St John's Crisis Centre

SUPPORTING LOCAL PEOPLE IN THEIR TIME OF CRISIS St John’s Crisis Centre has been providing meals, clothing and welfare support to the Gold Coast community since 1981. The centre was originally started by two parishioners from the Surfers Paradise Anglican Church; Mrs. Joan Hancock and Mrs. Joyce Forbes. The response from the homeless community was immediate and it soon became apparent that other areas of social welfare were in desperate need of addressing, particularly to assist people seeking financial crisis intervention and the provision of supported accommodation for those seriously willing to have a go at turning their lives around. Today the centre provides: • Hot meals five days a week • Emergency relief packs of food, clothing, sleeping bags and food vouchers • Financial assistance for many miscellaneous items such as phone bills, prescription medications, schooling needs, travel cards and other extreme hardships • Provide weekly services including Counselling, Community Welfare Nurse, Financial advice/budgeting, Centrelink access, Physiotherapist, and JP • Free access to laundry and showers through Orange Sky • Christmas Hampers • Two emergency accommodation units leased by the organisation for victims escaping domestic violence Future planning will naturally continue to focus on providing and improving these invaluable services. Priority especially will therefore be given to service expansion particularly as the need to meet the increasing demand for those experiencing both housing, financial crisis and hardship grows. We believe that these results can be best achieved through the provision of more availability of and access to crisis intervention, case management and all-round sustainable housing. All our services are because amazing people and organisations donate their time and money to giving “a hand up”.