Hunter Homeless Connect Day 2010

The 2010 Hunter Homeless Connect Day turned out to be a huge success. There was around 700 attendees this year and we feel that we have reached the right people.

The event started off on Sunday the 17th of October when people from various organisations and from within the community volunteered their time to help begin the setup for Monday. This was followed by the Hunter Homeless Connect Day sleepout where for one night people slept out on card board and tarps in order to raise money for HHCD. There were some guest speakers and live bands and all participants have said that it was a great experience even though it was a little chilly.

On Monday morning last minute organisation was done before people started arriving at 8:00am. Once again the day had a show day kind of feel to it with guests walking around with there care packs and other free items including blankets, clothes, toiletries, travel packs and shoes. There were a range of services to be accessed on the day and these were divided up into various hubs including, opportunities, housing, financial, health, families and youth. It was great to see a connection between all of these services.

Hairdressing was very popular again this year as well as manicures and health checks. Foot washing was one of the new services available and the volunteers who were running this have all said that they enjoyed every minute of it because guests got to sit back and relax and really appreciated that someone would pamper them.

The Soul Cafe provided a fantastic lunch of chicken, coleslaw and potato salad and there was a sausage sizzle going all day and fruit salad was distributed to everyone.

One of the amazing parts of the day was watching families and friends or even individuals getting their photo's taken on the couch outside. The smiles on all of their faces was so wonderful to see. The photo's were developed on the day by office works and handed back to those who got them taken and if they had already gone home they were posted out to them. It's the lttle things like this that can mean so much to someone.

Inside the Hall

Entry

Hairdressing

Street Soccer