Board Membership 6 years My contact with the homelessness sector came as a Social Work Student, volunteering for SVDP in Fitzroy. We were part of a model of engagement set up with the “Indian Sisters” to do outreach in the form of street contact and rooming house visitation. Many men, at this time, chose to end their days at Corpus Christi Community Greenvale. I learnt that building relationships, listening and respect were key ingredients in working with people on the margins of Melbourne society. After graduation, I took my interest in building supportive communities to a community health setting in Broadmeadows and then to local government. At two large public housing estates, I worked with newly arrived families from the Horn of Africa to build their capacity to maintain employment in Children’s Services, with tailored training and individual coaching. The introduction of standards in their workplaces was both challenging and welcomed in order to increase the profile of their Early Childhood Educator role, just as it has been in the Aged Care profession. My final role in paid work was as a Case Manager/ Family Services Practitioner in the Melton/ Brimbank area. The group program that we developed brought together a very hard to engage cohort of young, multicultural, single parent families. Through this work, I, often, again, worked with the housing sector as an advocate for those in insecure housing or leaving a violent family situation urgently. My current voluntary positions are on the St Therese’s Parish Leadership Team, Moonee Valley Active Ageing Reference Group and at Briar Terrace at St Vincent’s Hospital, led by the hospital pastoral team.