Being a new mum is a massively rewarding and challenging life experience. To ease the transition, having a safe and secure environment to live in is paramount.
Yet in Victoria, there are a growing number of very young mothers who are homeless often due to violence, sexual assault and abuse within their own homes.
They need nurturing and support in a safe environment to establish the strongest possible bond with their babies and integrate with the community.
“The Victorian Women’s Trust has protected the rights of young homeless girls to keep their newborn babies, and learn how to care for them, through the support of the Lighthouse Foundation’s Mums ‘n Bubs long term live-in program.
The program helps the young women to return to school, and to live in a supported household, where help is at hand 24/7 through the challenging days of early parenthood. When they are ready, the girls and their babies transition to independent living, and remain in contact to get support when needed.”
– Susan Barton AM, Founder of Lighthouse Foundation
Organisation: Lighthouse Foundation
Grant Type: Small grant
Amount: $7,000
Year: 2018-2019
Lighthouse Foundation’s Homeless Mothers and Babies Program will support young mothers and their babies to come home from hospital to a richly supportive environment with live-in carers. Sharing a six bedroom home, they will have access to support services such as counsellors, maternal health and mothercraft nurses, and playgroup.
A special thanks to the Bokhara Foundation for supporting this project.
Helping families struggling with financial hardship, mental health problems, drug or alcohol abuse, social isolation or special needs.
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Providing rent assistance to people seeking asylum, currently supporting 48 women and 30 girls.
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Extending the number and diversity of women who can access and benefit from support in financial literacy.
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Supporting women to use their existing cooking skills to create an income stream.
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So that in this lifetime we can be: