefit of ending a person’s chronic homelessness by analysing the pattern of service usage and economic participation of participants.

Shane Austin
Leader - Community Strategy

Stepping Up 2009

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