Giving back to the Community
Our Impact
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No one in Victoria should be homeless. That’s why we’re passionate about helping provide housing and support to the most vulnerable members of our community. A percentage of every Woodards sales commission and every leasing fee is donated to our Foundation where it’s distributed to organisations who assist Victorians who are homeless.
Raised and donated through the CEO Sleepout in 2023 & 2024 Units
What we do?
St Vincent de Paul Society
Woodards financially supports St Vincent de Paul Society with donations and participating in the CEO Sleepout. Since 2017 we have raised and donated over $1 million to St Vincent de Paul Society.
These funds have been used to purchase eight soup vans for the organisation. The most recent soup van is located at Footscray and is used to feed 142 people every night who are experiencing homelessness.
While the food is important, equally important is the social interaction between the volunteers on the vans (many of which are Woodards staff) and those they are serving. Most of the people who use the vans are socially isolated, estranged from their friends and
family. Through a shared meal and forming friendships with the volunteers, they are often referred onto other services and the process to move out of a life of homelessness begins.
CEO Sleepout
The CEO Sleepout is a one-night event over one of the longest and coldest nights of the year. In 2024, 45 principals, business partners and staff slept out on one piece of cardboard in support of those experiencing homelessness. Collectively Woodards raised over $149,000.
Safe Places
Recognising the role that the private sector can play in reducing homelessness, Safe Places is a unique partnership between Woodards and the State Government.
The major reason for the lack of homeless shelters in Melbourne is the price and scarcity of land. Moreover, with the average stay in a homeless shelter of just six weeks, the government doesn’t need permanent accommodation but rather a place to house people temporarily, until they can get back on their feet.
To assist in resolving this, the Woodards Foundation has loaned an 860 square metre block of vacant land in Boroondara to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). DHHS has built six units on this land to house women and their children who are escaping domestic violence.
Woodards has then worked with the Salvation Army to place and manage their clients in this housing. This is the first private, public and community partnership of its kind. Since inception our Safe Places housing has provided homes for twelve women and two children who would otherwise be homeless.
Over three years, 18 women will be housed here. The typical stay for women in our housing is seven months. This is much longer than the six weeks afforded to most people in transitional housing. The increased time, combined with the Salvation Army social worker support, means that these women are much more likely to leave this housing with employment and the ability to get their lives on track.
Community Grants
Although the Foundation is primarily focused on helping to alleviate homelessness, we also assist local community organisations in the suburbs where we operate.
woodardsfoundation.com.au
