Engaging Conversations | Inspiring Dialogue, Empowering Communities

#2 - The Power of Partnership in Supporting Domestic Violence Survivors

September 04, 2024 • Ecolibrium Headquarters Pty Ltd | EcoHQ • Episode 2

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Can a community truly make a difference in the lives of domestic violence survivors? Join us as Maria, the dedicated founder of Survivor's R Us, shares incredible stories of transformation and hope. Discover the profound impact of a simple act, like providing fresh fruits to children, and the crucial support offered to pregnant women escaping abusive situations.
 
 With the help of over 110 passionate volunteers, Survivors Are Us has brought life-changing services to over 90,000 people. Maria reveals their ambitious goal of securing funding for 20 emergency dwellings by 2024 and discusses their persistent challenges.
 
 Empowering survivors and fostering community support is at the heart of Survivors Are Us. Our conversation highlights how collaboration with businesses, schools, and government agencies is vital for spreading awareness and providing essential resources like food, clothing, and white goods. Listen to the inspiring success story of a survivor who regained her freedom and learn how impactful partnerships with organisations such as Food Bank and OzHarvest play a critical role.
 
 Maria also shares their recent improvements, including establishing an advisory board and promoting efforts to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion. Don't miss our sneak peek into next week's episode on supporting individuals affected by Parkinson's disease with insights from Mary Kay Walker and Rachel Tanny.
 
 * For more information about Survivor's R Us, visit www.survivorsrusincorporated.com or phone 02 4953 7108

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Leon:

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are, and welcome back to Engaging Conversations, the show where we explore the essence of our communities, connect with real people making a difference and shine a light on the stories that truly define our neighbourhoods. I'm your host, leon Goltsman, Co-Founder of Ecolibrium Headquarters, and today's episode is proudly brought to you by Lake Mac Business and Focus, because who doesn't appreciate a little support and inspiration for our local community right Now, before we get started, did you know that in Australia, one in six women and one in 16 men have experienced physical or sexual violence from a current or former partner? Physical or sexual violence from a current or former partner. These aren't just statistics. They represent real people, our neighbours, friends and family members. Domestic violence is a pervasive issue that affects every corner of our communities and it's something we cannot afford to ignore. Today, I'm honored to introduce a remarkable human who's tackling the issue head on.

Leon:

Maria from Survivor's R Us and her dedicated team are on the front lines, offering crucial support to those affected by domestic violence and homelessness. They've provided thousands of meals, clothing and shelter, giving hope and dignity to those who need it most, and Maria's work isn't just about providing immediate relief. It's about rebuilding lives. Surprisingly, you may think of donations in terms of food and clothing, but there is so much more that's needed. I think you will be ready to let go of some of those household items after Maria shares how to make a real difference. As you listen to Maria's story, I invite you to reflect on the power of community and the difference we can make when we come together to address the issues that matter most. Maria's passion and commitment are truly inspiring, and I'm sure you'll find her story as compelling as I do. So, without further ado, let's begin. Welcome to our program and just tell us a little bit about yourself.

Maria:

Yeah, my name's Anne-Maria Martin and I'm the founder of Survivors for Us. The reason for me starting Survivors for Us was I'm a survivor of domestic violence and I found eight years ago it was very hard to find any way to get the help from. Years ago it was very hard to find any way to get the help from. So I was strong again then and I formed Survivors for Us, which now helps people every day with counselling, support, food, clothing, just anything people might need. You know, getting people into accommodation to keep them safe.

Leon:

Safety is key. Now I've read that you have over 110 volunteers who contribute to Survivors R Us. Can you please share some stories or experiences that highlight their dedication and passion?

Maria:

So we have 110 volunteers that work with us and we're helping people every day that come through that door and over the eight years we've helped over 90,000 people with some form of help, like counselling, support, food, and we're seeing the increase in clients every day due to these economical times that we're going through. Some of the experiences that we've seen over this time is we've had mums come back that have been heavily pregnant, battered and bruised when we first got to meet them and then within a year, they come back later with their babies and show us that they're safe and well and doing okay. So that's a real reward to us to see that they've got into that position.

Maria:

Other families we've seen kids who have come in that haven't had any fruit or veggies, and we've always got fruit and veggies and they'll ask can I have an apple please? And we give it to them and they just the smiles on their faces are just so unbelievable. So that's what it's about our dedication and passion. It's about seeing the kids, you know, just yeah, showing that smile again. And families, you know they come in and they're in tears and when they leave they've got that little bit of hope in their eyes that you know they're going to be okay and we're going to be looking after them.

Leon:

Giving people hope. I like it. What do you think has been the key to your organisation's ability to impact so many lives?

Maria:

The key to our organisation's ability to impact so many lives. The key to our organisation's ability to impact so many people's lives is because our service is very friendly and family orientated. We find our staff have all been through something themselves, so they understand trauma and domestic violence. So they seem to relate better with our customers and clients. So that's that's why I think we do so well and we've had such a big impact that we actually genuinely care about everybody that walks through that door.

Leon:

And you certainly do. Can you please tell us a bit more about your services?

Maria:

Yeah, so our services help with these people for their emergency shelters and counselling. What we do is sit down with them and talk with them and go through everything that they're looking for, so you know if they're needing legal advice or they're needing a shelter to get into. We actually cater for their needs each and every one of them, so each one is given personal service here at Survivors for Us.

Leon:

And you mentioned in one of our previous conversations that your goal for 2024 is to provide up to 20 dwellings for emergency accommodation. Look, are you able to tell us a little bit more about those challenges and perhaps the opportunities in achieving this goal?

Maria:

Yes, definitely. Our challenges are to try and get the funding for the accommodation for the 20 dwellings, as we have people every day up to 30 to 40 people needing to get into emergency accommodation. The biggest problem that we are finding is funding. Funding is such a big issue. We're trying all the time to get grants, we're talking with philanthropists, but we have not been successful yet. But it's not the end of 2024. And, if anybody knows me, I'm very determined to make sure that we will get that accommodation out there for our beautiful people in need.

Leon:

And you certainly are working very hard for those people in need. I also know your mission emphasises empowering survivors to reclaim their power and break the cycle of domestic violence. I'm keen to know how do you measure success in this aspect and what impact have you seen on the community?

Maria:

Survivor's R Us. Empower our survivors by helping them set their lives up again, whether they have to open a bank account, whether they have to get a home to live in or just to have us help them with food or white goods anything that they need to start their lives again. So measuring that success is by how many people we see come through our doors and that we turn their lives around so they can again walk out that front door with a big smile on their face and know that they're going to survive their life and start over again.

Leon:

With the increasing need for domestic violence support? What role do you see for businesses, schools and government agencies in supporting organisations like Survivors R Us, as schools and government agencies in supporting organisations like Survivors R Us.

Maria:

Our business needs to be able to get into schools and governments to let them know how they can support an organisation like Survivors R Us. So going in and speaking to schools to show talk about what is good behaviour and what is bad behaviour and teaching young people is a really important thing to let them know that domestic violence is unacceptable behaviour. And also with the government agencies, if they could be out there helping supporting non-for-profits like Survivor's R Us, that would give us more power to be able to help more people in the community.

Leon:

And this is why we need more people to get involved. Are you able to share some of the urgent needs that your organisation currently faces and how our listeners might be able to help?

Maria:

The biggest need that we have at Survivors R Us at the moment is we're needing more food, more clothing, white goods. So when we're setting up families to go into their home again, you know they've got the basic necessities like a fridge, a washing machine, a bed. Those are the sort of things that we need the public to be able to come and donate to us. Money is always good, but if they can donate food already bought, that makes it easier. Otherwise, if they do donate money, we can actually buy it from Foodbank in Sydney, which then gives us, in turn, more volume to be able to give out to the public.

Leon:

So collaboration is a core value for Survivors R Us. Can you tell us some of the most impactful partnerships you've formed and how they've contributed to your mission?

Maria:

Yeah, in collaboration with Survivors R Us, we work very closely with uh food bank out of sydney, um. I started with them eight years ago and that's how we get our food here to be able to sell at low cost to our clients in need. Also, um oz harvest donates to us once a week and that's all free fruit and veg. So that means on a friday we've got our beautiful people can come in and get a free bag of fruit and veg. So we know that they are getting the nourishment that they're needing every week. So if it wasn't for those two main organisations, survivors or us wouldn't be doing what they're doing.

Leon:

Well done, foodbank and OzHarvest. Now moving on to corporate performance and stakeholder communication. What fundamental changes or improvements are you focusing on over the next 12 months?

Maria:

Our organisation is improving its corporate performance. We've actually put ourselves an advisory board together, so we've got more people with more experience being able to help us with more work that we're doing in the community. We have accountants, we have developers, we have bank managers. We have just people that can help us run our business better.

Leon:

And talking about people, Survivors R Us strongly emphasises diversity, equity and inclusion. How do you ensure that your services are accessible and sensitive to the needs of diverse populations?

Maria:

With Survivors R Us. We emphasise diversity, equality and inclusion by helping everybody. We have an open door policy to everybody, so it doesn't matter what race, religion that you are. We help everybody. We never disclude anybody from walking through that door. So we're actually starting a a new group with the local lgbq community to help them come in and they're going to be having their meetings here once a week, which we think that's really important because they do get not included in things, and we're here to support anybody that walks through that door.

Leon:

And can you also share a story of a survivor whose life has been transformed through the support of your organisation?

Maria:

Survivors R Us has lots of stories of survivors who we have helped get their lives back on track, but one story I can tell you. I was a beautiful lady who when I first started the charity, she could only type to me through a computer. She was in domestic violence and quite bad domestic violence. We couldn't get her out. But over the years we've been constantly on the computer and now she can get out of the home and comes to see us once a week. She has breakfast with us at our free breakfast. She has now, after eight years, finally come and told me she's finally free and she's got her life back together. And that's all I ever wanted from survivors or us is to make sure that we can get people free again and they can survive out there and not have to put up with that horrible behaviour.

Leon:

And sometimes to get people free again does cost money. So, maria, are there any current fundraising and sustainability efforts or approaches that you take for securing long-term support and funding?

Maria:

Here at Survivors R Us, we're always trying to raise funds. So we do a lot of fundraising like Comedy for a Cause, trivia nights, we're doing fashion parades, we're having guest speakers for luncheons. This will go on all the time. Also, we do have lots of raffles, christmas time. We also have our annual gala ball now, which was very successful our first one and we hope to keep that going as long as survivors or us are going, because we find that's a really good way of raising funds.

Leon:

And as someone who's deeply involved in community service, what advice would you give to other organisations or individuals who want to make a difference in the fight against domestic violence? Thank you.

Maria:

I'd love the community to really stand up and speak out about domestic violence and if you feel that you want to get involved, you can come to an organisation like Survivors or us and donate your time as a volunteer or any other organisation who is trying to fight against domestic violence, because we can't fight this terrible disease, if I can call it that, without the people standing up and speaking out for each and every one of those survivors.

Leon:

Definitely More people should be speaking out. Maria, look your vision for the future of Survivors R Us. How do you see the organisation evolving to meet the needs of the community?

Maria:

My vision for Survivors R Us is to hopefully, in a few years' time, have emergency accommodation. That has always been one of my dreams and goals to make sure that people who are escaping domestic violence have somewhere to go so they don't have to go into their cars or living on the streets. And so I believe that we will meet the need of the community and hopefully secure lots of accommodation and hopefully one day I'll be able to say that domestic violence doesn't exist anymore.

Leon:

Now, wouldn't that be nice, Maria. How important is it to have these types of conversations, to talk to people, to meet with them.

Maria:

It's very important to have meetings with people and talk about it, so they understand about what we do here every day and how passionate we are about getting this happening, trying to stop this domestic violence and asking people for their help so we can get this emergency accommodation or how they can help us feed people every day. So that's what it's about.

Leon:

It's about getting people together and contributing. So Maria, if people wanted to get in contact with you, how would they? How would they get in contact with you?

Maria:

So if people would like to contact Survivors R Us, you can contact us through our Facebook page, our email, which is survivors at survivorsrusincorporatedcom. They can come to our address. We're at the warehouse, which is 57 Pendlebury Road, Cardiff, or they can phone us on 49537108. And there's always somebody there to take your call.

Leon:

And if there is one thing you would like the audience to take away from this conversation, Maria, what would that one thing be?

Maria:

The one thing I'd like people to think about is supporting our local charity. What we're finding with the economical times that our rents have gone up so high and the cost of living we're finding it hard ourselves to survive here. So if somebody could help us with donations and sponsorship or a philanthropist, if we could get somebody out there to help us, because we're going to get to a point where we will have to close our doors if the cost of living keep going up because we just won't be able to survive.

Leon:

And that is why it takes a village to raise a child, or a community, or however you want to describe it, and it's important for everyone to get involved. So, maria, what can the community do to help?

Maria:

The community can give donations. We are a registered charity so we can give them a receipt for their tax. We also, if they can, just come and volunteer with us. We're always looking for volunteers because we're always busy, but yeah, just with the fundraising and things like that, come and shop with us. Yes, shopping with us is really important and we are open to the public so anybody can walk through those doors and shop with us, and every cent they spend at Survivors for Us will keep our doors open so we can help more of the domestic violence clients. So if you can support us by shopping, it would be really wonderful.

Leon:

Maria, you are amazing and thank you so much for coming on the show.

Maria:

Thanks, Leon.

Leon:

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Engaging Conversations. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Engaging Conversations. Today, we've delved into the critical issue of domestic violence and heard from Maria at Survivors R Us. A true community hero, along with her dedicated team, is making a real impact in the lives of those affected. If you were moved by Maria's story and the work being done by Survivors R Us, I encourage you to take action, whether it's offering support, volunteering or simply spreading the word. Every action counts. Please visit Survivors R Us' website or get in touch with Maria and her team to find out more how you can make a difference. You'll find more details in our show notes.

Leon:

Now, before we wrap up, I'm excited to share what's coming next on Engaging Conversations. Next Thursday, we'll be sitting down with two incredible leaders Mary Kay Walker, CEO of Parkinson's New South Wales, and Rachel Tanny, the chair of the board. We'll be discussing the challenges of Parkinson's and uncovering ways to support those affected. It was truly eye-opening to learn from these remarkable women and I can't wait to share that conversation with you. So please be sure to tune in next week for another inspiring episode. I'm Leon Goltsman and I'm looking forward to seeing you then. Until next time, stay connected, stay inspired, and let's continue to make a difference together.

People on this episode

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Leon Goltsman

Host
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Ann-Maria Martin

Guest