Hope Street is once again proud to be one of the recipients of the proceeds of the annual Community Charity Race Night organised by the Rotary Clubs of Melton and Melton Valley.

The harness racing fundraising event held in October last year raised $4,188 for Hope Street. In his speech at the Cheque Presentation evening on Tuesday 11 April 2017, Jeremie Mbog Nyetam, Program Coordinator of the Hope Street In Melton and Hope Street In Whittlesea programs, announced that this generous donation will go towards the Hope Street First Response Youth Service in Melton. This is a purpose-built crisis accommodation centre that will provide emergency accommodation and specialist support services to approximately 100 young people/families a year in the City of Melton.

Melton has 300 young people who experience homelessness each year and the nearest youth refuge they can access is 27 kilometres from their local community. This means that young people experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness - including young parents with accompanying children - must leave the Melton local government area if they require supported crisis accommodation. The donation from this charity event will help build a facility that will enable young people to remain in the City of Melton so they can maintain school, family contact, and support links while having a safe place to live in and support with counselling, health and wellbeing programs, and development opportunities.

Hope Street would like to acknowledge the following for their wonderful support of homeless and at risk young people and young families in Melton:

• Shirley Clyde, Club President, Rotary Club of Melton
• Randall Brown, Club President, Rotary Club of Melton Valley
• Gayle Harvey, Acting General Manager, TabCorp Park and the support of TabCorp Park Melton

Special thanks go to the members of the Rotary Clubs of Melton and Melton Valley who have contributed a tremendous amount of time and effort to raise funds for their local community.

Hope Street appreciates that a considerable amount of thought, planning, organising, and contacting people has been done by many caring individuals and organisations to make this Community Charity Race Night such a success. The outcome of their hard work will have a major positive effect on the lives of young people/families who currently become disconnected from their local Melton community when seeking crisis accommodation.