A HELPING HAND IN A CRISIS
Community & Connection
Making A Difference
Do you feel encouraged to help our most vulnerable community members? If you’d like to assist with any of our community programs, to volunteer your time or expertise, we’d like to hear from you.
CONNECTING COMMUNITY
Could you join us in helping others?
Mental Health
Mental health issues are no longer the preserve of a few people. A recent study found that one in five Australians were diagnosed with some form of mental illness including anxiety, mood and substance misuse, often in combination.
Half of all people who experience mental illness will have their first episode by age 18 and threequarters by age 25. Untreated, it will affect their life outcomes – and our community.
51%of people in our community feel isolated, lonely and needing friendship. However, many lack the motivation and experience to make new connections.
Being Proactive
We cannot stand aside and just hope that people become so desperate that they are forced to ask for help. Truly, we are our brother’s keeper. It’s our belief that we should be the one that make first contact and over time, build a bridge of friendship.
Mental Health
WHO NEEDS HELP?
They’re many people in our community who need some practical help, especially with our higher ratio of elderly, often on their own. There are also many active, caring people who would be glad to provide that help.
What Does Volunteering Look Like At Band Of Brothers
We believe that our initiatives should be initiated from our volunteer base, drawing on their life experience and community connections. The best ideas come from a cross-fertilisation of ideas from people who have a stake in the outcome.
Volunteer participation in group decisions is strongly valued, sought and encouraged. We believe that having a bottom-up approach to decision-making is the best. That way we remain flexible and responsive. We are not here to “fix” people, but to assist them in finding and owning their own solutions.
As such, our volunteers must have a heart to reach out to people and work in a team atmosphere. This may take many forms such as administration, telephoning people who need help, connecting with other community groups…. or simply, just being a friend. There are places for people who will, for example, mow grass, take someone fishing or help an elderly person in practical ways such as shopping.
There are so many ways a volunteer can help change our community for the better, but it all starts with sitting down with and learning from each other.