THIS Christmas, homelessness support service MADCOW is continuing its efforts to provide food relief, emergency accommodation and employment opportunities.<\/p>\n
At the end of last year, the Bendigo Baptist Church initiative named after the motto \u201cMake A Difference, Change Our World\u201d, shifted its focus from food relief to focusing on rough sleepers and opened its MADCOW Caf\u00e9 for free breakfasts and lunches.<\/p>\n
Since then, over 5000 meals have been provided.<\/p>\n
\u201cFood\u2019s a big thing,\u201d CEO of MADCOW, Matthew Parkinson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to sit down and have a conversation with someone that\u2019s hungry, they\u2019re not generally ready to chat, so you start with the food.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a lot of general food support and there\u2019s a lot of agencies that do that, and we said \u2018well, what isn\u2019t being done?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what we were seeing was what we hadn\u2019t seen in Bendigo before, guys sleeping on footpaths, under verandas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a couple of cases which were tough for us, really sad and our hearts just went out and we said we\u2019ve got to do something here.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the doors were closed of most agencies during COVID, we had our front door open.\u201d<\/p>\n
MADCOW employs about 60 staff members through its community enterprise programs, which involves cleaning, gardening and other community support work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe profits from that pay for our homeless services,\u201d Mr Parkinson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really good mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll put on another worker in our homeless service next year because the business side is growing. We don\u2019t get any government support, we\u2019re all self-funded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, MADCOW helped prepare 80 food hampers for children and families doing it tough in the region, which were delivered to those in need last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a real struggle and what we try do is make them a bit special, we put stuff in there with a bit of a Christmas flavour, stuff you might not go and buy if you haven\u2019t got much money,\u201d Mr Parkinson said.<\/p>\n
He also said next year\u2019s focus will be about how they can expand their homelessness services and work with other agencies and organisations in the region, such as Haven; Home, Safe and Bendigo Health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got the cafe, now we just need to expand the pilot program,\u201d he said. \u201cMore space is crucial for us; we\u2019d love to get it to the point where there\u2019s a larger drop-in space for rough sleepers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to update our storage facilities for their gear, often they\u2019ve got a big case and they drag it everywhere, we can store it here during the day for them. We want to update our shower and laundry services, there\u2019s not enough now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has become a really trusted space, word on the street is \u2018come to MADCOW\u2019. We are looking predominantly for people that are rough sleepers, there\u2019s probably 400 plus homeless people in Bendigo.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of them are couch sleepers but we are seeing more on the streets during COVID, that\u2019s where we focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are just people that might have made one bad decision and it can affect their whole lives. You\u2019ve got to see past what you see sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THIS Christmas, homelessness support service MADCOW is continuing its efforts to provide food relief, emergency accommodation and employment opportunities. At the end of last year, the Bendigo Baptist Church initiative named after the motto \u201cMake A Difference, Change Our World\u201d, shifted its focus from food relief to focusing on rough sleepers and opened its MADCOW […]<\/p>\n