Our long standing Chaplain Father John David OMI has received a new appointment from the Oblate Provincial. He is on his way to take up his new ministry in Adelaide. Father John David has been Rosies Chaplain for 3 1⁄2 years and in that time has spent countless hours on the street sharing friendship with both our patrons and our volunteers. We wish Father well in his new role.
A recent study reveals that women over 55 years are increasingly at risk of becoming homeless in Australia.* The need for hygiene items is high. All of our branches are running short of plastic roll-on deodorants. Rosies has been calling the community to come to the rescue.
Many heard our calls. We received support from young heroes such as Jaylan in Toowoomba and the Magnificent Year 7 in Cairns. Pupils and their teachers made up over 70 hygiene packs to support their local Rosies branch. Meanwhile, St Mary’s Catholic College Senior Students planned and collected many cuppa noodles and blankets for our friends on the street in Far North Queensland.
On the Gold Coast, our friends from Bikers Making a Difference came to support the branch by donating more toiletry items and blankets. Despite all those fabulous efforts we are struggling to meet the demand and are still in much need of more hygiene items.
*Women over 55 years are now the fastest growing homeless people in Australia, The Financial Review, August 20 2018
Leonie from St Andrew’s Hospital Ipswich organised a blanket drive for her local Rosies branch named after ‘Shoeshine Brian’, a homeless person she met and sat with in Sydney a couple of years ago. Brian refused to beg, instead he would polish shoes and share stories with his customers. Leonie sat with Brian for a while. He touched her soul and inspired her to write the poem below, in his memory. Brian passed away last year.
The blanket drive named after Brian was a huge success and brought many donations to our friends on the street in Ipswich. Thank you Leonie and the community at St Andrew’s Ipswich Hospital.
~ Brian ~ 31/05/15
Hey, I’m Brian…do you see me?
I’ll shine your shoes for you,
I’ll tell a story too…
Can you fling me a few cents to make my day?
Hey, I’m Brian…please notice me.
I’ll make it easy for you,
I don’t have to talk to you…
Will you help me so that I can make my way?
Hey, I’m Brian…I was a child once.
Nobody wanted my brothers or myself.
We were kind of put out on the shelf…
How come we didn’t even get a say?
Hey, I’m Brian…I’m down here.
Sitting cold here on the floor
Brian Rudd (1958-2017)
while you just shop for more…
Will you go back to your house upon the bay?
Hey, I’m Brian…I know I have a soul.
If you look, it’s with distaste
as though I’m some kind of waste…
If you sit with me I won’t make you stay.
Hey, I’m Brian…
© Leonie Cavenagh
By Damien Larkins, ABC Gold Coast
Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast’s glitter strip is synonymous with tourists, money and parties. But every year more and more homeless people are sleeping rough in the bright, loud and busy area. The 2016 Census showed there were 1,723 homeless people on the Gold Coast, a 27 per cent jump since 2011. Community group Rosies has been helping homeless people on the Gold Coast for more than 30 years. Local coordinator Kathleen Vlasic said it was the very fact Surfers was so busy that drew them and others in need of a helping hand.
“It could be 100 to 200 people. It varies from time to time, it’s not always the same,” Ms Vlasic said.
“They seem to be able to blend in and not be so noticed all the time,” she said. “They can wander through Surfers and they’re not really going to stand out like a sore toe.” Although the main thoroughfares in Surfers are busy, homeless people can always find a quiet nook to hide and get some sleep. It also offers them safe haven from theft, and verbal and physical abuse. “They have to go into where there are shrubs and bushes,” Ms Vlasic said.
“They wouldn’t be allowed to sleep in doorways or where these lights are, they’d be moved on.”
As she makes here way through Surfers, Ms Vlasic stops and talks to people who look like they may have been sleeping rough.
“It’s heart-breaking,” she said.
“Your heart just goes out to them and you think my god there’s just got to something better than this around for them,” she said. Ms Vlasic offers for them to come to the drop-in centre, where they can get food and a hot drink. The drop-in centres also are a chance for government service providers to make contact with people in need.
We are very grateful to the many schools that support us all year round. We are especially thankful for their help over the winter months during which we go through a lot of supplies.
In Far North Queensland and despite school holidays, St Augustine’s College students and staff attended our outreach. They came along with their generous donations of soup, noodles and blankets. Further south, our Caboolture coordinator, Helen visited St Benedict’s Primary School at Mango Hill to talk to the year 3’s about Rosies. Students were very interested in the Rosies story and asked lots of good questions. Students brought donations to the Rosies van, which quickly overflowed with outreach supplies. Meanwhile, our Gold Coast coordinator, Kathleen visited St Francis Xavier Primary School to collect non perishable food and instant coffee for our friends on the street.
Rosies Wynnum Manly hosted its first Christmas on the Street outreach this month. Students from Iona College donated some presents to handout to the homeless as ‘Christmas in July’ gifts.
In Brisbane Rod from McDonald’s Bracken Ridge paid us a visit at the local Homeless Connect. Rod has been regularly supporting Rosies Brisbane for over a year. Rod brought us an INCREDIBLE amount of coffee, tea, sugar, cups, napkins, cookies, drinking chocolate and heaps more. Fingers & Forks and Priestley’s Gourmet Delights both made delicious donations of sandwiches/wraps/ burgers and yummy cheese cakes to hand out on the street. Our patrons loved them!
Rosies is about friendship. It is getting cold outside, but for many who suffer from loneliness winter never stops. We connect with our friends on the street to create a sense of belonging. We engage with those who are homeless, marginalised or simply lonely with a cup of coffee, a bite to eat or by playing board games on the concrete. Board games are fun and bring lots of laughter on outreach. Did you know board games have many health benefits such as lowering the risk of mental disease and an increase in cognitive functioning?
Music is another great way to engage with our patrons. Music is inclusive. Whether played by our volunteers or talented friends our Rosies guitars lift everyone up. Music is another joy generator on outreach.
Winter is definitely here. So, Rosies hands out some material necessities to brave the current weather conditions by giving out blankets and sleeping bags. As always the community has been very supportive of our eleven branches. We received an important donation of blankets for the children in our Toowoomba outreach. Meanwhile, BMaD (Bikers Making a Difference) collected and brought sleeping bags, toiletries and canned food to our Drop in Centre on the Gold Coast.
Our coordinator in Caboolture, Helen visited St Benedict’s Primary School at Mango Hill. She talked to the year 3’s about Rosies and thanked them for their generous donations of 155 hygiene packs, 400 cups of noodles, tins of coffee and milo, beanies and packets of UHT milk. The Rosies van was overflowing with bags. The students told Helen they had done a project on Rosies and acted out someone being homeless and Rosies coming along and helping them. Many other schools have shown great support to their local Rosies branch. For instance, Iona College in Wynnum organised a very successful outreach supplies drive in support of our Brisbane, Logan and Wynnum Manly branches.
Interviews and photos available: WEDNESDAY, 16 May 2018, 5:15pm | Harlaxton Park, Cnr Gleeson and Doyle Sts
(vision also available from 4-4:30pm at Neil St entrance of St Saviours College packing the food items)
With the cold winter blast hitting Toowoomba on the weekend, spare a thought for the homeless, or those less fortunate.
Rosies Friends on the Street offer food, hot drinks and friendship to around 170 people at their four outreaches in Toowoomba every week.
Fay Stein from Rosies Toowoomba said patron attendance at local branch outreaches topped 8,500 people in 2017.
75 smiling Rosies volunteers share friendship and create belonging with the homeless, marginalised and lonely of Toowoomba.
This Wednesday night, Toowoomba Grammar School (TGS) is donating five dozen sausages, five dozen strips of bacon, bread rolls, onion and sauce, along with apples, bananas and pears to give Rosies’ patrons a boost as we head into the colder months.
A number of TGS students have volunteered to help prepare, cook and serve the meals, as well as spend some time with the clients.
This is not the first time that TGS has supported Rosies; they organise four BBQs every year for their ‘Friends on the Street’.
The students enjoy giving back to the community and feel good that their small gesture makes such a difference to the lives of these people in need.
And Rosies appreciates the support from TGS.
“While Rosies is providing a warming coffee, milo, or cuppa soup, wonderful collaborators like TGS students extend the hospitality to a great BBQ and other goodies,” said Andrew O’Brien, Rosies General Manager.
“Their youthful enthusiasm and genuine interest adds wonderfully to the sense of community.”
Rosies is expecting a tough winter, with more people in need than ever before and are they’re calling on support and donations from the local community.
“Many of Rosies patrons have personal needs such as hygiene supplies and bedding,” said Mr O’Brien.
“We’d also love donations of 1kg tins of coffee and milo, cordial, sugar, biscuits, cup-a-soups and noodles.”
You can also donate funds to supply a backpack bed which are perfectly designed for those sleeping rough or couch surfing.
Rosies would also like to extend its service to another location on a Tuesday night, but need to expand their volunteer base to at least 100.
If you would like to make up those number, register online here.
By Mark Bowling
Baton leg dedicated to the 1200 volunteers who work for street charity
WHEN Surfers Paradise parishioner and community worker Robyn Hunt held the Queen’s baton aloft on one of the final stretches into the Gold Coast, she did it for the charity she loves.
“I carried the torch for the 1200 volunteers who work for Rosies,” Mrs Hunt said, reminiscing on the great Commonwealth Games moment, as she attended Mass as sacristan at Stella Maris Church, Broadbeach, last week. For the past nine years, Mrs Hunt has served on the executive committee of Rosies – Friends on the Street, and is a tireless campaigner for the outreach to the homeless and those vulnerable on the streets, at the courts, prisons and youth detention centres. “I think lots of times in our world we need to look around us and see there are a lot of people in need,” Mrs Hunt said.
“(About) 5.6 million Australians, that is one in four of us, are lonely almost all of the time or on a regular basis.
“Initially what motivates me are the Gospels – Jesus asking us to reach out to those in need, and particularly Matthew 25 where it is written ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me …’
“And that’s what Rosie’s does. We are there to help those in need – particularly the lonely, the abandoned and the marginalised.” Behind the glitz of the Gold Coast, especially in the midst of the Commonwealth Games, Mrs Hunt admitted there was a great need for Rosies services. High rents and a lack of secure employment have led to a downward spiral for many struggling individuals and families.
“What we are is a place where people can come, (and) feel safe and feel part of the community and have a sense of belonging,” Mrs Hunt said.
“People need to be given back their dignity.
“I often have the homeless say to me ‘I can go anywhere and get a feed, but to have someone sit with me, look me in the eye, sit with me and talk to me – that is a different thing’.
“I think it is an extremely important part of our charity work.” Rosies is a comparatively small charity that relies on donations from corporations, businesses, schools, religious communities and individuals to fund its operations.
It has been outreaching since 1987 – celebrating 30 years last year – and has more than 280 volunteers in the Gold Coast part of the army of volunteers throughout Queensland. As well as committing to voluntary welfare and support work, Mrs Hunt said there was a lot of community-building needed to be done.
“I would love to see some entrepreneur come forward to build short-term accommodation where people could stay the night, (and) have a place to keep their belongings so they don’t have to take them out on the streets with them,” she said.
Credit from the The Catholic Leader –15 Apr. 2018
“Following in his brother’s footsteps, 16 year-old Jake Priestly has stepped up to take on the 15th annual Great Wheelbarrow Race as a solo competitor. In 2015, Jake’s brother Josh won the male solo category and it was his determination that inspired his younger brother, Jake to take on the challenge. The Great Wheelbarrow Race will take teams from Chillagoe to Mareeba in a three-day, 140km endurance event from May 18-20. [May 18 | May 19 | May 20]
‘Watching Josh do the race solo three years ago has motivated me to do the same thing and give it a go’, Jake said/ ‘It’s all for charity, so why not.’
The St Stephen’s Catholic College student will compete in this year’s event to raise money for Rosies, a local charity which reaches out to those less fortunate in the community.
‘Rosies reaches out to those most in need, those people who are lonely, abandoned, and marginalised within our communities.'”
[maxbutton id=”1″ url=”https://www.mycause.com.au/page/172319/running-for-rosies” text=”Support Jake” ]
Credit from the The Cairns Post–2 Apr. 2018
Congratulations to Robyn, Rosies Team Leader and Board member for taking part in the Queen’s Baton Relay !
Robyn has been involved with the marginalised all her life. She joined Rosies as a volunteer in 2005 and has continued to be involved on the Street outreach in Surfers Paradise as Team Leader. She was a Volunteer Trainer a the Gold Coast for seven years. Robyn was appointed to the Board of Rosies in 2009 and took on the role of Treasurer in 2011.
Robyn Hunt is carrying the baton on behalf of 1200 Rosies – Friends On The Street volunteers as baton bearer number 56.
