COVID-19 UPDATE: Click here for StreetSmart Australia’s response
All Posts By

Courtney Rayner

Dec 02

SmartMeals delivers nourishment, connection, and hope over 100,000 times

By COVID-19 Emergency Response Grants, DineSmart, SmartMeals, StreetSmart News
To every single donor who has supported our work since March – THANK YOU.  You have enabled us to distribute over 100,000 SmartMeals, through a network of 62 charity partners giving vulnerable people access to nutritious meals. The program has distributed $780,000 to 56 cafes, restaurants and food based social enterprises, keeping people employed. It’s been an extraordinary collaboration driven by community and philanthropy.

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Nov 11

SmartCare Provides First Wellbeing Grants for Essential, Frontline Staff

By COVID-19 Emergency Response Grants, Projects StreetSmart, SmartCare
Staff at South Port Community Group

Staff at South Port Community Group

The workload on our frontline essential workers has been relentless over the past 7 months.  They are the carers that have kept vulnerable people safe, yet they are often people who do not prioritise their own wellbeing. That’s where we have stepped in with an innovative new program. SmartCare raises funds and awareness for staff wellbeing programs.

We are excited to announce that just two months after launching SmartCare we have just made our first round of SmartCare Grants across five states. Fifteen organisations were funded with $47,000 worth of grants, impacting an estimated 540 staff.

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Oct 14

The inextricable link between homelessness and poverty

By COVID-19, Homelessness in the news
Centrelink line
Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked.

If we want to end homelessness, we must also end poverty. Two major policy responses to substantially reduce poverty, and homelessness, have been put forward strongly for at least a decade. Both could also have a substantial impact as an economic stimulus as we navigate the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, immediately lift Job Seeker payments permanently and secondly, build more public and social housing. Read More

Aug 06

Pandemic paves the way to solving homelessness

By COVID-19, Homelessness in the news

People facing homelessness leave a shelter for a hotel. (ABC News: Scott Mitchell)

It’s Homelessness Week and we are at a pivotal time for homelessness and housing policy in Australia. What we have seen happen since late March has been nothing but monumental and presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the country’s homelessness system. We need to make sure we continue this revolution for the homelessness sector and not go back to the way it was before the pandemic hit.

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