Taking a moment to appreciate the wins – Stuart, Elizabeth Street Common Ground

In the course of our work at Launch Housing our teams witness some incredible milestones for the people we support.

Launch Housing’s Program Manager at Elizabeth Street Common Ground, Stuart McGougan reflects here on a special moment he shared with a long-term resident at the supportive accommodation site. It reminds us all of the impact we are making together with our community of supporters.

Stuart’s reflection:

Last night I was privileged to be on the front desk at Elizabeth Street Common Ground when a long-term resident returned home from a hard day’s work constructing wooden pallets.

Othman (pictured right) is working full time for a decent hourly rate with the help of the CoAct Bridge to Work partnership who work on site weekly.

Othman spoke about how his life has changed and how things are so good for him. He spoke of the freedom he feels to have money left over to save after he pays his bills and does his shopping, the pleasure he gets to be able to buy himself things with his own money and most importantly for him he can send money to his family who are living in poverty in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

He talked glowingly about his employer and how they all have welcomed and treated him at work, and they have given him such positive affirmation about his work, he said “they loved him”. His feeling of connection to them was warming.

He is looking different physically, he is clearly eating better and looks healthy, and his stance and body posture is confident and strong. His smile was glowing, and he is so humble about his achievements and desire to keep working and staying positive.

He is very thankful to the staff for their care and assistance however I reminded him that his achievements are all his doing, and we can only assist if he allows us too.

The privilege I felt that he wanted to share his story and success with me was a special thing.

I would like to remind and thank everyone no matter how you support Launch Housing – be that large or small in assisting clients, no matter what the destination may be – you play an important part in their journey.

You might not think much of it but to many of the residents we are an important piece of their life puzzle.

 

Elizabeth Street Common Ground is a permanent supportive housing initiative tackling long-term homelessness in Melbourne.

It provides 65 studio apartments, and delivers on-going support to improve residents’ health, wellbeing and lifestyle. Support workers offer residents 24-hour support to ensure they get the care and support they needed to live better lives.