Victoria: Community Forum on Homelessness – Religions for Peace Australia

The Ballarat Interfaith Network, in partnership with the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council, will conduct a Community Public Forum on Homelessness, Friday, 21 August, 2015 at Eastwood Leisure Complex (20 Eastwood St, Ballarat) at 6.15pm.

“In any society, the more you allow people to be marginalised in any way, then the poorer the society is going to be.” Linda Dessau, the new Governor of Victoria.

The Ballarat Interfaith Network, in partnership with the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council, invites you to a Community Public Forum on Homelessness, Friday, 21 August, 2015 at Eastwood Leisure Complex (20 Eastwood St, Ballarat) at 6.15pm.

It’s estimated that 1 in 200 Australians are homeless and those who sleep rough on our streets, including in Ballarat, face a greater risk of physical and sexual assault as well as deprivation and mental illness. With inadequate funding and shortage of shelters homeless people are turned away each night with nowhere to go.

This Forum will seek to address, through input from invited speakers and audience discussion, the following issues:

Overview of the homelessness problem in Ballarat: who, why, where, how?
What is being done in our community to deal with the issue?
What is not being done?
What more needs to be done?
What is the role of Faith or United Faith Community in the homelessness debate?
Do we have a moral obligation to assist the homeless?
Any possibility of a coordinated approach?
Where to from here?

Invited speakers include: Jax Roan –Grampians Homelessness Network Co-ordinator, Renay Howard – Mental Health Social Worker, headspace Ballarat; Bob Maika –CAFS; Lorraine Gittings from the Ballarat Soup Bus, among others.

Please email or call Margaret on: mflellis@netconnect.com.au Mob: 0400 650 234 or Constantine: cosuchukwu@gmail.com Mob: 0435 750 155 if you have any queries regarding this forum.