Department of Human Services (DHS) staff have thrown their support behind Protea Place, an initiative aimed at supporting homeless women in Toowoomba.
Toowoomba Community Engagement Officer at the Department, Kat Murphy and her colleagues at the Department donated sanitary products and clothes to help build confidence and show vulnerable women they mattered.
Mr Murphy said she was impressed by the new centre, run by the Toowoomba Women’s Collective, when she first discovered it at this year’s Toowoomba Homelessness Week Expo.
“One the fastest growing groups of people experiencing homelessness are middle-aged single women,” Ms Murphy said.
“This group has a unique set of barriers to finding accommodation and it’s great that here in Toowoomba we have an organisation dedicated to helping them.”
Spokesperson for the Toowoomba Women’s Collective, Amanda Dalton said the collective recognised that facilities were not available for vulnerable women in the region.
She said every donation the collective received would be spent on Protea Place.
“The donations from Kat and the Toowoomba Service Centre staff make a huge difference,” Ms Dalton said.
“Our goal is to create a safe day space for women experiencing housing crisis by offering access to things like showers, toiletries and laundry facilities. All those costs add up.”
The collective also provided meals, phone charging and internet access as well as direct referral to a range of health and housing options.
