Community Voice: Cornerstone Contact Centre co-ordinator Don Cameron
CORNERSTONE Contact Centre in Dandenong provides about 35,000 free meals to the people of Greater Dandenong and beyond each year.
We have well over 400 volunteers and our yearly budget is about $90,000 (about 1 per cent of other agencies our size).
Over the past 20-plus years at Cornerstone Contact Centre in Dandenong I’ve met many people struggling with substance and behavioural addictions, mental health issues, family breakdown, homelessness or a combination of many of these things.
I remember an occasion last year when an aggressive man was drinking alcohol on the steps of our building and I went out to have a polite chat.
Other people had asked him to move on and he was very abusive and threatening towards me.
I told him we were not allowed to have alcohol on the premises and how I didn’t want to call the police but he angrily insisted that I did.
The operators always ask for a description so I snapped a photo of this man and he became enraged and ran over and raised his hand to thump me.
I stood my ground and he changed his mind, abused me some more and then left.
Two days later a man turned up after lunch asking if there was any food he could get to take home.
We had a few cans of food out the back so I offered to put together a small food hamper for him.
He continually thanked me and praised me for my help and I wondered why he was so appreciative.
I gave him my business card and let him know about other Cornerstone programs and he thanked me again then left.
Then I recognised who he was. I pulled out my phone to see the photo I took two days earlier of the man who was going to belt me. It was the same person.
He was thankful because he thought I was unlikely to help him and was surprised by grace.
From the early days we were keen to assist people who were sleeping outdoors and purchased products that we were told was great for this purpose.
Space blankets, products that we had to cut out and stitch together, and even some blankets that were not much thicker than bed sheets.
We heard from rough sleepers than none of these products were suitable.
Five years ago one of our board members spoke about a backpack bed he had tested out.
I was sceptical but after handing a few out I heard wonderful feedback about them.
At around $80 each our budget could not afford many so we rely on churches, corporate groups and service clubs like Rotary to buy them for us to give out.
In the past few years we have given out well over 100 backpack beds from www.swags.org.au.
We hope to give one to every homeless person we meet.
Two years ago a rough looking man turned up and asked for a backpack bed.
Two days later he came back and hugged me saying it had saved his life.
He told me when he first saw me he had been awake under a cold wet blanket outdoors during the night and decided if he was in the same situation the following night he would end his life.
The next night he had a backpack bed and could hear the rain falling but he was completely warm and dry and woke up ready to face the day.
These are fire retardant beds that meet UN, Oxfam and UNHCR (international) standards.
Unfortunately there are still products out there that are not so good. There’s a lack of standards for products given to street sleepers.
There are standards for disaster relief products and standards for what can be used in prisons, but currently no Australian standards for products that claim to be made for street sleepers.
I believe that we should treat our homeless people at least as good as we look after our worst criminals.
I have seen one product burst into flames myself.
