While many of us may be starting to make plans for the festive season – family reunions, BBQs, spending time by the pool or at the beach – there are many within the community who are less fortunate and not in a position to make such plans.
Planning for the festive season is not the reality for youth experiencing homelessness, and reportedly there will be plenty of youth with no place to call home this holiday season.
In fact, it’s said that on any given night in Australia, 116,427 Aust
ralians are homeless. 27,680 of these are young people aged 12-24 years.
In response to this, Gali Blacher and Maddy Jones, the co-founders of the social enterprise, The Good Box, are doing everything in their power to keep our homeless community protected from the sun, fed and loved this festive season.
“We make beautifully packaged gift boxes that are purchased by the public online and then handed to our homeless community,” explains Ms Blacher.
“We currently have 4000 orders from our charity partners who require our Good Boxes, which are filled with wonderful items such as a cap, hygiene items, food and some special gifts like beautifully smelling body wash.
“Support is needed more than ever this holiday season because homelessness doesn’t stop.”
Ms Jones adds that young people who may find themselves homeless generally do so due to domestic violence or family breakdown and “they deserve a gift to cheer them up just like anyone else”.
“Each box has a personalised note inside to help instil dignity and brighten up the day of someone doing it tough,” says Ms Jones.
The Good Boxes have special festive season messaging to remind our youth in need that they are cared about and that someone out there is thinking about them.
The Good Box received a phone call last week from a youth charity worker from a small organisation who said that they would need 400 Good Boxes as they have at least 400 youth to support over Christmas as they had nowhere else to go.
The Good Box added 400 boxes to their growing list of orders from charities around Australia and they will be packed by their amazing volunteers in Brisbane.
This is why support is needed more than ever as the need for Good Boxes has doubled since last Christmas.
The Good Box helps provide essential items needed to keep our homeless community connected and communicated with as the homeless community is incredibly isolated and this only worsens during the festive seasons.
If The Good Box doesn’t receive more support, they won’t be able to fulfil the need from their charity partners which is currently at more than 4000 Good Christmas Boxes.
“We are inundated with requests right now to send through Good Boxes for the holiday season and we just can’t keep up with the need,” says Ms Blacher.
“We really need further support from the community to help our friends in need.”
By heading to thegoodbox.com.au you can donate a Good Box from $21.99+ and it will be sent directly to someone experiencing homelessness in Australia.
You can also purchase this as a gift in a loved one’s name.
The Good Box distributes to more than 30-plus charity partners nationally, including Orange Sky Australia, MCC Carenet, Bethany, Vinnies, Melbourne City Mission, Mission Australia, Anglicare and more.
