A NEWSLETTER FOR SUPPORTERS OF THE ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETYISSUE 27 AUTUMN 2010

One oiceOne oiceVV

In this issue...

2 Thank you

3 CEO Sleepout

4 Blessed Mary MacKillop

6 Oscar’s Story

8 Creative corner

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12 32

THANK YOU!

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

More than half of all homeless persons are under the age of 25.

NEWS - CEO SLEEPOUT

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12 3

Dear friends,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the latest edition of One Voice, and to thank you for your generous support through regular giving, appeal donations, volunteering and bequests. The St Vincent de

Paul Society would not be able to do the important work it does without your ongoing support.

Such a groundswell of support for the plight of the disadvantaged is, of course, something Mary MacKillop also generated in her lifetime. This year she will become Australia’s first Saint, a sacred event in the Church’s history. Inspired by all she achieved, one of the St Vincent de Paul Society’s Special Works carries her blessed name. Mary MacKillop Outreach, located at Lewisham, provides social, educational, recreational and prevocational programs for people who have a mental illness and/or disability. It’s a place where good things happen and where people for whom the mainstream can be challenging and lonely find opportunity and friendship. It’s a place where

lives are changed, and Mary MacKillop’s Sainthood is cause for special celebration among its volunteers, staff and clients.

Mary MacKillop first reached out to children through her school. Similiarly, the Society has many programs to assist children, including our Kids’ Camps. Life can be hard for many children, and often the most devoted and caring of parents cannot shield them from its unfairness. Fun is something that can be in very short supply at home. Vinnies Kids’ Camps operate around NSW, thanks to the generosity of supporters and young volunteers, and provide children with an experience that promotes healthy lifestyle choices and assists in building their self-esteem. Oscar’s story is particularly poignant, and his ability to articulate all he has gained from his time at camps is truly warming. I trust that as you read through the stories in this edition, you see your own hand on each of them and know that together we are changing lives.

Yours sincerely,

Barbara RyanPresident, St Vincent de Paul Society NSW

Thank you to all of our loyal supporters for such a heartwarming response to the 2009 Christmas Appeal. The hope-based ‘Help complete their Christmas’ campaign struck a chord with many people at the close of a year so deeply marked by economic turmoil. The generosity of our supporters meant that more people could wake up with a roof over their heads and a meal on the table on Christmas Day. Thank you.

Thanks to your help, in the last financial year the St Vincent de Paul Society in NSW alone assisted 793,423 people. Fifty-four per cent of people were assisted by our dedicated members and volunteers through home visitation, limiting their risk of homelessness before it could become a reality.

On Thursday 17 June 2010 at Luna Park Sydney, the St Vincent de Paul Society NSW will host the 5th Annual Vinnies CEO Sleepout. The event seeks to raise important awareness and funds for homeless people by challenging business and community leaders to experience homelessness first-hand for a night.

The success of the 2009 Vinnies CEO Sleepout was such that an immense media impact ensued, raising awareness of the issue of homelessness across Sydney, NSW, the wider Australian community and overseas. With the involvement of 213 CEO’s over $620,000 was raised to support our important work in this area.

We are pleased to announce that as a result of this success, the Vinnies CEO Sleepout will be launched as a national event this year in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane and Canberra. This

is only a reality because of the power of the people and organisations who participated in 2009.

This year, we are placing greater emphasis on recruiting ASX-listed and larger company leaders to raise awareness of homelessness and educate society through the participating opinion leaders that homelessness is the community’s problem at large. That it is a serious issue we cannot ignore. And that homeless people deserve a voice. In NSW, we hope to raise $750,000 in support of homeless services.

To make a donation or nominate a CEO to attend, please visit www.ceosleepout.org.au and help us rise to the challenge of homelessness.

For more information please phone: (02) 9560 8666 or email: sydney@ceosleepout.org.au.

Vinnies CEO Sleepout goes National in 2010!

rise to the challenge

For a copy of the Society’s Annual Report containing these and more compelling statistics, please contact Paul Cook at paul.cook@vinnies.org.au or phone (02) 9568 0234.

Together with your help, the St Vincent de Paul Society will be there for the long-term, giving people choices for their future, and to rebuild their lives after the onset of crisis. Thank you.

www ceosleepout org au

4 5For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 124 The number of disabled Australians has nearly doubled in the last ten years.

BLESSED MARY MACKILLOP

Blessed Mary MacKillop touched, and changed, lives. She taught by example, not word, fighting authority and critics to help people who needed

it. She was a Saint in the less official meaning of the word long before Rome decided to make that popular status official.

When her canonisation takes place in October and she becomes Australia’s first Saint, all the world will have her name in its hearts, and on its lips.

It’s a name that evokes images of miracles and faith, and of a courageous and committed young woman honouring the goodness and ability in everyone, no matter their circumstance - of charity in its purest form. Mary MacKillop. It says it all.

And so it was that the St Vincent de Paul Society Special Work took her Blessed name. Mary MacKillop Outreach, located at Lewisham, provides social, educational, recreational and prevocational programs for people who have a mental illness and/or disability. It’s a place where good things happen and where people for whom the mainstream can be challenging and lonely find opportunity and friendship.

Last financial year, MMO provided a wide range of services integral to the socialisation and sense of self for more than 170 clients. These included centre-based programs, as well as an out-and-about bus program that takes clients off to the park, the theatre, the movies, the beach, or a picnic… a million things, that enable them to enjoy experiences that others take for granted.

To visit the MMO Centre is to step into a bright and happy place overlooking a gorgeous old garden. The kitchen is a hive of activity as clients help with food preparation, the art room is a riot of colour and creativity, and the well-known Men’s Shed the scene of carpentry and upholstery wonders.

Last year alone, the MMO’s Men’s Shed, run in conjunction with Ashfield Council, produced 640,000 small wooden crosses which were distributed to pilgrims during World Youth Day. Following the

success of these crosses, the volunteers made other crosses to be distributed to shoppers in Vinnies Centres as thanks for supporting their community. The Men’s Shed workers also refurbished and restored Ashfield Council’s heritage-listed council chairs and presented them to the Mayor and Council. The wheelchair program, in which old bicycles are stripped down to produce wheelchairs for children injured in landmine accidents in developing countries, produced 400.

A cafe program, run in conjunction with Petersham TAFE taught clients with high support needs, cafe skills. Eight people completed this program, reflecting a major achievement in overcoming barriers associated with having complex mental health issues and disabilities.

Mary MacKillop’s mission was to educate the poor, to provide opportunities to those who without her intervention would have had very few. She understood that education and learning was the key to a life of dignity and self-determination. Following in her tradition, MMO continues to assist people to overcome personal challenges associated with disabilities, poverty and social isolation through education, support and encouragement.

Lives are changed at the Outreach service under Mary MacKillop’s patronage. It’s everyday miracles. Staff tell of countless cases where someone, broken, isolated and dispirited, begins to bloom in confidence and joy in a gentle environment of respect and dignity. It’s not the sort of place people are in a hurry to leave behind them.

This year, even more than in other years, staff and clients are proud of the name their service carries. They feel as if they are being watched over as their own everyday miracles play out, as they continue the journey of caring begun by a young woman more than a century ago.

For information about Mary MacKillop Outreach, please phone (02) 9560 8666 or visit vinnies.org.au.

““Mary MacKillop Outreach, located at Lewisham, provides social,

educational, recreational and prevocational programs...

BLESSED MARY MACKILLOP

For credit card donations visit www.vinnies.org.au or phone 13 18 12 76

OSCAR’S STORY

Nearly 10 per cent of Australians, including 365,000 children live in poverty.

Wills and BequestsYes, I would like to receive an information pack about remembering the St Vincent de Paul Society in my Will.

Thank you, I have already included the St Vincent de Paul Society in my Will. Please enrol me in ‘Forever Friends of the St Vincent de Paul Society’.

www.vinnies.org.auPlease tick the appropriate boxes:

Please complete the following details and post to: PO Box 19, Petersham, NSW, 2049

Joseph wanted to ensure

his family were looked after

when he has passed on but

he also wanted to make

a lasting difference to his

local community. Joseph

considered Vinnies his 5th

grandchild and bequeathed

a percentage of his estate to

be placed in an endowment

fund. This way he knew that

the interest would help Vinnies

for many years to come.

Bequests help us to serve those who are in need in concrete & practical ways.

Title: Full name:

Address:

Phone: Email:

OSCAR’S STORY

Oscar had been counting off the years until he was five. Something wonderful, he knew, would happen

when he met that milestone and he couldn’t wait. He wanted to be a big boy; he wanted to be old enough to go to a Vinnies Kids Camp… whatever that might be.

Oscar’s home life was less than perfect, and each year his older siblings disappeared off, out of the chaos, for a few days or a week to somewhere that made them really happy. They were excited beforehand and excited afterwards, and they came home with stories of friends, fun, games, yummy food and new things they’d done. They went to Kids Camps that Oscar didn’t know were run by Vinnies Youth, but he did know that somehow they provided a circuit breaker for both his brother and sister and his beleaguered parents that he could sense. He wanted to be let in to the secret…

So five came, and even though he was a tad younger than most kids who go, Oscar got the call. Off he set with his little bag with the Vinnies volunteers and over that whole week he didn’t get homesick once. He played and laughed and ran, and had a summer holiday as grand as any child could hope.

That was eight years ago, and since then the Vinnies Kids Camps have been an integral part of his childhood and his transition to adolescence. Through them he reaped the benefits of a break with friends, and so much more. He learned to trust in a continuum of relationships and positive experiences; and that

“

“He learned to trust in a continuum of relationships and positive experiences...

good things don’t happen only once, but can actually happen over and over.

For the Vinnies volunteers, it’s been a wonderful experience to watch this troubled little boy begin to turn into the man he will be. Unlike some boys his age, Oscar can articulate the role the camps have played in his life; and looks back on them as the highlights of his childhood. They are the stuff of memories, in a childhood that didn’t have its quota of good ones.

Ever year Kids Camps operate around NSW, thanks to the generosity of donors, offering children an

experience that promotes healthy lifestyle choices and assists in building their self-esteem. The children, referred by Conferences and external welfare agencies, take the kids away for between three and five days. They’re from a wide range of backgrounds which include poverty, domestic violence, grief and loss, or maybe they have particularly high needs. Often the parents and the children are in need of a break – a break from each other and a break from the challenges of their lives.

Once there, the happy participants are immersed in various outdoor activities that are designed to pursue

their personal boundaries while allowing them to reach attainable goals.

Oscar looks back on that time when he finally got to go. “I was, like ‘wow… this is sooo cool”,” he laughs. He plans to become a volunteer himself in a few years. “As you got a bit older, you sort of realised that all the other kids must have had something going on for them at home, too. It was never spoken about but it just meant you felt more confident to make a connection. At school you could feel an outsider sometimes. But not at Kids Camp. There was a really nice vibe that we were all in this together.”

CALL THE DONATION HOTLINE: 13 18 12 OR VISIT: www.vinnies.org.au

CREATIVE CORNER

27ONE VOICEISSUE 27, AUTUMN 210

‘One Voice’ is produced by Communityand Corporate Relations (CCR),St Vincent de Paul Society NSW.

ABN: 46 472 591 335Copyright 2010

Editor: Julie McDonald Designer: Rachel IrvineWriters: Dane Hiser, Marion Frith,

Jessica Moss-Wellington

Responsibility for the content of thispublication is taken by Julie McDonald.

Because we respect the privacy of thepeople we assist, names in this newsletter

may have been changed, storiessummarised and pictorial models used.

For more information about the St Vincent dePaul Society, telephone: (02) 9560 8666

or visit: www.vinnies.org.au

All correspondence can be sent to:

Publications and Design CoordinatorCCR, St Vincent de Paul SocietyPO Box 5, Petersham, NSW, 2049

Email: rachel.irvine@vinnies.org.au

Printing by Lindwall & WardDistribution by B&C Mailing

If you wish to enclose a cheque (marked ‘not negotiable’) or money order, please make payable to: ‘St Vincent de Paul Society’. Post to: PO Box 19, PETERSHAM, NSW, 2049 The St Vincent de Paul Society follows the National Privacy Principles. If you do not wish to receive any more mail from us, please tick this box. Vinnies keeps donor information private. Note: Donations over $2 are tax deductible. A receipt will be mailed. 10

OV

01X

To make a one-off or regular donation to St Vincent de Paul Society, simply complete the details below and post to: PO Box 19, Petersham, NSW 2049

With your help we can make a difference

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In a busy workshop in the industrial area of West Gosford, magic is happening. A band of volunteers use their combined woodworking skills to create beautiful, useful things for people who don’t have what they need: people struggling and victims of disaster.

Welcome to St Joseph’s Workshop where each weekday a group of 35 workers give up their mornings to produce a steady stream of chests of drawers; coffee tables; dining

tables; bookcases; clothes hangers; children’s settings; desks; toys and ornamental wheelbarrows. Some are given to the local Vinnies Centre to sell, but most go to families identified by local Conferences.

Last year, the workshop produced 1,117 items, and since they started keeping records in 2003 they have produced 7,674 pieces of furniture and 86,000 World Youth Day crosses.