Beddown

2024: Our Most Impactful Year yet! It is of great pride to us that in this time, when people sleeping rough has never been more visible within our communities, Beddown has been able to deliver its most impactful year ever. With thanks to our incredible partnerships and supporters, we have delivered the most bed nights to people sleeping rough than we ever have in Beddown's history (in totality across all previous projects). We invite you to watch our recap video here to reflect on this successful year for Beddown, which your support has made possible. A heartfelt thank you from the Beddown team. Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season. AMA Queensland Foundation BUSY At Work Protea Place Inc. Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre (HBNC) Womens Centre FNQ (www.wirc.org.au) OneBridge Team Building With Purpose

"Grateful the Nurses are Here" For a very long time, it has been evident to us as an organisation that the Ipswich community needed an on-the-ground health care service, most significantly for those people sleeping rough. Our organisation's partnership with OneBridge, funded thanks to the financial support of Beddown donors, is now offering opportunities for this type of immediate health care. The impact is extraordinary. From our 2023-2024 Annual Report published this week, we share a story that unpacks how this partnership works alongside the inCommunity Connect Assertive Outreach and Case Management teams and the types of essential health care delivered by OneBridge. Highlighting just two months of this critical partnership in this story, we know that an average of 60 Consultations for Primary Health Care occur each month as the year draws to a close, illustrating the ongoing need for this immediate health care service in Ipswich. We give a heartfelt thank you to Beddown donors and supporters for enabling this essential work to happen. Click image to read the full story here. (Pictured here OneBridge Nurse Tessa and inCommunity Connect Women's Club participant Bec) For more stories from inCommunity Inc's 2023-2024 Annual Report visit https://lnkd.in/gwKBJd3s (Select 2024 Annual Report, Click Open in Browser)

13,000 people engaged with at least one of our programs in the 2023-2024 period, double, plus some more from the previous year—a year of huge impact. This time last week at our Annual General Meeting, our CEO Paul Tommasini and Deputy CEO Nerissa Wade delivered inCommunity Inc's 2023-2024 Annual Report: Innovate. Inspire. Independent. This report explores how these three words embody the 'in' within inCommunity and how we embed them at each touchpoint of our organisation as we seek to support people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. We highlight critical initiatives and programs we delivered in 2023-2024, such as: 🔸 Preventative and early intervention strategies via the Tenancy Skills Institute;  🔸 Deepening our commitment to the specialist profession of Case Management in the Community Sector as led by inCommunity Connect to ensure we continue delivering a quality specialist housing and homelessness service; and  🔸 Onsite access to health care in Ipswich or bed nights for people sleeping rough via Beddown initiatives. When demand for our services has never been higher, our organisation continues to work tirelessly to inspire people as they move forward on their pathway to stable housing. We invite you to take a moment to read just some of the incredible stories that occurred this year - a year when 13,000 people were inspired to believe they could! https://lnkd.in/etiY-4jD (Select 2024 Annual Report, Click Open in Browser)

On Remembrance Day, inCommunity and our brands of Beddown, inCommunity Connect and the Tenancy Skills Institute join the broader community, honouring those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for us in times of war and conflict. Lest we forget. 

It is significant on #WorldHomelessnessDay that the Tenancy Skills Institute reflects on our attendance at the Housing First Nations 2024 National Conference in Meanjin/Brisbane this week. A significant policy forum, exploring key issues, developments, opportunities and challenges for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing in Queensland, and across Australia. The Tenancy Skills Institute remains focused on our Indigenous Engagement Strategy to meaningful work towards closing the housing gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples via the provision of tenancy education to improve access to housing and housing outcomes for First Nations Peoples. We know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are over-represented in the experience of homelessness, with over a third of clients supported by inCommunity Connect 's specialist housing and homelessness service identifying as First Nations Peoples. In response, over a third of Tenancy Skills Institute students, upskilling with practical 'how-to' tenancy skills, identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples. And we have a significant, strategic roadmap to contribute to this conversation that goes well beyond 31st December 2024 (when our current funding expires). We sincerely hope the Queensland Government (and Department of Housing, Local Government, Planning and Public Works) recognises our critical contribution being made in working towards closing the housing gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, now and into the future, and re-funds the Tenancy Skills Institute.  

Have some time this long weekend? Why not make a cuppa and take a listen to our CEO Paul Tommasini recent chat with Mel at BLOW - Infectious Behaviour, sharing the evolution of Beddown within our broader organisation inCommunity Inc. Paul explains inCommunity Inc's many and varied strategies to address the issue of homelessness: 🌸 Proactive tenancy education + cross-sector early intervention (Tenancy Skills Institute) 🌸 Supporting people sleeping rough + Good Night Initiative and our valued Community Partners (Protea Place Inc., HBNC, Womens Centre FNQ www.wirc.org.au) 🌸 Health partnership with OneBridge nurses 🌸 Case Management support across all experiences of homelessness (inCommunity Connect ) and much, much more! Join us in applauding Mel's passion and commitment to addressing the issue of homelessness. While you're there, why not take a listen to Mel's other thoughtful discussions with others working in this space. https://lnkd.in/gRGkhvcf

Are you a proud Tenancy Skills Institute supporter? Or, in other words ... Do you support delivering practical 'how-to' tenancy education and cross-sector early intervention strategies to sustain tenancies and keep Queenslanders out of the overflowing #homelessness system? In our final three months of funding and with no guarantee of future funding, we call on our vast network of supporters from the Community Sector, Real Estate Industry, students and graduates to share why you think the Tenancy Skills Institute needs to be re-funded into 2025 and beyond! Add your comments below, and re-share our posts to show your support. We would also love to send you one of our supporter stickers so you can proudly display this at your community centre, school, office, organisation and so on! Let's ensure this essential work can continue during this critical time when the issue of homelessness is so starkly impacting the community of Queensland. #betterrentaloutcomestogether

“It was ultimately the jumping off point for any work that we could do for this family.” A Mum and her 9-year-old son recently found themselves sleeping in their car after escaping significant domestic and family violence.    Centacare Family and Relationship Support Services Fraser Coast Ashleigh Kinsela shares their story with their permission in this video.     Ashleigh explains how, via accessing the immediate, safe, and secure accommodation via Beddown's The Good Night Initiative, this family has been able to heal, build trust with agencies and services, engage in wrap-around support, and move their lives forward with courage and grace.    We thank this family for sharing their story, which highlights the complexities faced when experiencing domestic and family violence as well as homelessness.    Centacare linked with the Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre (HBNC) to access The Good Night Initiative for this family. www.centacare.com This video was filmed on the Traditional Lands of the Butchulla People. 

Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow! inCommunity Inc held its inaugural Staff Conference on Monday. Bringing our teams together for a day to focus on where our organisation originates; what we're achieving today as a specialist housing and homelessness service via our brands of the Tenancy Skills Institute, inCommunity Connect and Beddown; and highlighting our focus for a bright tomorrow! A special opportunity for our organisation to come together to deepen our collective knowledge, reflect and discuss our learnings, strengthen our team’s collaboration and wellbeing, and build our future together. Watch our video re-cap and read the day's highlights here: https://lnkd.in/evmZMD_X Thanks to Adj. Associate Professor Sonia Martin 🏳️🌈 RN, GACN Founder and Director of OneBridge, Brett de Hoedt, Laura Valenti of McGrath North Lakes and Ipswich locals The Wellbeing Studio (owner Sam and practitioner Ellen) and all of our team. To say it was an inspiring day is an understatement. And our team left connected and energised for our future ahead, together. Our conference occurred and this video was filmed on the Traditional Lands of the Jagera, Yuggera and Ugarapul Peoples.

As the month of August draws to a close, inCommunity Inc, and our brands of Beddown, inCommunity Connect and Tenancy Skills Institute focuses on Multicultural Queensland Month. Celebrating people of all cultures and Queensland as a multicultural community where we all can contribute and thrive. We recognise the diverse cultural connections within our team as well as the people we walk alongside. Today we highlight our education brand, the Tenancy Skills Institute’s ongoing commitment to delivering our tenancy education courses to multicultural groups via organisations such as Townsville Multicultural Support Group; Centacare Multicultural Services in Cairns (Centacare Brisbane) and Multicultural Australia. Ensuring all residents of Queensland understand their rights and responsibilities under a lease agreement is essential, especially those who speak English as an additional language and/or who may have recently arrived in our state. As our team member Gavin M Ah Kee shares, “I really enjoy the work we do with our multicultural groups and I always learn more than the students. The language and cultural barriers to learning can be significant and I ensure I acknowledge and respect the group’s understanding of housing from where they have come from before I can deliver education and information on what it is like here. Using interpreters is a skill I have grown into but one that I truly value when I appreciate and understand the difficulty experienced by students for something as simple as asking to get a tap fixed, for example.” The Tenancy Skills Institute team continues to deliver to valued multicultural groups throughout Queensland, including next week’s courses in Toowoomba, where students whose first languages include Kurdish Kurmanji/Arabic and Swahili/Kinyarwanda will get rent-ready via our full tenancy education course. #multiculturalmonthqueensland