Shoalhaven Suicide Prevention Awareness Network is Good360 member of the month. The network is made up of representatives within the community who work to raise awareness of suicide and promote recovery of mental illness and community resilience.
What programs do you use your Good360 donations for? Who does the program serve? How does it impact Australians in need?
The Shoalhaven Suicide Prevention Awareness Network philosophy is simple. Connectedness, compassion, and kindness. Resilient communities working together to support one another and reduce suicide. Through our Random Acts of Kindness project, SSPAN designs care packages for the vulnerable people in our community, these include; people sleeping rough, new parents post bushfires or during COVID-19, care packs for people leaving violence, the elderly, young people, people with disabilities and many others.
SSPAN’s volunteers compile and distribute the packs to individuals or groups. By reaching out we are connecting the community through kindness and compassion and building a more resilient community.
What is your favourite moment that you have had with a client when utilising the Good360 product?
There are many memorable moments, a disabled young girl dancing in her new ballet flats, young sports lovers having their own sports bag, supporting new parents welcoming a new baby during COVID-19 pandemic, back to school Empower Packs and the list goes on.
The most memorable is the look on our volunteer’s faces when they are able to gift something to someone in need, be it a drink bottle or nappies. The gift of giving in these difficult times, post bushfires and during COVID-19 in a tourist area which has experienced hardship, is amazing.
How does Good360 help your mission?
Good360 makes it so easy to secure donations of goods. SSPAN is a purely volunteer service with no paid staff and Good360 makes our mission possible. The support we get from the wonderful staff and the unbelievable amount of donations make our project possible.
What would happen if Good360 wasn’t here to help?
Our Random Act of Kindness project would be greatly diminished. Good360 and its wonderful donors make it all possible without their support we would be knocking on doors daily to a community that is already under a lot of stress.
What is your favourite donation you have received from Good360 and why?
This is like choosing a favourite child! The sports bags and drink bottles were such a hit with children, and the backpacks were really well received, the steel drink bottles enlightened us to how much young people are aware of our environment, the KOH cleaning clothes are treasured, jumpers to keep people warm, soaps, toothpaste, clothes, there is so much! The favourite…no I really can’t decide!
How many lives have you impacted through Good360’s donations?
This is hard to say, we ask that people receiving a Random Act of Kindness pay it forward, so it could be countless. However, we believe that our gifts have been given out to over 2000 people, there have been about 100 families that have benefited from different family packs. Our school packs will help a whole family, we estimate 5000 people could have benefited directly and a lot more indirectly.
If you want to learn more about SSPAN you can visit their website here.
To learn more about becoming a Good360 member you can visit our Get the Goods page.
