By CASEY NEILL
THE Salvos need more help than ever to support Greater Dandenong’s most needy.
The Salvation Army’s annual Red Shield Appeal is this weekend and Dandenong corps officer Captain Stuart McGifford is urging people to dig deep during the doorknock.
Doveton Community Support Centre provides services to about 400 people each month from the Doveton, Dandenong, Eumemmerring and Dandenong North area.
Foster Street, Dandenong, is home to a Salvation Army positive lifestyle and counselling service, and a chaplaincy team visits Dandenong Magistrates’ Court to provide practical support like a suit or transport.
“Some need emotional support,” Captain McGifford said.
“Some people can walk in with a family member and walk out without them because they’ve been incarcerated.”
He said demand was “steady and rising” at the Foster Street centre, which focuses on drug, alcohol and anger issues.
“Without a good showing at the Red Shield Appeal we really struggle to provide anywhere near the level of service that we do in Dandenong,” he said.
“We spend far more in Dandenong than we raise from this area through the Red Shield Appeal.”
Captain McGifford said demand at Doveton Community Support Centre had risen steadily over the past six to nine months.
“A lot from asylum seekers and refugees desperately seeking assistance,” he said.
“I have never been in an area where there’s such a demand for food just to get through the week.
“The hard thing is they’re just so grateful to be here.
“I think people value their freedom and the Australian way of life more than we realise.”
As well as funding, the corps is seeking volunteers to stack shelves, lend a hand at a men’s breakfast on Wednesdays and help out in the new Doveton thrift shop.
“For all our staff and volunteers, we go home at the end of the day feeling like we’ve made a real difference to people,” Captain McGifford said.
“We wish there was more we could do. We wish we had more funding, more help.”
He also urged Greater Dandenong residents to support the Noble Park and Springvale Salvation Army corps’ fund-raising efforts.
The Red Shield Appeal doorknock weekend will be held on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 May.
To donate to the Red Shield Appeal, look out for volunteers door-knocking throughout the local area, call 13 SALVOS (13 72 58) or visit salvationarmy.org.au
