Katerina Klyeuva from Anglicare, left, and Carol Muir from Werribee Support and Housing. 71118 Picture: JOE MASTROIANNI
By XAVIER SMERDON
ONE of Wyndham’s hardest working charity groups has been given a much needed injection of funds that will help them to prevent young people from becoming homeless.
Werribee Support and Housing (WSH), a not-for-profit, organisation that helps people in dire circumstances find accommodation, was the recipient of the $27,000 proceeds from the Mayoral Charity Ball held earlier this year.
The money will go towards the Youth Reconnect program, which is run jointly by WSH and Anglicare.
CEO of WSH Carol Muir said the two groups were delighted by the donation.
“Each year we have about $5000 for brokerage, so now we suddenly have five times as much,” Ms Muir said.
The Youth Reconnect program deals with homelessness people from the ages of 12 to 18, of which Ms Muir said there were far too many in Wyndham.
“At any given time there would probably be 120-plus homeless kids that find themselves homeless in Wyndham,” she said.
“It can be caused by all the same sorts of issues that would happen at every home. There could be a breakdown in communications, it could be because of school, the hours the children are coming home or it could be because of a lack of respect.”
Ms Muir, who has been at WSH for 13 years, said the opportunity to make a positive impact on young people’s lives and a chance to change the bigger picture, kept her motivated to come to work every day.
“There is still absolutely no crisis accommodation in Wyndham so the reality is that anyone who needs crisis accommodation ends up needing to leave their community,” she said.
“We had a young person here the other day who was in need of somewhere to stay and his options were Reservoir or Coburg and he ended up in a backpacking hostel in Malvern.”
