Happy New Year!
I hope you had a wonderful break over the Festive period and managed to enjoy some of the warm weather.
After a huge year here at St Kilda Mums, our team had a much-needed break. We are now all back on board and eager to make this year another outstanding one!
It has already been a very busy January, with lots of pram and car seat drop-offs to the warehouse. We know the Christmas break is a popular time for families to have a clean out and we really appreciate you thinking of us and bringing in your goods to be rehomed. Please do keep the goods donations coming – we are always in need!
In addition to goods donations, we are also extremely grateful for the financial donations that many of you make. Appeals like the Festive Appeal we contacted you about in December are vital to raising the money we need to help the thousands of vulnerable babies and children who desperately need our service. We were thrilled to hit our target for the Festive Appeal with your amazing support – thank you from the whole team!
However, the cost of living increases we are all experiencing have hit us hard too. We rely heavily on support from amazing financial donors to keep our doors open. This year will be another challenging year with our warehouse rent in Clayton increasing by 26%.
Whether you support us with your valuable time, goods to rehome or a financial gift (or all three!) you are vital to the success of St Kilda Mums.
It takes a village to raise a child and protect the planet – thank you for being part of ours.
Warm regards,
Ruth Holdaway MBE
Chief Executive Officer
Festive Appeal Success
We cannot thank you enough for supporting our Festive Appeal! We were overwhelmed with the number of donations and messages of love that we received. We set a very high target for our appeal and to our delight, over 1,100 donors from all over Victoria gave a gift and made that target a reality. We just can’t believe the level of amazing support from everyone, thank you so much for answering our call.
Your Support in Action!
Social worker Lisa from the “Healthy Mums, Healthy Babies” program reached out to us recently for support for a family she is working with.
The couple are asylum seekers and have no family support here in Australia.
They have a little 3-year-old daughter and Mum is currently 33 weeks pregnant. Neither parent is able to support the family financially currently and they don’t meet the criteria for government support, causing high levels of stress and an uncertain future.
This beautiful family, expecting their second child, was in critical need of help. Thanks to your unwavering support, we were able to provide them with the essentials – a cot, mattress and a car seat. We were also able to make sure they had a bundle of clothing for both the 3-year-old and the baby on the way that would last them 12 months.
The delivery they received brought instant relief to the couple. Now they can concentrate on raising their toddler and preparing for their new arrival. Something that would not be possible without your support.
Spare time on your hands? Come in and help!
We’re reaching out to our amazing community because we urgently need your help! We’ve received an incredible number of generous donations of pre-loved baby items in the last month, and we now need hands and people power to process them, especially prams and car seats.
Maybe you have recently retired and are looking for something to fill your day? Or the kids are back at school and you have some free time? Whatever the reason, we would love to hear from you.
The process to volunteer with us is very simple:
Email us at volunteer.melbourne@ourvillage.org.au or volunteer.geelong@ourvillage.org.au and tell us you are interested.
Come along for an induction.
Volunteer!
You can come as little or often as you like: once a week, once a month, once a year or whatever works for you. Feel free to stay for an hour or all day. We are completely flexible to suit your commitments.
Every pair of hands contributes to our common goal of supporting families and babies across Victoria. We couldn’t do what we do without your invaluable help!
Working hard in the office and no spare time?
Bring your team in for a day of Corporate Volunteering! We’re ready to host groups of up to 30 people from Monday to Friday and up to 15 people on Saturdays. Bookings are now open for 2024.
Shake up the office routine and make a day of team bonding more meaningful. Your company can make a remarkable difference in the lives of babies and children in need across Victoria.
Discover how your company can become part of our efforts to help babies and families in need by filling in the enquiry form.
We can’t wait to welcome you and your amazing workmates!
Fancy a good read?
St Kilda Mums Inc. Annual Report 2022/23
Last November we released our 2022-2023 Annual Report and we think it’s a great read – even if we say so ourselves!
Packed full of information about St Kilda Mums, Geelong Mums and Eureka Mums, including the impact we have had, a spotlight on our amazing volunteers and our vision for the future. We even have some wonderful stories from the community, like this one:
“Every time a family comes to collect their St Kilda Mums order from our office, their faces light up to see the number of items provided and the good quality of the items provided. The joy and happiness that comes from being given the order are all over their faces and you can see that it has made their day. Without St Kilda Mums, the families we work with would struggle to provide the basic essential items to their babies and children.”
-Rachel, Senior Practitioner Community Wellbeing, South East Community Links.
It was a tough year across Victoria, with the increasing cost of living, and this is especially true for the families we have supported. Thanks to you, we were able to reach 20,132 babies and children right across the State with the essential items they need to survive and thrive. And in doing this we have reduced, significantly, the amount of waste going to landfill and damaging our planet.
Grab a cuppa and have a read through all the incredible things we have achieved together.
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