Your gift helps desperate and homeless young people like Jess.
Jess* was 13 when the trouble started in her family. She left home and began couch surfing at friends’ houses. Then came homelessness. Drinking alcohol to keep warm at night. And drugs – marijuana, ice, speed, ecstasy.
“I had times when I had nowhere to go. I ended up under a bridge or sleeping near the Yarra.”
One day, Jess was about to throw herself in front of a train.
“A guy stopped me. He grabbed me and pulled me off and looked me in the eye and said, ‘It’s not worth it’. Then I went and sat on the Flinders Street steps.”
That’s where Jess first met Anne, a worker with Concern Australia’s Steps Outreach Service program.
“Anne used to bring toiletries, food vouchers, blankets – anything I really needed like clothes or socks. I could ring her and tell her what I needed and she’d help me.”
Anne also helped Jess find a place to live, get her driver’s licence and a job. Today, Jess is working and hopes one day to own a home of her own.
Your gift today will help reach other desperate young people like Jess… or even save their lives!
*Jess’s name has been changed
How your gift will be used
“We aim to be a significant adult in a young person’s life they can rely on. Someone they know won’t be judgmental, who will have hope for them and believe in them – someone they feel safe with. And that’s something a young person may have never experienced.”
– Grace, a Concern Australia case worker
When you donate to Concern Australia, you will help young people facing a myriad of issues including:
- Homelessness
- Unemployment
- Drugs and alcohol
- Family breakdown
- Domestic violence
Whatever the backgrounds of the young people we help, we will not give up on them. In fact, that’s what one young man, John (name changed), said about Concern Australia after years of support throughout his difficult childhood and family conflict.
“They didn’t give up on me.”
Your gift today matters to young people like John.
Bless you for your generosity.
Photo supplied courtesy of HESTA. Not to be reproduced without permission