A big part of Christmas is giving (and receiving) gifts and spending time with family and friends, however, not everyone gets the opportunity to do that.
While most of Australia spends their Christmas by the pool, having a BBQ or having that big family reunion, there will be plenty of youth with no place to call home this holiday season. On any given night in Australia 116,427 Australians are homeless, 27,680 of these are young people aged 12 to 24 years.
Gali Blacher and Maddy Jones recently launched The Good Box to keep the homeless community protected from the sun, fed and loved this festive season.
“We make beautifully packaged gift boxes that are purchased by the public online and then handed to our homeless community,” explains Blacher.
“We currently have 4,000 orders from our charity partners who require our Good Boxes which are filled with wonderful items such as a cap, hygiene items, food and some special gifts like beautifully smelling body wash. Support is needed more than ever this holiday season because homelessness doesn’t stop.”
The Good Box helps provide essential items needed to keep the homeless community connected and communicated with. If The Good Box doesn’t receive more support they won’t be able to fulfil the need from their charity partners, which is currently at over 4,000 Good Christmas Boxes.
“We are inundated with requests right now to send through Good Boxes for the holiday season and we just can’t keep up with the need. We really need further support from the community to help our friends in need,” says Blacher.
The social enterprise distributes to over 30+ charity partners nationally including Orange Sky Australia, MCC Carenet, Bethany, Vinnies, Melbourne City Mission, Mission Australia, Anglicare and more.
“We have had plenty of phone calls from charities from all over Australia who are in need of assistance for young people in need. These young people will be without their family due to domestic violence or family breakdown and they deserve a gift to cheer them up just like anyone else. Each box has a personalised note inside to help instil dignity and brighten up the day of someone doing it tough,” adds co-founder Jones.
