Melbourne’s Road Home Forum III – What can we do to help?

Two years ago the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation embarked upon its homelessness initiative, Melbourne’s Road Home. Launching with a forum in late 2008, we are now on the road to reducing homelessness – with time and energy we believe it can be eliminated.

 

The first forum focused on partnerships. Into the same room it brought government, philanthropy, not-for-profit, welfare, business, media, and interested community members. Momentum built from this first coming together and, at the 2009 forum – about hearing the voices of people experiencing homelessness – the Melbourne’s Road Home Alliance was born. The Alliance is a group of respected community and business leaders, all of whom are concerned about the increasing number of Victorians living without a home and are working to figure out what we can do to help.

 

On August 26 this year, the Melbourne’s Road Home forum is turning three (no celebrating, though). It will be a day to see how far down the road we’ve come, and to answer the question: What can we do to help? By ‘we’ we mean everyone, from government to business to community and everyone in between.

 

Forum III will be structured according to the different life stages that people might be in when they experience homelessness. The keynote presentations will reflect some of these life stages: Growing Up – Kids Without a Home, Mid-Life – Focusing on Domestic Violence, and Getting On – Ageing & Homelessness.

 

Also, leading homelessness researcher, Associate Professor David MacKenzie, will present his latest findings. And there will be a speech on the importance of using plain English when talking and writing about social problems. The forum will conclude with a panel discussion. Panellists will be the keynote speakers from earlier in the day, plus a representative from government and a representative from the Alliance.

 

It would be wonderful to see you there … What can we do to help?