A Community Feeling

Being community minded is a familiar concept to Australians with many stories shared of communities gathering to help each other when faced with national disasters such as bush fires and drought¹.  Community hubs for migrant and refugee families provide connections, health, education and settlement support and are growing in popularity². Schools are looking to develop community mindedness in their students with one school suggesting parents do their part by starting early, lead by example, and to build on what is already been done³. deFiddes are doing their part in 2021 by working with Starting Over Support.

Beginning with the conversation of the importance of being community minded, giving back and making the world a better place with one act of kindness at a time³, deFiddes connected with Starting Over Support or SOS. SOS is a practical support agency of People Who Care and provides furniture and household items to people escaping crisis situations such as domestic violence or disruption.  Run solely by volunteers, SOS is the only free service of its kind in Perth and aims to furnish 6-10 houses EACH week!  We were stunned to find out that there was this kind of need right here in Perth. 

There are many ways you can assist SOS:

1.     Direct monetary donations to assist with delivery truck costs and warehouse leasing costs.

2.     Donation of furniture (beds, drawers, wardrobes) and whitegoods (fridges, washing machines, microwaves)

3.     Gather items for Buckets of Love - which are plastic laundry buckets filled with household articles such as micro cloths, sponges & scourers, laundry liquid, dishwashing liquid, spray cleaner, pegs, toilet cleaner, toilet brush, disinfectants, dustpans & brush along with mops, brooms and toilet rolls⁴.

When we reached out to SOS with the idea of not giving Christmas gifts to our clients in 2020 but redirecting the funds to provide goods to support their amazing work, Kathie Mitchell kindly explained they simply cannot have too many Buckets of Love as they go through at LEAST 40 every month. Leading up to Christmas, SOS were also short of suitable Christmas gifts for boys. So, armed with a list, deFiddes went shopping!!

A big thank you to all our clients who supported the initiative and we look forward to assisting SOS throughout the year.

References

1.     https://www.vox.com/2020/1/24/21063638/australian-bushfires-2019-experience

2.     https://www.communityhubs.org.au/news-events/community-mindedness-through-covid-19/

3.     https://www.mbc.wa.edu.au/3-ways-to-encourage-your-child-to-be-community-minded/

4.     https://www.facebook.com/Startingoversupport/