Our Stories
Update from Kindness Works
By Joanne Lambden
They say it takes a village to raise a child, well in the case of our community outreach through Coach and StreetWorks, it takes an army of volunteers to support and show Christ's love to a community!
Did you know that our Family mentoring program has more than 20 trained volunteers impacting more than 60 people across multiple families in our community?
Equally, our StreetWorks volunteers support more than 100 people each year. Week by week a core group of 40+ people find themselves homeless, couch surfing, in their car, in boarding rooms, tents, caravan parks, on the beach or in vacant land unexpectedly and, for often, multiple complex reasons.
StreetWorks has established itself as a caring community outreach service based in Torquay, with two cooked breakfasts a week, an evening meal on Monday nights (followed by our optional gathering for spiritual conversations) and half day respites on Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays.
At last count more than 70 volunteers are giving of their time to be on cooking rosters, cleaning, sitting with people and listening, praying and encouraging them wherever they are at, driving some to appointments, moving furniture and belongings and helping people with negotiating various paperwork and referring to other services that could help them in some way.
In 2022 we estimated that more than 6,000 hours of volunteer time was being generously given by our volunteers.
We have also been witness to Gods provision as He graciously sent along the first year's rent for The Lounge, our base for meals and off street day respite for our participants. Regular donations of food stuffs, hygiene products, bedding and clothing have blessed many and continue to come in almost daily.
Most recently we commenced a market stall at Torquay markets and again, many volunteers are donating craft, plants, jams and other goods to sell at market. A small team sets up, sells, spreads the word about Kindness Works and packs up on the last Saturday of each month, and we are forming good relationships with locals along the way.
Above all, we are seeing people finding hope and new life as they see His people at work and learn to follow this Jesus. Some have now become volunteers as they too follow...
[If you would like to support the further work of Kindness Works, consider purchasing a ticket to our Annual Fundraising Dinner here, or making a donation online.]
Did you know that our Family mentoring program has more than 20 trained volunteers impacting more than 60 people across multiple families in our community?
Equally, our StreetWorks volunteers support more than 100 people each year. Week by week a core group of 40+ people find themselves homeless, couch surfing, in their car, in boarding rooms, tents, caravan parks, on the beach or in vacant land unexpectedly and, for often, multiple complex reasons.
StreetWorks has established itself as a caring community outreach service based in Torquay, with two cooked breakfasts a week, an evening meal on Monday nights (followed by our optional gathering for spiritual conversations) and half day respites on Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays.
At last count more than 70 volunteers are giving of their time to be on cooking rosters, cleaning, sitting with people and listening, praying and encouraging them wherever they are at, driving some to appointments, moving furniture and belongings and helping people with negotiating various paperwork and referring to other services that could help them in some way.
In 2022 we estimated that more than 6,000 hours of volunteer time was being generously given by our volunteers.
We have also been witness to Gods provision as He graciously sent along the first year's rent for The Lounge, our base for meals and off street day respite for our participants. Regular donations of food stuffs, hygiene products, bedding and clothing have blessed many and continue to come in almost daily.
Most recently we commenced a market stall at Torquay markets and again, many volunteers are donating craft, plants, jams and other goods to sell at market. A small team sets up, sells, spreads the word about Kindness Works and packs up on the last Saturday of each month, and we are forming good relationships with locals along the way.
Above all, we are seeing people finding hope and new life as they see His people at work and learn to follow this Jesus. Some have now become volunteers as they too follow...
[If you would like to support the further work of Kindness Works, consider purchasing a ticket to our Annual Fundraising Dinner here, or making a donation online.]
Posted in Our Stories