A number of Samaritans services came together to serve the community at the annual Hunter Homeless Connect Day.
The event, which took place at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre last month, linked more than 2,000 people to vital services such as accommodation and housing providers, health and wellbeing, employment, and legal and financial assistance.
Samaritans was represented by staff from the Specialist Homelessness Service (SHS), Homeless Youth Assistance Program (HYAP), Recovery Point, Emergency Relief, ARAFMI Hunter Mental Health Carers, Child and Parenting Support (CAPS), and Financial Counselling.
The teams were able to connect with people experiencing financial hardship and homelessness within a casual environment and shared the work Samaritans was doing in the local community.
The teams were pleased to hear so many positive comments from people who were either being assisted by Samaritans currently or had been in the past.
The Hunter Homeless Connect Day also gave team members, both new and old, an opportunity to network and meet with staff from other services in person.
This enabled them to brainstorm better ways they could support each other and make cross referrals more efficient. They also learned about new programs that services could utilise to support young people.
It was a great day out in the community, and Samaritans choice of activities led to staff being more engaging with those who came to the stalls.
The teams are looking forward to attending the event again in 2025.
