Changing the narrative from being more than ‘tin shakers’ is vital for many of WA’s leading not-for-profit organisations.
Many of Western Australia’s not-for-profit groups are engaged in a constant but quiet battle to win the hearts and minds of supporters and lift donations from their corporate sponsors.
Amid their push for more support to fill their coffers, NFPs are fighting to overcome perceptions that food poverty is scarce and homelessness is improving in WA.
Public perceptions of homelessness - including who experiences it and in what capacity - is the single biggest challenge St Bart’s faces when appealing to the public for support and advocacy.
Every night in WA, up to 10,000 people from many backgrounds experience homelessness.
“While most people associate homelessness with people sleeping rough on the streets, according to data from the 2021 Census, around 24 per cent of West Australians experiencing homelessness were sleeping rough,” St Bart’s chief executive Samantha Drury said.
That means that 76 per cent of West Australians experiencing homelessness experience it in other forms, such as residing in overcrowded dwellings, couch surfing, or staying in boarding houses and other temporary or supported accommodation for the homeless.
Breaking down stereotypes
While providing vital accommodation and outreach services for Western Australians experiencing or at risk of homelessness, mental health challenges, trauma and hardship, St Bart’s also aims to break down the stereotypes of people who experience these challenges.
“In our 60 years of operation, the fact that most surprises our new supporters who come to learn about our services is that people of all ages, genders and backgrounds can, and do, experience homelessness,” Ms Drury said.
Similarly, Foodbank WA faces preconceptions that often act as barriers to donations.
“The single biggest challenge faced by Foodbank WA over the last 12 months, has been the broad perception that hunger and food insecurity do not exist in Western Australia,” Foodbank WA chief executive Kate O’Hara said.
“Before people hear the statistics, we often hear phrases such as ‘what about the mining boom’ or ‘surely not here in WA’, ‘not in Australia, people come here for the good life’, and so on.”
The facts, however, are stark. Since the pandemic, cost of living pressures have escalated, and media reports have focused on the financial strain many working households are living under.
Those who are more vulnerable have even less chance to cope with price increases, higher rents and shortages of accommodation and mortgage increases.
“For many households that may have once considered themselves to be ‘comfortable' or 'safe’, they are now feeling the pinch,” Ms O’Hara said.
“Many are beginning to understand the difficulty of balancing a budget, knowing that food is the one area they can save on thanks to food relief options.
“Today, budget pressures don’t discriminate and could be happening next door," she said. “This is why we believe there are so many people that are living only a few bills away from a crisis.”
Fighting stigma
Meanwhile, for St Pat’s chief executive Michael Piu, the main obstacle is communicating effectively to educate the community about the round-the-clock work the NFP does for the homeless.
“St Patrick’s Community Support Centre (St Pat’s) grew out of grassroots, community-driven efforts to provide basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter for people experiencing homelessness,” Mr Piu said.
“As we’ve grown and evolved into a specialist homelessness service and community housing provider, we’ve also had to educate people about the changing nature of what we do and the considerable breadth of services and programs we offer.
“Unfortunately, there remains a lack of understanding in the broader community about both the causes of, and solutions to, homelessness.
“There is also considerable stigma still attached to people experiencing extreme poverty, disadvantage and rough sleeping.
“When we develop our messaging, we often have to tackle misinformation or misconceptions around homelessness, before we can move on to the second step of educating people on what it is we offer and our goal as an organisation, which is to end chronic homelessness in our community.”
Because homelessness often affects people who are marginalised, or dealing with complex personal, systemic and often inter-generational barriers which prevent them from accessing safe, appropriate housing and connecting with community, it’s often an overlooked issue.
“There has been a noticeable shift in attitudes, particularly after COVID-19, which showed many people how easy it is for families to fall into financial and then housing stress,” Mr Piu said.
“There’s now a greater appreciation that homelessness really could happen to anyone and that our welfare systems are perhaps not as robust or generous as many people assumed.”
Getting the message heard
One of the biggest challenges many NFPs face is how to get the message out.
Enlisting the assistance of organisations which can share the heavy lifting – like the media and industry bodies – is part of the solution.
“We are very lucky to have partnerships with SCA (Southern Cross Austereo) and Business News and get our message out via a mix of media and through partnerships with corporate partners,” Ms O’Hara said.
Anglicare WA is aware of the challenges inherent in the fight to be heard above competing NFP voices, especially when there is high demand for precious charitable donations.
“Compassion fatigue is the biggest challenge in getting our messages out,” Anglicare WA chief executive Mark Glasson said.
“Everyone is so overwhelmed with all the uncertainty and concern about the future, the state of the world, and what’s happening in our backyard and directly affecting Western Australians and the people they care about.
“These days, people are much more socially aware, news is everywhere all the time, and they are reaching their limit of what they can engage with.
“It’s about finding a way to cut through a highly saturated market. People want to know what the problem is, what the solution might be and how they can be a part of that solution.”
