Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Think Tank

Tonight provided the opportunity for another think tank with corporate leaders in Melbourne. Major David Eldridge again brings his expertise to the table that allows us to engage in high level thinking with solution oriented possibilities.

The subject was about pathways out of disadvantage and homelessness. There are more than 100,000 people across Australia who are homeless and, on any one night, this includes more than 26,000 people aged between 12 and 18. The average age of these homeless young people is 15.6 years and more than half are girls.

Great discussion and solutions offered for us to consider from terrific contributors to our movement.

Hebrews 9:26 (MSG)
26 if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

One million homeless?

11:46 pm
Jim Knaggs said...

Thanks, John. Now corrected. Everyone needs a good editor.

It does, however draw me to a point that way more than a million do not have a home for them in heaven. Our task is immense.

6:33 am
Anonymous said...

One million or one hundred thousand... no less alarming! The fact that we have young children sleeping on the street in Australia when there are actually many resources available saddens me. I live in the Philippines where 85,000 kids live on the streets of Metro Manila alone, let's hope that Australia does not get to such numbers.

TSA and many other organisations are greatly involved in providing for and assisting the homeless, I pray that God will continue to challenge people to 'step up' and 'step out' to get alongside these people, these children who just want to feel accepted, understood and cared for.

Debbie

10:32 am
John Duthie said...

Does the army have any spare rooms in any of the buildings it owns, which could be used to assist in this problem ?

e.g. training college, or large 4 bedroom houses occupied by individuals or married couples with no children.

9:18 am
Jim Knaggs said...

John - We ask ourselves that question as a matter of course. TSA is the largest provider of housing for homeless in the world.

Now, how about you? Do you have room or ability to support such people? i think it's a good question for each of us to consider.

7:42 pm
John Duthie said...

Good question... not at the moment, all our bedrooms are used. I knew you were going to ask that :-)

One of my previous COs did take in a person one night who had no where to live, and although it worked out ok, its a difficult choice to make, as you don't know the person, and you might have children that you need to protect.

Getting back to my original question, I wasn't suggesting that the homeless fill the training college, or the homeless fill the empty rooms of officers who are single or married with no kids, just a suggestion to be more efficient with the quarters arrangements. I believe it is excessive for a 4 bedroom house to only have people sleeping in 1 bedroom. In this example they could get by with 2-3 bedrooms, and this could free up some money to be utilised to help the homeless problem. That is just one example. Regards

10:34 pm

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