Our CEO Hang Vo delivered an oration to launch the RMIT Social Equity Research Centre, which is dedicated to advancing social equity and justice outcomes. Hang’s speech illustrates how social policy, systems and practice can influence a person’s life outcomes. The oration is part of our commitment to address deep disadvantage, homelessness and social exclusion.
Read some of the highlights of Hang’s oration here and find out what is possible when the service sector, government and universities collaborate to end chronic homelessness:
In my role at Sacred Heart Mission, I see the impacts of housing insecurity and homelessness on our community every day. I also see resilience, courage and strength in that community, and when given the right platform, our service users have the solutions that will improve outcomes for them and others.
Sacred Heart Mission provides tailored services to people experiencing deep and persistent disadvantage and social exclusion. This includes people experiencing homelessness, family violence, drug and alcohol addiction, mental health, social exclusion and the elderly.
Ultimately, our programs are designed to build people’s strengths, capabilities, and confidence to participate fully in community life – from brief intervention to long term intensive support.
We focus on those who fall through the system and where mainstream services are simply not appropriate.
Currently in Australia, we are seeing significant focus within the media on housing affordability and cost of living, particularly as our economy and society recovers from the pandemic.
We were pleased to see the Guardian’s recent series of articles capturing the attention of politicians and the community.
The Guardian Australia has spent 12 months identifying and investigating 627 homelessness deaths using 10 years’ worth of non-public death reports to state coroners, an analysis of inquest findings since 2010 and interviews with dozens of homeless Australians, victims’ families, frontline support workers and researchers.
The findings are stark.
They show Australians experiencing homelessness are dying prematurely by a margin of more than three decades. The average age of death is 44.
Unfortunately, this is not new to Sacred Heart Mission. For decades, we have been supporting people who age prematurely due to the effects of chronic homelessness where prolonged complex health needs goes untreated or mistreated.
We know that deep disadvantage is multi-faceted, and people’s experiences are intersectional. It often means a history of trauma, abuse and isolation.
I was fortunate to meet one of the early participants of the J2SI program. Almost 12 months into my role, it was through meeting Terri* that I truly understood the impact of the program.
In 2013, Terri first presented at Sacred Heart Mission through our women’s crisis housing service, Homefront.
In 2018, Terri was referred to J2SI. When she entered the program, Terri thought three years was way too long, but soon realised that it was a ‘game changer’ to use her words.
“For someone who lives in constant crisis – always in fight or flight mode – knowing I had three years support meant that I allowed myself time to be calm, to be still and learn to trust. I started to believe I could get well and change my life. I didn’t have to keep thinking about surviving.”
“My first year was just getting calm. Second year was the hardest and most intense work but by then I had a lot of trust with my case manager. I engaged with a trauma therapist and I was in and out of detox and rehab. The third year was reconnecting with my family and friends. Getting to know my local community. Removing myself from users and sellers.”
In listening to Terri’s story, I could see exactly how key features of J2SI work in practice.
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
When I asked Terri to share any words of wisdom about the program, she replied:
“People like myself cost the government lot of money. We are in and out of crisis services, needle exchange, jail. People living on the streets cause chaos. Youth refuges, rooming houses, psychiatric wards, I’ve done it all. We become really good at accessing services. Investing three years may seem like a lot, but it’s nothing to turn around a life. It’s a great investment for me to return to the community, to reconnect with my family. It’s better for me, my family and the community.”
Unfortunately, there are too many stories like Terri’s.
Right now, we are pitching to government to scale J2SI across Victoria together with four consortium partners each bringing complementary expertise and reach – Uniting Vic/TAS; St Vincent de Paul VincentCare; Salvation Army; and Aboriginal Housing Victoria.
We have a solution to end chronic homelessness now. We need political will of governments to partner with us.
We need courage and long-term vision. J2SI is not an overnight success – it’s been a 15-year journey.
If we are to achieve social equity for the future, we need courageous leadership today.
* Name changed for privacy.
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