“Imagine you are only just sixteen years old. You return home from school one day and head off to your part-time job after school. You come home from work that evening to find it is no longer safe for you to be at the family home. When you left for work you had just the clothes on your back and little did you know that was the last time in your life you would be at the family home with your family. There's nothing you could have done differently. You didn’t know this would happen.

Eventually after sleeping rough and living in motels, you are placed in a youth refuge. Life is tough, but you put your head down and work as hard as you can to do well at school, despite having considerably less resources than your peers. You continue to work after school to pay your own school fees and in the afternoons when you don’t work you study in the school library.

Growing up with disadvantage, your goal of becoming the first in your family to go to university was always going to be hard, but now it feels impossible. Somehow, through grit and determination you finish high school and you get into university in Canberra. But the truth is you couldn’t have done it without some help. The clothes on your back, the roof over your head, the food in your belly, all of it was made possible by people you didn’t know, and who didn’t know you, but wanted to see you succeed.

You’re not a bad person. You were just in a situation nobody would ask for, through no fault of your own. You vow to always remember the people who helped you and pay it forward one day. You know this period in your life doesn’t define you and it’s not who you are, but you need to get through it. You are not a homeless person. You are a person who is currently experiencing homelessness. It could’ve happened to anyone.

As I write this, I don’t need to imagine. Instead, I remember. I remember the people who I didn’t know and who didn’t know me, who were so generous and compassionate to help me in my darkest times, who wanted the best for me. I remember the services who were helped me through when it seem I had been abandoned by society.

The Early Morning Centre provides a wide range of services to people facing disadvantage and homelessness, to help them get through their toughest of times. We are proudly powered by our dedicated volunteers, and we need your help to support some of Canberra’s most vulnerable. My story of homelessness is just one. Each of our guests has their own unique, often inspirational story of someone who has fallen on hard times. Help us help them to access the support and services they need by donating to the Early Morning Centre through Hands Across Canberra.

Please, if you can give generously.”

– EMC Volunteer