GIFT OF GIVING

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an income for himself and then get back. Now he’s moved out and he’s on his own feet.”

Helen’s Haven is the reason there are a lot of good news stories like this. “This centre is about helping people in a wholistic wrap around support… I love the idea of having young people here helping out and working, seeing what it is that we do and getting a broader understanding of the world around us,” says Steve.

“Everybody who comes into Goodna Street Life whether they are from the AITC or a volunteer, every small gesture adds up to something amazing.”

It’s the first time the AITC has been here and Steve says they’ve helped the Haven look “inviting and homely.” Being involved is a way to recognise “that they can make a contribution and change the world.”

“Our mantra is we teach people how to take pride in themselves and with that little bit of self-respect and self-worth they can overcome anything.”

Helen Youngberry set up Goodna Street Life in 2015. She was attending the Footprint in the Park and wanted to do more. Helen wanted to try and get people off the street and give them extra support so she set up Goodna Street Life. It was always her vision WISDOM where she would set up a place to provide the full wrap-around support people would need to escape homelessness or crisis. Helen’s Haven is culmination of hard work from volunteers and the team for over five years. The old Baroona Hotel has been converted into a space where the team can provide crisis accommodation, drug and alcohol counselling, mental health support, food aid and material aid to help people overcome the obstacles of accessing life that a lot of people might not understand.

COONEANA

GIFT OF GIVING BRIGHTENS UP IPSWICH HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

After visiting Helen’s Haven, Year 10s helped the amazing volunteers at Cooneana Heritage Centre. It was great timing as they needed help preparing for their Open Day ‘Back in Time Family Fun Day’ on Sunday 29 August.

Margaret Taylor, volunteer at Cooneana says, “the young people have been a tremendous help over the past couple of days. They did an amazing job mulching all the gardens out the front and up the back. That would have taken us three ladies weeks to complete that particular task. Some other young people are scraping down the railings of the old house. They’re also scraping down the bird aviary as well and they’re going to paint that for us. We’re grateful to have them here. We would welcome them back any time.”

More exciting community projects are coming in the future, Dave Breeze, Regional Industry Officer (Western) says, “We’ve had some discussions with the Ipswich Hospital. The stroke ward has a big garden out the back, which is a therapy garden; it’s a little bit untamed at the moment. There are patients who have been there for about six months who need to go out and use the garden. We’re really keen to get into that project as soon as we can and help out that great cause too.

DELIBERATELY DIFFERENT.

EUMUNDI + DISTRICT COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Four hard-working Sunshine Coast young people gave back to the community as they worked closely with Project Director, Bruce Molloy, from the Eumundi and District Community Association. The aim of the project was to build and construct raised garden beds for community members to utilise. Bruce supported our young people while they were on the project and was an incredibly caring role model for Colby, Angus, Nav and Jody.

Our young people applied their education learning to industry by using Pythagoras theorem from maths to construct a number of hardwood frame garden beds for the community gardens. The work will continue as part of the AITC Gift of Giving project and was organised by Sarah Bentley (Regional Industry Officer— Northern), in conjunction with Bruce Molloy, an avid supporter of the Eumundi Community and Tanou Siebenmann (Sunshine Coast Industry Consultant), who was involved on the tools and supervising our young people during their project week.