Homemakers Programme in Aboriginal Community

An article from Paul Rake, RC Chadstone East Malvern

Why do Aboriginal families make up 10.2 per cent of the homeless population in Victoria when they only make up 0.8 per cent of the wider community?

Source: RIMERN
 Ngwala team with Susie Cole at RIMERN

With the assistance of The Rotary Foundation, the Rotary Clubs of Collingwood, Fitzroy, Carlton, Albert Park, Port Philip, Prahran and Chadstone East Malvern (the  Rotary Team) are uniting to move the needle by compiling homemaker packs for Aboriginal families moving from homelessness to permanent accommodation.

The first step in such a project is to communicate with the families to establish real needs rather than perceived needs. The Rotary Team will work with Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network (RIMERN) to meet real needs. RIMERN will be the hub for three important parts of this Rotary project being:

  1. A connection point to experienced community organisations that interface with Aboriginal families. Rotarians from Prahran will lead this role. These community organisations will assist the Rotary Team to identify personalised needs for each family.

  2. A storage point for goods of all shapes and sizes purchased by the Rotary Team from funds donated by the Clubs (5 x $1,000) and matched by The Rotary Foundation ($5,000).

  3. A point of exchange where the Rotary Team can swap items it has purchased with items of matching value in the RIMERN stock where the purchased items don’t match with personalised needs of individual families. 

As part of the project, Rotarians from the Rotary Team will:

  1. Identify real needs of the Aboriginal families;

  2. Undertake project specific fund-raising events;

  3. Invite representatives of the experienced community organisations to be the guest speaker at Club meetings or other relevant events;

  4. Shop for goods;

  5. Deliver goods to the RIMERN warehouse;

  6. Sort goods in the warehouse;

  7. Pack goods into personalised family homemaker packs; and

From a more general perspective we know that larger items such as fridges and washing machines are likely to be included in the needs list from most families so a reasonable amount of the funds will be spent on these items.

The Rotary Team wants to express its appreciation of the support it has received from The Rotary Foundation allowing it to double the project’s impact: a very good reason for Clubs and individuals to continue to donate funds to The Rotary Foundation.