Throughout Open Support’s history, the Sisters of Charity have been very pragmatic with their decision making. They have grown programs in areas of need and have made hard decisions to close programs to protect their core mission, when faced with funding deficits. Recently, we have found ourselves in the same situation and want to share with you, our supporters, donors and volunteers, information about a difficult decision Open Support has made regarding our service delivery due to a crisis in available funding to us.
Open Support is a charity run by St Vincent’s Clinic and for many years we have operated a service – Safe Haven – in south-west Sydney to provide emergency accommodation to women experiencing domestic abuse. Due to a crisis in available funding, Open Support has made the difficult decision to close Safe Haven and channel our limited resources into sustaining our second accommodation centre in western Sydney for women and their children fleeing domestic abuse (The Cottage).
Open Support receives no ongoing government funding to run our domestic abuse services, relying entirely on philanthropy. Our immediate lack of funds – along with no reliable, recurrent financial support – forced us into a hard choice: save one service or risk losing both.
Reluctantly, we’ve chosen to close Safe Haven because the ageing property places significant constraints on our ability to provide effective support to all families in need. Principally, the property’s limitations mean Open Support is unable to provide the contemporary ‘core and cluster’ model of care, regarded as best-practice for accommodation services that support women and their children fleeing domestic abuse. Its layout means we are unable to provide accommodation for some families (e.g. women with boys 12 and over).
The Cottage – which has eight purpose-built units for women and children of all ages, and which opened in western Sydney in late 2023 – provides a contemporary model of ‘core and cluster’ care.
Importantly, no current Safe Haven clients will be affected by this decision. All families have been moved to transitional accommodation, where they will continue receiving community outreach support for the next 12 months.
We have also made the decision to bring our Country Care Link Program to a close, allowing us to focus all our resources and funding on our core programs of domestic and family abuse and social isolation and loneliness. It has been our privilege to have been able to provide this service to the people of regional NSW for so many years, getting to know them and playing a role in their access to healthcare. We have also been blessed with some wonderful volunteers who have been so much more than drivers, but also a friendly face and support for what can be a very nervous ride to medical appointments in the city.
We extend our thanks to our Country Care Link volunteers, to the many people who trusted us with their care and our donors who have contributed to keeping this program running for so many years.
Our plan is to continue to deliver best-practice, professional and focused services well into the future, with the hope of growing our services as increased funding becomes available to us. We look forward to sharing our ongoing journey with you. Your ongoing support is invaluable.