Gethsemane Community Inc: Home for the Homeless

Gethsemane Community Inc: Home for the Homeless

Sr Myree Harris, a contemporary Josephite, was acting in the spirit of Mary MacKillop when she responded to the needs of the homeless in inner Sydney in 1990. In 1880 Mary MacKillop opened a house in the Rocks area, called a ‘Providence’, for women and their children who were living on the streets of Sydney.

Mission Statement of Gethsemane Community: To provide the safety, security and permanence of a home to a group of men and women who have mental illness and/or other disabilities. By this means, to assist them to develop living skills and become independent.

Gethsemane community Inc has attempted to achieve this vision by two means.

• It provides an actual physical home for a small group who are assisted to develop the skills to live independently and to make choices about their living. About fifty have been helped this way and a partnership with Churches Community Housing Ltd provides the structure.
   
• It also provides support and advocacy for hundreds of people who live in ‘insecure’ housing in boarding houses and other places. It operates a large Christmas project to provide them with basics for living with personal dignity. Many groups and individual volunteers work in informal partnership with Gethsemane to achieve this.

Gethsemane works with appropriate State and Community agencies, in a form of practical partnership, when issues arise in regard to mental wellbeing.