By KIRRALEE NICOLLE When catastrophic floods devastated the NSW Northern Rivers region in February 2022, the widespread loss of houses and livelihoods left many people struggling. Almost 18 months later, the damage is still being felt in the area, according to Northern Rivers Corps Officer Captain Philip Sutcliffe. The most recent New South Wales Street Count released on 22 June showed a 117 per cent increase in homelessness in Byron Bay from the previous February. This region also contained the highest number of people sleeping rough in the state. However, due to the extreme weather events at the time of the last Street Count, these figures may not fully represent the 2022 numbers. Philip said between the aftermath of flooding, reduced housing availability and the skyrocketing cost of living pressures, it was difficult to pinpoint which were the primary factors in the increase. He said those displaced by the flooding were also quite transient, which meant they sometimes gravitated to the bay from other parts of the region to spend the night. “We’ve got a lot of people that are somewhat transient because they might be working on their places to rebuild and restore but sleeping in a vehicle at night because that’s the safe, warm, dry place at the moment,” Philip said. “Even 16-17 months on from the flood, a lot of people in our community have been in limbo because the government’s been talking about buybacks and land swaps, and so people have been waiting for answers on that. “And, so, people are going, ‘I’ve been living in limbo-land in my car, in my caravan, in temporary accommodation. After 16 months, I could have had most of my house renovated and restored had I known that I’m not going to be eligible for a buyback, which I always thought I was.’” The boutique beachside town of Byron Bay saw a significant increase in house and rental prices over the past several years, according to realestate.com.au. Philip said staff at the corps were seeing an increase in dual-income families looking for assistance. He said many who were flood-affected were paying a mortgage and rent concurrently while they tried to rebuild. He said some moved to the area believing it would be a positive lifestyle change without realising costs were higher than they could handle. “It’s one of the most expensive places to live in NSW,” Philip said. “It’s a tourist community, so everyday things are priced for that tourist market.” He said there was another factor contributing to rising house prices. “There are a lot more places [being listed] online, but the difficulty for landlords and homeowners is that they’ve had to fork out of their own pocket to renovate these places and rebuild them in a flood-resilient way,” Philip said. “The prices are quite high because they’ve had to invest all of this money without government support or backup. So, places that probably wouldn’t have been this price prior to the flood are now this price because it costs the landlords a lot of money to rebuild their places, put them back together and get them ready to be on the market. “So, you have then got that effect on the bigger picture as well.” Philip said he and his wife, fellow corps officer Captain Donna Sutcliffe, were partnering with local initiatives and organisations to deliver assistance in the area as their corps building was located a significant distance from the Byron Bay area. He said they were also working with the local council to find longer-term solutions. Visit the MySalvos Homelessness Week toolkit at: https://my.salvos.org.au/homelessness-week-toolkit-2023/

By KIRRALEE NICOLLE The steps of Victoria’s Parliament House were a sea of brightly coloured origami houses on Wednesday 2 August, with representatives from across the homelessness services sector and members of the Victorian Homelessness Network gathering to campaign for increased social housing. The 6000 origami houses represented a request for the State and Federal Governments to commit to building at least 6000 new social houses each year for the next 10 years. Currently, there are 57,000 Victorian households on the social housing waitlist. The event was an initiative by Victorian Homelessness Network in collaboration with other housing and homelessness services groups. Staff from across Salvation Army Mission Delivery services attended the campaign. Among them, Upton Road Youth Services Program Manager Claire Edmanson had been part of the working group organising the event. She said the event was timely as it fell the same day Federal Labor reintroduced the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill to Parliament. “I think it was an amazing launch into Homelessness Week to have [Council for Homeless Persons] there [to] speak and talk about the relevance of this issue and to show the need that there is to address this gap in social housing across Victoria,” she said. “It was also just a really nice event in terms of unity between homelessness services across Victoria. Every region in Victoria was really well represented.” Claire said policy perspectives in the Greens, Labor and the Liberal party differed in terms of priority areas to address the current housing crisis, and the visual aspect of the event as well as the discussions it raised on social media, were an important way to keep the issue at the forefront of politicians’ minds. She said about 30 members of State Parliament attended the event. To find out more about Victorian Homelessness Network, visit https://www.vhn.org.au/ Visit the MySalvos Homelessness Week toolkit at https://my.salvos.org.au/homelessness-week-toolkit-2023/

BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE As the sitcom Community depicts, pool tables can be a battleground of competing ideals and escalating conflict. But that is not always the case. In a small crisis accommodation centre run out of Burnie Corps, Tasmania, a well-worn pool table is helping provide healing through connection. The Burnie Safe Space is a short-term accommodation centre for anyone experiencing homelessness on the state’s north-west coast. Acting team leader Michael Parsons said of all the features of the centre, the donated pool table was most invaluable for connecting with clients who had faced trauma. “That eight-ball table is the single best therapeutic tool we own,” he said. “It is amazing how many people will be extremely reticent to engage with us, and then one of the guys will say, ‘Come on, let’s have a game, right?’ “They get comfortable, and then they will start to talk.” The Burnie Safe Space, now entering its fourth year of operation, provides accommodation for 20 people. The team is in the process of expanding the capacity to 24. Michael said that while it was often assumed that the winter months were the busiest for crisis accommodation centres like the Burnie Safe Space, that was not always the case. “We have been at or near capacity for a couple of months now, and it will be interesting to see how that’s going to look over the next three to six months, whether we will stay at that capacity,” he said. The centre is currently in the process of planning for a future influx of people seeking crisis accommodation, as Michael said the full effects of skyrocketing housing and living costs were yet to be seen in the demographic currently sleeping rough. He said he anticipates it will take six to 12 months to see the numbers of those experiencing homelessness primarily due to financial strain, to reach their peak. “There’s a significant lag factor,” he said. “For instance, if you take interest rate rises on mortgages, each one is like a little blade that swings across and chops off the people who are hanging by their fingernails. These people typically transition down to family living arrangements, but because of various stresses and strains, these arrangements can quite often break down. So, then they go down the next rung, which is usually friends, and they then transition down to things like couch surfing, then finally too often car sleeping, and then finally rough sleeping. “So, there are several rungs down the ladder before they will reach someone like us.” Michael said a feature of the Safe Space that set it apart was that clients couldn’t overstay their welcome. “Our ethos is to be a short-term crisis accommodation centre, but some people have very complex requirements, and we don’t put a time limit on a stay here,” he said. “We’re certainly not going to put pressure on people to leave if we know they’re just going to exit into homelessness, but what we can do is leave no stone unturned in our efforts to case manage, link these people with the appropriate supports and services and help them to transition into something better than they’ve been experiencing. Because the more often we do that, the more we are able to take in the next wave of people who require our service.” Michael said the focus of the service was on trauma-informed treatment of underlying causes for homelessness and that the pool table provided a gateway for many who were fearful of opening up. “When people come in here, [particularly] homeless people who have been homeless for some time, they are quite wary of authority and figures of authority,” he said. “And whether we like it or not, we represent an authority figure. But when you’re at the pool table, it’s a level playing field. All of a sudden, you’re not that authority figure anymore. You’re just an opponent on the pool table, and that’s another driver for them to drop their guard and begin to relax and open up to you because they’re not sitting across the room from you. You’re pretty much peers at the pool table. “Almost invariably, it is the gateway into helping us to understand the person because it allows them to feel comfortable enough. Within a week, we have a good picture of who they are, what they’ve experienced and what their problems are now.” Michael said the pool table was often in use up to 16 hours a day and was beginning to show the effects of its busy schedule. “Unfortunately, it’s been so heavily used that it’s now on its very last legs,” he said. “[It] has done so much work in its life here, but it’s now pretty much shot to bits. The felt is ripped. The cushions are shot. If any kind person out there would like to either donate a table or help towards the cost of a table, that would go down very, very well with all staff and clients.” Visit the MySalvos Homelessness Week toolkit at https://my.salvos.org.au/homelessness-week-toolkit-2023/

This week is Homelessness Week (7-13 August). As one of the leading providers of homelessness services, The Salvation Army uses this week to raise awareness and advocate for people at risk or experiencing homelessness. In this animation, we are reminded that a home is so much more than just a roof. It’s a safe place, a place that offers hope and a place that allows people to dream of a positive future.

BY ANTHONY CASTLE There is a moment in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny where the old adventurer, played by Harrison Ford, is handed a clock as a retirement gift. The once-dashing archaeologist is now 70 years old, finishing up as a history teacher just as the space age begins. Indiana Jones doesn’t really belong in 1969; old-fashioned, outshined by the technology of a new age, his adventures a thing of the past. Unimpressed, he gives the clock away in the street. Indiana Jones is a man out of time. Directed by James Mangold, Dial of Destiny is the fifth and final instalment in the Indiana Jones film series. Dial of Destiny sees an older Indiana Jones reunited with his estranged goddaughter Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is searching for an Antikythera device, a mechanism believed to be capable of time travel. With a Nazi foe from the past also hunting for the ‘dial of destiny’ to change the outcome of World War II, the ageing hero agrees to one more adventure. Mangold’s direction seeks to capture the chases and set-pieces of Spielberg’s original films but with a muted tone more appropriate to an 81-year-old lead. Even John Williams’ score hints at the classic musical themes but doesn’t hit the big beats as much as you might expect. Indiana Jones is a character who searches for things of myth, finding meaning in sacred objects of the past. In earlier adventures, he seeks out biblical relics and even finds God, in a sense, in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He never quite attains these plot MacGuffins, but in the process, he often finds the greater personal and spiritual meaning they offer. The strength of this new film is Harrison Ford’s performance, his charisma now touched with loneliness and grief, as a hero who’s lost their meaning. The Indiana Jones films have long been considered sacred objects themselves, part of pop-culture lore. The original Indiana Jones films were conceived as reimaginings of classic adventure serials. Over time, the franchise became synonymous with nostalgic cinema itself, a simpler time when films were fun romps. Dial of Destiny attempts to acknowledge this with its opening sequence, a flashback to a younger Indiana Jones fighting Nazis in World War II (achieved with digital de-ageing technologies). The result is a scene from an Indiana Jones film we never saw, an attempt to revisit the past, and an exercise in time travel (only disrupted when the special effects don’t quite work). While Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny gives us a glimpse of time travel in more ways than one, it has something more important to offer than just nostalgia. Indiana Jones searches for the relics of the past but finds something much more meaningful, right where he left off. The Indiana Jones movies might not belong in 2023. They might be old-fashioned, from a simpler time, outshined by newer technologies (box office receipts show that modern audiences seem unimpressed). For those looking for one more adventure, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a fun romp with something more meaningful to offer than just nostalgia. Find Dial of Destiny in cinemas while you can. There’s still time.

The Kyiv Mayak (Lighthouse) Corps has successfully reached a district outside the city that has been under Russian occupation for some time. Last weekend, Major Daniil Lukin and his team, including volunteers Alina and Marina, took clothing and shoes for both adults and children, as well as toys for the children. Local residents and internally displaced people who had fled their own areas were grateful for the supplies. Also last weekend in Ukraine, Captain Daria Bessmolnaja, Kropivnitsky Corps Officer, led a small street team to raise awareness of the dangers of modern slavery and human trafficking. The corps’ Scouts group actively participated in the event, and distributed booklets and answered people’s questions. An event dedicated to World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on 30 July also took place.

Vulnerable young Canberrans who have faced serious challenges in life and need a helping hand will be given the opportunity to learn to drive – thanks to the donation of a car to The Salvation Army’s Drive for Life program. Drive for Life helps Canberrans aged 17 to 25, who may otherwise not have access to driving lessons or a car to learn to drive. Priority is given to concession card holders and those who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. The program also delivers educational courses that count towards driving hours, such as the Safer Drivers course (20 hours) and the Vulnerable Road Users course (10 hours). “The donation of this car will enable young people to have a safe, maintained and insured vehicle in which to practise their driving skills after obtaining 10 initial professional driving lessons through our partners at Pinnacle Driving School,” explained Andrew Rich, manager of The Salvation Army’s Oasis Youth Services. “In addition, participants in the program will be matched with Salvation Army volunteer driving mentors and use this donated vehicle to practice and enhance their safe-driving skills, working towards the 100 hours of supervised driving experience required to obtain their Provisional Driver’s Licence in the ACT. “Being able to drive gives young people the choice and control necessary to realise their education, employment and housing goals. It’s a key milestone in a young person’s life and helps them move towards independence.” Len Goodwin, a Canberra local and long-term supporter of The Salvation Army, and Graham Gulson from Gulson’s Classic Cars donated the Drive for Life vehicle. When Len heard Andrew talk about the program and its impact on youth – not just helping with driving skills but mentoring as well – he knew he wanted to be a part of it. “I felt I wanted to help with the vehicle and contacted Gulson’s as I trust in the business and Graham, having dealt with Gulson’s for so many years,” he said. “Graham said yes with no hesitation when I put the request to him.” “It has been a wonderful opportunity for us to get involved in supporting such a valuable program,” said Graham. “Drive for Life is just the kind of thing we would like to be able to support.” Captain Tara McGuigan, Salvation Army Public Relations Manager in the ACT, said the program gave young people a completely new chance in life. “The people accessing the Drive for Life program will receive mentoring, care, and emotional support as much as driving skills,” she said. “A program like this helps vulnerable youth build their self-confidence, self-worth, and so much more.” Andrew anticipates 30-40 young people will engage with the program over the next 12 months. The ACT Government - Transport and City Services fund the program. For more information – as a participant or mentor, click here.

By KIRRALEE NICOLLE When Lieutenant Graham Kennedy was conducting funerals in a Church of England parish in the UK several years ago, he had an encounter that sparked a new idea for ministry. The parish was hosting back-to-back funerals, and Graham said he had only an hour to reset the room for the next service. While he was rearranging the room, he noticed a woman who had been at the first funeral sitting in the hall. “I approached her and asked, ‘Do you know the next people as well?’ because I was thinking to myself how unfortunate this lady was to know two people to have passed away and attend two funerals on the same day?” he said. “She said ‘No. I don’t really know the next people and I only vaguely knew the last person, but I’ve got nowhere to go. I don’t want to go home. I’ve got my favourite chair in the corner of my room. I lost my husband a few years ago and all I do is sit in that chair and stare at the dark’.” This conversation prompted Graham to start a community cafe in the church hall, which quickly grew popular. When Graham returned to Australia and accepted a posting in Ballarat, Central Victoria, with The Salvation Army, he decided to begin a similar program. At the start of July, Cafe@102 launched at Ballarat Salvos. In the first week, 250 people came for a meal, a cup of coffee and a chat. The cafe offers clientele the chance to give a gold coin donation to cover costs, but Graham said some gave more generously. “People here are happy to pay it forward,” he said. “We’ve had $20 notes put in there as well as the gold coins. But if people can’t afford it, they know they’re welcome to just sit and enjoy with us.” Graham said the demographic of Ballarat tended towards high unemployment and that rental and mortgage stress was starting to wear on local residents. He said he had been discussing rate rises with homeowners visiting the cafe who were experiencing the shock of sudden increases in repayments. “I’ve noticed on Marketplace people are selling their second car and it’s staying on the market for a long time,” he said. “You can see the prices are dropping and people are desperate.” Graham said the cafe featured a full commercial kitchen with a large coffee machine, and that the atmosphere in the room was warm. “People come in and they instantly feel welcome,” he said. “You’ve got that low constant chatter as well, and I think that’s what opens people up. It feels very human in there.”

A sudden, still largely unexplained fire has caused the temporary closure of the Cranbourne Salvation Army Corps in southeast Melbourne, Victoria. The fire, believed to be caused by an electrical fault, was first detected at 9.20am on Monday 24 July, after staff and volunteers found smoke in a hallway outside the Doorways centre. The fire began in an electrical box in a storeroom, spread into the worship centre and two meeting rooms and filled the entire building with smoke. Fortunately, no one was injured in the fire. Fire trucks rapidly arrived on the scene and controlled the fire before it spread beyond the property. Corps Officer Captain David Allman said the damage was extensive despite the building being largely in good order. He said where the fire didn’t cause direct damage, there was smoke and water damage to walls, doors and ceilings. “[The fire] wrecked one meeting room, partially damaged another one and damaged part of the wall and the ceiling of the worship centre,” he said. “You can’t have any power on, heating [or] internet because it’s all been burnt.” With the building now unusable and repairs unlikely to be completed until December, Sunday services are occurring in the Casey Grammar School chapel next door to the corps. Corps staff are also seeking alternate locations to host Doorways and other services. “The fact that we’ve managed to get some things [relocated], even after a week, it’s been positive,” David said. “The rest will just have to [wait].” – Kirralee Nicolle Photos of the fire damage to Cranbourne Corps (click for slideshow of photos):

By KIRRALEE NICOLLE What happens when you put brass players, singers, visual artists and multimedia specialists together in a prison? Sounds like the beginning of a spectacular musical number. When The Salvation Army’s Worship Arts team did just that, what they got was inspirational. Over 90 attendees gathered at Melbourne’s historic Pentridge Prison Arts Precinct from 21-23 July to learn how best to utilise worship arts to build community engagement and create faith pathways. The event resulted from a collaborative effort between Social Mission, Community Engagement and individual corps. Worship Arts Coordinator for Community Engagement Jason Simmonds said the event was already garnering positive feedback from attendees keen to learn more. “We primarily wanted to inspire and mobilise creatives within The Salvation Army to utilise their art, their craft, their music [and] their creative practice in missional ways, and I think we achieved that,” he said. Jason said the conference also allowed for networking opportunities following the isolation of COVID-19 and brought together creatives from various backgrounds and skill sets to reimagine what integrated mission might look like in a post-pandemic world. “The vehicle of the arts is the perfect way to raise the profile of the mission of The Salvation Army to care for people, build healthy communities, work for justice and create faith pathways,” he said. The conference featured presentations from new and emerging creative minds, as well as paying homage to the creative history of The Salvation Army. Melbourne Salvation Army Museum Manager Lindsay Cox gave a presentation on the theatrical history of The Salvation Army in Australia through the work of the Federation-era Limelight Department. Other presenters included Music Give Life co-founder Andy Horneman, Head of Community Engagement Major Brad Watson, UK Mission Partner in Music and Creative Arts Daniel Elson and co-authors of ‘Walking with Communities’ Ian Campbell and Alison Rader Campbell. Alongside these presentations was live music from guest artists Tania G, Andrew Naylor, Alinta Burnell and Melbourne Contemporary Choir. The conference also featured a presentation on an Alzheimer’s friendly choir titled ‘Singing by Heart’, which sparked great interest from delegates. In addition, the event had presentations from dance, poetry and spoken word artists. The Just Brass team held workshops featuring musician and educationalist Sue Wedding alongside a live podcast recording and creative arts therapy presentation. Songwriter and Worship Arts Coordinator Daniel Casey attended the conference and said he believed the nature of content being produced by creatives was a vital sign of church health. “I think revival is always led by the creatives,” he said. “This conference has been a beautiful reflection of different creative arts and expressions all coming together as one in unity and purpose.” To learn more about the conference and Community Arts Engagement, visit https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/artsengagement/

Tonight, the city of Launceston in Tasmania will have more than 25 additional people sleeping rough to those usually on the streets, including Mayor of Launceston Matthew Garwood. For only the second time in Launceston, the Salvos SleepOut will be held on 3 August to raise funds for The Salvation Army’s Street 2 Home program and increase awareness of the realities of sleeping rough. The Salvation Army hopes to raise $150,000 across the state through the SleepOut initiative and is assisted in this by major sponsor Launceston City Council. Launceston Corps Officer Auxiliary-Lieutenant Roderick Brown told The Examiner newspaper that approximately 250 to 300 people could be found regularly sleeping rough in Launceston. “The volume of people approaching us for assistance is growing, and that illustrates that increasing number,” Roderick said. Funds raised in the campaign will be directed to the Street 2 Home program, which operates across Launceston and Hobart. Applicants to the SleepOut campaign must raise at least $100 to participate in the initiative, and over 25 people have signed up to participate this year in Launceston. The Hobart SleepOut will be held the following week, on 10 August. – Kirralee Nicolle Some information sourced from The Examiner newspaper.

General Brian and Commissioner Rosalie Peddle, world leaders of The Salvation Army from 2018 to 2023, officially retired at midnight on 2 August (GMT). The next world leaders, General Elect Lyndon and Commissioner Bronwyn Buckingham (World President of Women’s Ministries), take up their new roles today (3 August). Prior to returning to their native Canada, where family and retirement await, the Peddles recorded a final Facebook video as world leaders for The Salvation Army. You can read their words, or click on the video, below. General Brian: Greetings friends and supporters. We are coming to you for a final time as your international leaders. On each Saturday for the past five years, it has been a privilege to share our thoughts, reflect on our convictions, and at times explore how we feel about momentous events that were happening and how we, as The Salvation Army, find our place and serve effectively. We want to say thank you for your warm response and the assurances that you have given us of your love and prayers. You might not know this, but every comment has been read and appreciated. Commissioner Rosalie: One of the great privileges that has been ours is to travel and meet many of you. We have valued so much being able to embrace and love the Army and to feel that same embrace and love reciprocated. We missed that during two years of COVID. Apart from losing many officers and soldiers to COVID, our loss during this time was not being with you. Reaching out via social media was not the same, though we thank God for technology. That is why, over the past year and a half, we have visited 35 territories. The best news in this effort is that we can proclaim that God is faithful. General Brian: Even during these final days, we are calling the Army, and especially our officers and soldiers, to be captivated by a call to mission. We believe that God has uniquely gifted the Army and that gifting enables us to participate and always turn ourselves towards people in need. We recognise that such compassion is costly and, always as we ‘serve the cups of cold water’, we eagerly seek a moment to share our faith and invite others to join us in a dynamic relationship with God. Nothing is more important than celebrating individuals being welcomed into the Kingdom. Commissioner Rosalie: I have had a unique opportunity as the World President for Women’s Ministries. My concern for women and girls has not wavered, and that is why we took a bold step in ‘Re-imagining’ what Women’s Ministries can be. I still encourage us to dream big in this important area of ministry. I also bring your attention to the recent launch of the Battle Cry as Women’s Ministries engaged more intentionally in social justice issues in health, education and domestic violence. We are asking God to give us a clear focus and vision as we move forward in making a difference in these areas for women and girls. General Brian: We want everyone to know that we love the Army because God demonstrates daily his love and care for this movement. We believe our Army, raised up by God, stands in a position of strength. As a result, we can be salt and light. Throughout every engagement we have had with others, we are convinced that it is our call to mission that makes us a witness in the world. So again, I remind you that God is inviting us to join him in his mission to redeem the world. Never forget that this is our primary goal as we reflect the Glory of God. We do that best when we serve the God we love. Commissioner Rosalie: Across 134 countries, the Army serves. Thank you for being that Army. Thank you to all who stand with us. Together, and by God’s grace, anything is possible. Our verse that we want to give each of you today is Isaiah 41:10 – “So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you by my righteous right hand.” General Brian: On 2 August, we will fly home to Toronto, Canada, where we plan to be good soldiers and continue our service as followers of our Saviour and Lord. We leave you in the capable hands of our friends and colleagues, General Elect Lyndon Buckingham and Commissioner Bronwyn Buckingham. May God bless you. May God bless The Salvation Army.