80 young students in Melbourne’s northern suburbs have been tackling the enduring barriers to ending homelessness: stigma, myths, and misconceptions. We chat with them about how our Schools for Change classroom resources help to shift the narrative on homelessness, deepen empathy, bust myths, and empower students to stand up for the rights of others.
Last year as World Homeless Day was marked across the globe, 10 year old Anjali was busy reading and advocating for those experiencing homelessness after seeing people sleeping rough in her local area. Her passion and action has resulted in $2,750 being raised to support grassroots responses to homelessness in Melbourne. The StreetSmart team sat down with Anjali to hear more about her motivations and congratulate her on an incredible outcome in advocacy and impact!
Too many children are starting the new year living in tents, caravans, motel rooms, and cars as our homelessness crisis deepens. We are on a mission to raise vital funds and awareness to provide essential services such as trauma informed therapy, back to school educational needs, and provide safe accommodation.
It’s been a special year for our annual DineSmart campaign which celebrated two decades of collaborative impact with the hospitality industry. Last month we held a 20th Anniversary Fundraising Dinner to recognise this incredible milestone and scale up the impact of the fundraising throughout DineSmart December. The event was a roaring success and has brought this year’s DineSmart tally to $176,723 in funds for employment, training and education programs for vulnerable people.
While StreetSmart has been engaging with schools for years, our new program Schools for Change, has recently launched as an exciting offering to school communities across Australia. The program incorporates free, age-appropriate educational resources like curriculum aligned lessons with fundraising support to engage and empower school communities.