Help Haven write its history
20-Oct-2011In one generation Haven has grown from one man in a warren to one of a Australia's premier affordable housing associations and homeless services providers with a staff of 120 and a balance sheet of more than a quarter of a billion dollars.
Now the former Loddon Mallee Housing Services has itself been rehoused and renamed.
The mark the first anniversary of its move to new premises in Forest Street and rebranding as Haven, the organisation is compiling a history. Were you there when it all began in the back of Bendigo Trades Hall in the mid-1970s?
The psychedelic '70s had suddenly turned sober as one after another, all the city’s abattoirs, most of its meatworks and several large food processors shut their doors.
In just two short years almost 700 men were thrown out of work, the effect rippling throughout the community as Bendigo’s unemployment rate grew to the fourth highest in the state.
The hall of advocacy became a crisis centre. From the backrooms the unionists' wives organised food parcels and provided other practical aid to support struggling families who had lost their sole breadwinner.
It is those women, who formed what would eventually become called the Bendigo Urban Emergency Accommodation Resource Centre in 1978 that Haven is looking for.
Were you a wife of a Trades Hall representative who helped support the families of sacked workers? Did you help hand out food parcels and arrange stop-gap accommodation. Were you one of those who turned to Trades Hall for a helping hand?
If you can help, please contact Haven’s Communications and Marketing Director Sue Masters at sue.masters@haven.org.au or phone 5444 9021 during business hours.
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