Celebrating NAIDOC Week with Margaret Tucker Hostel’s Breakfast  

Celebrating NAIDOC Week 2024!  

This NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week Hope Street Youth and Family Services partnered with Margaret Tucker Hostel to host their signature NAIDOC Breakfast. This event commenced with a powerful smoking ceremony that grounded us all in reflection and connectedness.  

Thank you to Worrelle Blow for hosting this fantastic event and sharing the NAIDOC spirit with Hope Street. Hope Street and Margaret Tucker staff were joined by sector representatives of youth homelessness services and other community services. Guests included community leader Uncle Ralph White, AFL SportsReady, respected First Nations journalist Shelley Ware, and representatives from the Carlton Football Club. Koorie radio @3KND interviewed Sue Scott from Hope Street as well as Worrell Blow in their first live broadcast since the covid lockdowns. Another beautiful celebration of NAIDOC.

The NAIDOC Week breakfast at Margaret Tucker Hostel was also an opportunity to showcase to the community the importance of collaboration and walking together in reconciliation now more than ever. This year to celebrate NAIDOC’s theme of “Keep the Fire Burning,” Blak, Loud and Proud; both organisations have built on their long-term relationship by developing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a feature of Hope Street’s developing Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Standing together to deliver safe and secure housing and holistic support for young people experiencing homelessness.

The NAIDOC Breakfast was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with Margaret Tucker Hostel’s community and those that are passionate about advocating for youth housing solutions for Melbourne’s young people.  

There is a significant opportunity for Hope Street to share resources and learn from Margaret Tucker Hostel on providing services for Aboriginal young people and their children experiencing homelessness.  

Margaret Tucker has a strong legacy in the community as a leader in Aboriginal Rights activism and upholding connections to country and culture. Hope Street will continue to walk in reconciliation with Margaret Tucker Hostel to support outcomes for young people to have access to safe and secure housing and a connection to community with wrap-around support to achieve their goals.  

Thank you to everyone that celebrated NAIDOC alongside the Hope Street team! 

YOUTH HOMELESSNESS SERVICES COME TOGETHER FOR NAIDOC BREAKFAST

Margaret Tucker Hostel and Hope Street Youth and Family Services will celebrate NAIDOC week with a signature breakfast together as they join forces to address youth homelessness in Melbourne's northern growth corridor. A Memorandum of Understanding has been developed between the organisations to enhance service delivery and improve outcomes for young people and their children at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

Margaret Tucker Hostel is the statewide service for Aboriginal young women and their children while Hope Street, has multiple operations sites in Melbourne’s Northeast and Northwest providing nation leading responses to youth and child homelessness. In Australia and Victoria, the largest population of people experiencing homelessness are young people under 25 and their children. As frontline youth homelessness services, Hope Street and Margaret Tucker Hostel deliver vital support and accommodation to meet the needs of the community, making this a valuable partnership.

“To be a responsive youth homelessness provider, Hope Street needs to work with partners to achieve the best outcomes for young people. This partnership with Margaret Tucker Hostel will support safe options for Aboriginal people which will promote connectedness to community.” - Sue Scott, Hope Street Operations Manager.

This NAIDOC Week breakfast is an opportunity to showcase to the community the importance of collaboration and walking together in reconciliation now more than ever. This year to celebrate NAIDOC's theme of “Keep the Fire Burning,” Blak, Loud and Proud; both organisations have built on their long-term relationship by developing an MOU, a feature of Hope Street's Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Standing together to deliver safe and secure housing and holistic support for young people experiencing homelessness.

“I have worked at Margaret Tucker Hostel since 2012 providing much needed support to the most vulnerable members of the Aboriginal community who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The hostel provides supported crisis accommodation to young Aboriginal women and their children who are aged from 15-18 years of age. Margaret Tucker Hostel supported over 20 young women and children in the last year. This partnership with Hope Street will enhance service delivery for young people and the local community.” - Worrell Blow, Manager at Margaret Tucker Hostel.

This community partnership will enable Hope Street to strengthen cultural safety across their services for First Nations young people and their children. This partnership allows Margaret Tucker Hostel’s staff to have access to Hope Street’s nation leading facilities and resources that provide wrap around support in a therapeutically designed accommodation for young people and young families.

The NAIDOC Breakfast will be held from 7.30am Wednesday July 10th at the Margaret Tucker Hostel

Margaret Tucker Hostel morning tea and tour of Melton for Reconciliation Week.  

This week is Reconciliation Week 2024! Hope Street welcomed Worrell Blow, Manager from the Margaret Tucker Hostel for a Morning Tea and tour at the Melton First Response Youth Service Refuge on Wurundjeri country.

Worrell is a Yorta Yorta/Goreng Goreng woman from Victoria and has worked at the hostel since 2012. Worrell shared some of the history of Aboriginal community services in Melbourne for the team to learn about this significant work being done for and by mob.  Worrell also shared the history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who established the Margaret Tucker Hostel. 

Margaret Tucker Hostel provides supported crisis accommodation services and support to young Aboriginal women and children aged 15-18 years who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. The hostel was named after Aunty Margaret Tucker MBE who was a survivor of the Stolen Generation and respected leader and activist for Aboriginal rights.

As a purpose-built facility for young people and young families experiencing homelessness, the Melton First Response Youth Service Refuge showcases through this collaboration, elements of design that Margaret Tucker Hostel may consider in re-building for their Hostel as a purpose designed centre for their young women.

This event was attended by Hope Street staff from all five sites to hear Worrell’s insights and sharing of information that led to the development of Aboriginal specific services.  The significance and importance of Aboriginal established, governed, managed and operated services was acknowledged by all.  Hope Street and Margaret Tucker Hostel are keen to develop shared learnings and have recently signed a MOU outlining key activities to achieve together for the benefit of young people, their children and the teams with both agencies.  

Hope Street and the Margaret Tucker Hostel are committed to supporting each other’s work in youth homelessness in a collaborative environment connected to country and community.  Central to the relationship is the spirit of the theme: Now More Than Ever.

Both Worrell Blow and Donna Bennett confirmed their commitment to Hope Street and Margaret Tucker Hostel embarking on this journey of walking together in reconciliation.

OZ Harvest and StreetSmart’s Sleep Safe  

Community partnerships help young people and young families experiencing homelessness.  

Thank you, Oz Harvest, and StreetSmart for the on-going community partnership with Hope Street to provide essential items to young people and young families experiencing homelessness. Food and a safe place to sleep are essential for dignity and wellbeing.  

Hope Street is currently engaging with long term partner StreetSmart through its partnership with Sheridan which creates Sleep Kits for people who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness. These kits have been delivered to different Hope Street youth housing programs as a practical way to support young people and young families.  Each kit contains a towel, fitted sheet, flat sheet and pillowcase and provides quality comfort to young people and young families as they are supported at Hope Street.  These Sleep Safe Kits give comfort, dignity, and practical support to vulnerable people in their time of crisis.   

In addition to the Sleep Kits, Oz Harvest through their initiatives for food wastage reduction deliver meals to Hope Street to keep the fridges and pantries full of the 7 young people and families in the supported youth housing Foyer-like program in Thomastown.   A welcome relief to young people who otherwise would not be eating three meals a day due to the cost of living.   

Oz Harvest has become a leading food rescue organisation on a mission to ‘Nourish our Country’ by stopping good food from going to waste and delivering it to charities that help feed people in need. Such successful programs ensure that food waste is reduced, whilst quality food is still able to be consumed in the local community. OZ Harvest make regular deliveries to Hope Street as part of their cause and the impact this has on young people being able to sustain their housing (rent) and independent living which means they are less likely to re-enter into rough sleeping due to cost of living forcing them out of tenancies.    

Thank you, Oz Harvest, and StreetSmart for your incredible mission and gift that goes a long way in enabling young people to sustain independent living!