What is Homelessness Week?
In Australia, there are over 116,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. Homelessness Week aims to raise awareness of the impact of homelessness in Australia via National and Local community events, including providing information on the importance of housing as a solution and educating communities on how they can make a difference.
This term our Year 11 students have started a unit which looks at housing and the many different ways we can access housing in our communities. What happens however, when we do not have access to housing? Who can we contact for support? What can we do as a community to raise awareness of the ongoing issue of homelessness in our local communities?
We were lucky to be joined by Cathryn Faulkner and John Richins from Anglicare who deal directly with community and social housing in Burnie, the Northwest and West Coast regions. They shared with our students many of the issues we are facing currently and helped bring awareness to some of the problems faced by those seeking shelter on a daily basis. From follow up conversations with students in Year 11, I found that there was much surprise regarding the numbers of people seeking accommodation on a regular basis, and that they were very concerned with the limited access to safe sustainable accommodation for families in crisis. Moving forward, we will continue the conversations to educate and support these services and would like to thank Cathryn and John for their time.
For more information please follow: https://homelessnessaustralia.org.au/homelessness-week-1-7-august-2022/
Mr Sam Johnstone
Director of Mission & Faith