People with lived experience of homelessness are helping businesses understand and engage with people sleeping rough through our award-winning Connect Respect program. When two city businesses approached us wanting to support – rather than displace – people experiencing homelessness around their premises, we began working with expert groups to harness this goodwill. Connect Respect aims to strike a balance between recognising the hardship that rough sleepers experience and the need to ensure public places are clean, safe and accessible for everyone. The program – which recently won an LGPro Award for Excellence – is now our lead tool in responding to reports about the impact of rough sleeping on businesses. Vicky Vacondios, a Connect Respect trainer, became homeless with her three children after fleeing an abusive relationship. She spent nine years navigating the service system and now uses her experience to help others, including as a member of our Homelessness Advisory Committee. ‘My experience gave me a passion to work with governments and not-for-profits to create change. No one wants to be homeless and no one sees it in their future. I never thought it would happen to me,’ Vicky said. ‘Once you get labelled as homeless, you can become isolated and fall into a very dark place. It can be a real struggle to navigate the system and many people develop mental health issues. ‘Hearing from people who have lived experiences of homelessness was deeply profound.’ ‘People need to talk to other people, so don’t be afraid to say hello to a person experiencing homelessness and ask them how they are. Sometimes if I’m buying a coffee, I’ll ask a person if they’d like one too. ‘You see the look of ease, comfort and relief on their faces – people are really thankful. Your simple conversation could even be … Continue reading Connect Respect