Homeless Program
Bridge Back To Life Foundation opens on 3 September 2008 a “One Stop” outreach transitional support service up to 3-6 months for hard-to-engage, hard-to-assist young homeless males 16-25 years of age.
The program will focus on permanency planning to provide the client a sense of purpose, stability and certainty about what their future holds. From the outset, goal setting will revolve around realistic and clearly articulated outcomes.
Official Launch date 18 September 2008
UPDATE:
From the Article: (Times2 - Monday, September 22, 2008)
A fresh start to a new, healthy life
Bridge Back to Life Foundation House opening.
Story and Pictures: Lyn Mills
I’ts an ordinary in an ordinary suburb, and with a lick of paint, a garden clean up, comfortable furniture and a barbecue out the back, it’s a family home that fits with it’s suburb. But this home is anything but ordinary.
Three formerly homeless young men have moved in to start a new life. They do so with the support of people determined that they succeed in finding a purpose, quality of life and a new dignity.
Chairman of the board of the Bridge Back to Life Foundation Dave Rugendyke, who secured, furnished and spruced up this house with wide-ranging community and business input, officially opened the home.
Local parish priest Father Warrick Tonkin blessed it. Then guests joined in a celebratory launch of orange and brown balloons, many of which immediately lodged in the surrounding gums. Significant perhaps as there will be hazards along the way for these young men.
The men expressed their gratitude to the driving force behind this initiative, Rhonda Obad. From the tragic loss of her son to a heroin overdose Rhonda has found a way to make a differencefor other young men, with this one-stop transitional support service, which has stays for three to six months, aimed at young men from 16-25.
The volunteers from People Knowhow Canberra were among the guests, and will be providing ongoing support, along with Oz Harvest, which collects unwanted food from restaurants around Canberra to disperse. We certianly ate well on those leftovers.
With the media present the first three tenants were reluctant to be identified, and judging by their stories I can understand why, but they were open and honest about the whys and wherefores of reaching this turning point in their lives.