Perth students experience sleeping rough in city carpark
Perth students experience sleeping rough in city carpark
1 December 2022
Members of the West Australian School Engagement Team – (from left) Peter Vernon, Liam Swainson and Isaac Mead – prepare a dinner of pies, fruit slices and a sandwich for Year 8 students who slept out in the Divisional Headquarters carpark in Perth.
Salvos are no strangers to sleeping out for a good cause, but it’s always a joy when community members don their winter woollies and get involved. That was the case earlier this month when Year 8 students from Ellenbrook Christian College in Perth camped out in the Divisional Headquarters carpark to raise funds for Salvation Army services in Northbridge.
Students learned about homelessness and took part in a quiz (top) before they camped out for the night in the carpark (bottom).
Peter Vernon and Liam Swainson from the WA School Engagement Team led the program to educate students about the services provided by The Salvation Army and raise awareness about the issues surrounding homelessness.
Held on 10 November, students arrived in the late afternoon and, after a briefing by Peter, they settled in and went upstairs to participate in a quiz led by Liam. Meanwhile, a few lucky volunteers were sent to the Doorways kitchen to help prepare the evening meal.
After the quiz, Peter drove a Salvos soup van into the carpark, the students queued up, and the lads served dinner: a Mrs Mac’s pie, a ham and cheese sandwich, and a piece of fruit for dessert. These items are typical of what could be delivered by The Beacon Crisis and Temporary Housing services in the area.
After lights out at 9pm, the students experienced firsthand the grim reality of sleeping rough and were woken several times throughout the night by the sound of rubbish trucks doing the rounds. In the morning, after breakfast, Liam and Peter took the students on a tour of the social services offered by the Salvos in the Northbridge area.
Peter said the tours were a great way to connect the information the students are taught with a direct experience.
“If someone has to bounce between Doorways and The Beacon every day to get the help that they need, we can put the student in that experience in a couple of hours,” he said.
Isaac Mead and Peter Vernon prepare meals for the students.
“The biggest benefit to us is that it connects the dots of the information that we’re giving them to real places and real people. They start to have their eyes opened to the possibility that [homelessness] is actually way more prevalent than they first thought, and anyone could go through this. They could go through this, and it’s good to know that these places are available.”
Peter said the engagement team wanted to inspire the next generation to participate and become part of the solution.
“We want to empower the young people that are with us with the truth about these issues. To know what help is out there, and what they can feasibly do to support their local communities as they move away from this experience.”
According to Liam, a key takeaway message from these tours is simply to show kindness – and reach out to help.
“The big thing I want the young people to realise is that if you zoom the clock back far enough, you will find multiple points in that person’s life where there is just brokenness. There is just pain. All of that has [contributed to] where they are now. And the decisions they have made are a result of that,” he said.
“Rather than just walking past someone on the streets and thinking, ‘Why don’t you just get a job?’, instead go, ‘You know what? What’s led this person here?’ Let’s look at the experience of homelessness in a different light and ask, ‘How can I help you?’”
Comments
Well done Pete and Liam. Great article and awesome initiative.