The inCommunity Connect Assertive Outreach Team’s van has had an amazing makeover to enhance our support for people sleeping rough in the Ipswich community – affectionately called ‘Bean on the Move’, as featured in today’s Local Ipswich News!
Now, our team can offer a barista-style brew and heat a frozen meal from our Dignity Food Relief program, whilst connecting with people sleeping rough and delivering support to identify housing pathways available – a service funded by Queensland Housing.
This exciting van upgrade is thanks to a generous contribution from fellow not-for-profit ETC – Employment and Training via a grant from their Community Support Fund, plus an in-kind contribution from The Mobile Coffee Group which now includes a commercial coffee machine, refrigerator and microwave.
Last week, our team got together with the ETC team to officially launch the van upgrade, a timely contribution to the Ipswich community in the lead up to National Homelessness Week (4th to 10th August), an important week recognised across Australia to raise awareness for the issue of homelessness.
In the past year, the number of people already sleeping rough when they first sought help rose by 13%, marking a 33% increase over the past two years.*
So on these cold winter mornings, there has never been a better time for inCommunity Connect to be on the move, delivering wrap-around support to Ipswich community members doing it tough.
A heartfelt thanks to all of our partners.
*Data sourced: annual homelessness data (2023-24) from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (link here).
