By Tania Phillips
Just a few weeks after it was launched the Warwick Community is already getting behind the new Women’s Support Centre being established in the old Uniting Church Manse.
The service, being modelled on the successful Protea Place Centre in Toowoomba already has $32,000 raised and just this week received support from local businesses with Mike Smith and Team taking care of the bathroom makeover and floor coverings through Andersens Beaumont Tiles while Ian, Jo and the team from Detail Joiners G.J. Gardner Homes Australia are supplying the new kitchen and to Nic and Lucas from Orange Sky Australia are supplying the washing machine and dryer.
CEO and founder of Protea Place Amanda Dalton said they had been blown away by the care and generosity of the Warwick Community as the move to create Protea Place Warwick.
“We launched a week ago – we need to raise $130,000 and that will cover 12 months operation at two half days,” Amanda said last week.
“To increase those days, we have to increase that money for the year. We raised $32,000 in our first week – $25,000 of that came from Sue and Lloyd Clarke who were Hannah Clarke’s parents and who run the Small Steps for Hannah Charity. They’ve been so amazing and were so excited to let me know that they were donating before I came to launch in Warwick.
“We’re up and running in that and we’re in the beginning stages and we’ve been putting the call out to tradies and sponsorship, donors and supporters to get that completed. We need to get the makeover of the building completed by the end of May because the third of July is the goal date. If we get the property sorted soon and we get the funds raised soon than we open sooner.”
“Its in the old Uniting Church Manse which had hosted Lighthouse who have just relocated down the road.
“It’s a familiar site to the community and everyone will be able to get involved if they want to.
“We need to raise that $130,000 even if they can’t give a lot – a lot of people giving a little will actually help us to get to that goal.”
Amanda said the idea to provide a Protea Place, a women’s day support centre, came from the Warwick community themselves.
“Protea Place has been operating here in Toowoomba since 2019 and so we’ve just past our third birthday,” she said.
“Probably about 12 months or so ago I started receiving emails and calls from different individuals and groups over in Warwick about wanting to see if they could have something similar over there.
“The first questions were really about – how do we start something up. Then once I told them what had gone into creating this, they went ok, can you come to Warwick.
“I sent them off with a bit of a list of things they would need to consider and things that would need to be created in order to replicate that in the Warwick Community and to really make sure it was representative of the community.
“I’m really big on place-based initiative because what Toowoomba does is going to look very different to what Warwick has what any other region would do because all regions are unique.
“So we’ve got a real commitment to making sure the Protea Place site over there is obviously Protea Place in our mission and vision and the way that we do things but that it’s really reflective of the local community and the needs that are specific there.”
She said Protea Place was a day refuge.
“We don’t provide accommodation, that’s a whole other ball game but what we do is provide crisis support of a hot lunch, showers, laundry, clothing, case management, support around housing and homelessness, domestic and family violence and then a whole other range of complimentary dignity type services and also referrals to special services – counselling, legal support and a whole heap of other things,” Amanda said.
“The reason I started Protea Place was because Toowoomba didn’t have women’s centre. We had DV service but they’re not open to the public and they’re hidden, you are not allowed to know where they are.
“What I was finding in more than 20 years of working in the sector. We were seeing more and more women in need of support. You know they were sleeping in their cars, the needed somewhere to go to have a shower, charge their phone and connect in with support.
“We found most of the soup kitchen type of arrangements were very male dominated and women just didn’t feel safe to go there. That’s not a reflection on the services, that’s just what women are telling us. “There were men everywhere and they didn’t feel comfortable. That was where the idea and the model was born from. Over about eight month period I wrote the model and pulled together a group of friends and like minded people and we created the organization.
“Twelve months from the idea which actually launched Protea Place. We had to raise a certain amount of money to get open and to sustain ourselves for the first 12 months. The building had to have a complete makeover. Which was done 100 per cent by the community in just six weeks. Then we opened from there we’ve continued to fundraiser and we went from two half days to fulltime in about six months.”
“In the first year they had 1780 presentation in the year with the second year over 2200 and this year is down a little on 1800. The numbers it spiked in Covid, but even though the numbers have dropped back now the complexity of the support needed is through the roof.
“We are hoping to replicate that in Warwick in the exact same form right from raising operational funds, getting the property a cosmetic makeover to make it really lovely and homely, basically then Warwick community needs to sustain the ongoing operational costs in the same way that we do in Toowoomba which is hard work.”
Amanda said in a practical way people could help by collecting hygiene products and clothes for when the centre opened, donate money or things needed for a bigger than normal house (bigger lounges and large tables) or tradies could get on board and support too. If you want to help contact Amanda Dalton on , Ian Darnell – who is the project managing on site at Ian at darnell@nspire.com.au or Amanda at amandad@protea.org.au.
