Campaign Archives - Port Phillip Community Group

End Child Poverty

General Staff — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 01:09:05 +0000

This Antipoverty Week PPCG is joining people across the country to call for the end of child poverty. It’s not OK that 1 in 6 children in our communities are living in poverty. All children deserve an equal opportunity to play, learn, and thrive, but the reality is that kids living with financial hardship miss out on important opportunities like school camps and sports teams, and have to deal with significant challenges such as food insecurity, housing insecurity and lack of access to adequate clothing, technology and other essentials.

Poverty not a choice made by families, its is a result of structural and policy failures such as chronically low income support and the lack of affordable housing. Melbourne is the 5th most unaffordable housing market in the world, yet rent assistance hasn’t increased beyond inflation rates since 2000.

We can and should be doing more. Let’s call for change together!

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Homelessness Week 2022

General Staff — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 00:52:45 +0000

On any given night in Australia, 116,000 people are without a home. Homelessness can happen quickly and it can happen to anybody. Family breakdown, losing a job, family violence or mental health decline shouldn’t put us at risk of losing the safety of our home. In fact, it is in times of crisis that a safe shelter is most important to our wellbeing.

Homelessness is fixable, but to end homelessness we need a plan. We need to make housing accessible and affordable. We need to support people to secure housing, or protect them if they are about to lose it. We need to support young people, women experiencing family violence, people with diverse needs and those on chronically low incomes.

TAKE ACTION

There are many ways in which you can get involved this Homelessness Week. You don’t have to do it all, start with what feels meaningful for you.

1. ~ LEARN~

The first step to being a part of meaningful change is to arm yourself with knowledge. Here are some places you might like to begin:

2. ~PARTICIPATE~

Homelessness Australia will release a list of events happening around you this Homelessness Week. Immerse yourself in stories, talks and more.

3. ~CALL FOR CHANGE~

Talk to the changemakers in your community and tell them what you want to see done about homelessness. This might be talking to your local MP or emailing State and Federal Members responsible for housing.

4. ~DONATE~

There are many organisations out there working in different ways to support people experiencing homelessness. Some might be able to assist with emergency accommodation, emergency relief, case management or family violence support.

At PPCG, we support people experiencing homelessness through our Information, Referral and Support service. We will talk to each person about their unique situation and help link them in with the right supports. Some may see us just once, whilst others will work with us over a longer period of time to get the ongoing, person-centred support that they need. For those in immediate crisis, we can provide emergency relief such as food, toiletries, a sleeping bag, warm winter knits, a MYKI card to get to accommodation or a pharmacy voucher to purchase essential medication. As little as $50 can help us to support a person sleeping rough with food and other essentials for the week.

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Submissions are now closed. Thanks everyone!

General Staff — Wed, 04 May 2022 07:17:11 +0000

This year for Neighbourhood House Week, PPCG and ARCH want to hear about what is bringing people together and building resilience in the Port Phillip Community.

It’s been a tough two years for many of us, and we want to celebrate the strength, generosity and resilience of our communities by inviting people to paint, draw, photograph or tell a story about something special in your community.

You can use these key statements to help you with the theme of your artwork or storytelling:

What I love about my community is…

What brings people together in my community is…

What builds resilience in my community is…

Complete the subission form below and send it in along with your artwork or story for your chance to win $100 worth of prizes from local businesses in our community! Submissions close on the 13th June, 2022 and the winner will be announced later that month. The winner will be chosen by a panel, based on creativity and representation of the theme.

Anyone living or sleeping rough in the City of Port Phillip is welcome to submit, and all entries will be exhibited at Alma Road Community House from July 2022 for the community to enjoy.

Good Luck!

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Anti-Poverty Week 2021

General Staff — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 05:44:02 +0000

Raise income above the poverty line. Give everybody a home.

This year for Anti-Poverty Week, Port Phillip Community Group is joining the call to raise income support above the poverty line and to build more public and social housing so that nobody has to experience homelessness.

Enough money to meet basic education, food and medication costs, and a safe, warm home. These should be fundamental rights of all Australians, not just some of us. However, currently 1 in 10 Australians are living in poverty, and 1 in 5 of them are children. We don’t think that this is OK, which is why we are joining the call for change.

Let's take action!

Raise income support above the poverty line.

Increase social and public housing by 7000 houses per year.

Currently, our lowest income support payments are about $44 a day. This is barely enough to cover the cost of rent, let alone food, medicaion, clothing, education and other essentials.

We are joining together with the Raise the Rate campaign in calling for this to be increased above the poverty line, permenantly.

Currently there are 82,000 vulnerable Victorians on the waitlist for social and public housing (including 25,000 children). Wait times for housing can take years, leaving many facing homelessness.

We are joining CISVic in calling on the Victorian Government to increase the social and public housing stock by 7,000 houses each year, for the next ten years.

Want to do more?

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Origami House Project

General Staff — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:53:08 +0000

Origami House Virtual Launch - Tuesday 26th October

Send an origami house and letter to your MP!

ABOUT HOMELESSNESS IN AUSTRALIA

In Australia there are over 116,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. In Victoria alone there are over 50, 000 people on the waitlist for public and social housing. This project was launch during Homelessness Week in August, 2021 and aims to raise awareness of the impact of homelessness in Australia, and to work together to end it. The project will run until Anti-Poverty Week in October, 2021.

ABOUT THE ORIGAMI HOUSE PROJECT

We’re calling on the Victorian Government to commit to building and increasing our social and public housing stock by 7000 houses a year for the next 10 years.

PPCG is joining with other organisations in Victoria to invite people with lived experience of homelessness, community members, and staff working in the sector to contribute to a display of origami houses. 7000 origami houses for 7000 homes! The purpose of the display will be to raise awareness of the need for more social and public housing and to give an opportunity for people to voice their views and their stories.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

You can either download or collect an Origami House Kit from our St Kilda office at 161 Chapel St, St Kilda. The kit will contain paper for your house and instructions on how to make it. Once you have finished you can either mail your origami house to us, or drop it off in person.

PPCG – Origami House Project
161 Chapel St, St Kilda
VIC 3182

We will display your work at the Alma Road Community House, as well as have an online display on our website and social media up until the end of September. We will also share the display with decision makers in our community so that they can connect with the stories and the opinions of community members on this important issue.

In October, we will join our origami houses together with those of other local organisations to go in a large exhibition for Anti-Poverty Week. This will be coordinated by CISVic. Once the location and dates are confirmed, we will share it on our social media and website.

Download the Origami House Kit

Video Instructions

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