Homeless service navigating way through pandemic
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Virtual events, creative ways to raise money and not planning too far in advance – that’s the new reality for Catherine House as it tries to navigate the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
Virtual events, creative ways to raise money and not planning too far in advance – that’s the new reality for Catherine House as it tries to navigate the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
While the organisation which supports women experiencing homelessness was able to continue operating throughout the pandemic, a major hurdle looms as it seeks to maintain the funding needed to keep its programs running.
“We are definitely concerned about what’s going to happen in the future,” CEO Linda Matthews told The Southern Cross.
“We rely a lot on donations from the community. Through the crisis we have so far not been too badly affected but we are more concerned about that for this financial year and beyond, as things get squeezed from people who normally donate. That’s going to be an issue for us.
“We’ve had to cancel three flagship fundraisers this calendar year and at the moment we have to be very cautious about what we’re doing because, like for everyone in this sector, it is such an unknown.”
Ms Matthews (pictured) said the difficult times had called for “inventive” ways to fundraise.
“It’s pretty hard to plan, that’s the one big change. Before you had a calendar of events 12 months in advance and you just can’t do that anymore. It’s very uncertain times but obviously we want to keep the services going as uninterrupted as we can.
“We are trying to get more people to use our website, making donations online, we are extending our Community Ambassador program and are encouraging people to fundraise in their own groups in a COVID safe way.”
One of the events scheduled is a virtual auction being held from October 7-14 which will sell items that were donated for the Quiz Night and other events planned for earlier in the year that had to be cancelled.
Reflecting on the impact of the pandemic on the women supported by Catherine House, Ms Matthews said the early stages had been hard for clients, who were used to coming and going as they pleased.
“However as more information became available and we understood contact tracing better, they understood the need for them to be able to describe where they had been.
“Another positive is that women who would have not previously engaged using technology learned how to do that as we had to run our activities and programs using Zoom.”
Ms Matthews said the Women’s Centre had now reopened and activities in small groups had resumed.
As in pre COVID times, Catherine House continues to run at full capacity, offering 54 beds each night through its various programs, with a waitlist of about 20-30 women – a number that is expected to increase in the coming months.
“We certainly anticipate that things are going to get worse but it hasn’t hit yet. As the financial situation gets worse for people more generally as it is anticipated to do, that’s more likely to increase homelessness,” Ms Matthews said.
She added that throughout the uncertain times of the pandemic, Catherine House had appreciated working with other services in the homelessness sector and had also benefitted from support given by relevant Government agencies.
“One consolation is that we are all in the same boat and we know as a sector when we are meeting together that cooperating with each other is going to be our best hope of getting through this,” Ms Matthews said.
“It’s been really good to share information and workshop solutions about what is the best way to deal with a myriad of issues. Sharing that is always better than trying to go it alone.”
For more information about the virtual auction go to www.catherinehouse.org.au.
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