Aherlkeme life skills celebration

Residents of Aherlkeme Transitional Accommodation Village in Alice Springs, operated by Mission Australia, had just cause to celebrate last week. 

Not only was a big man in a red suit visiting the village, but more importantly, four of the residents were graduating from the Mission Australia Life Skills Program.

The program deals with rent and money management, personal hygiene, home care, property maintenance, social wellbeing and visitor management and provides tenants with an opportunity to develop the skills they need to transition to public housing and maintain a good tenancy.

Alice Springs Mayor Damian Ryan presented each of the graduates with a certificate of achievement. The certificate accompanies a report to Territory Housing to support the tenant’s application for public housing.

One of the recipients, a young mother of three who has been living at Aherlkeme since May this year told of how the program had helped put her life on track.

“The most important help I received was building my knowledge about accessing certain things like services to support my kids, and how to get help to save and buy white goods like a washing machine, fridge and beds for my kids.

“I used to work, but when I had kids this all stopped and I found it hard to keep going and was more or less homeless. But, now I am looking forward to the next chapter of my life and where I want to be in the next five years of my life and that will help me bring my kids up too.”

The function was also attended by Andrea Martin, Executive Director at Department of Local Government and Housing, and James Toomey, Mission Australia’s Acting Executive Leader Community Services, as well as local staff.

Meaning “new light, new day”, Alherkeme Transitional Housing Village provides 79 beds to people homeless or at risk of experiencing homelessness and is supported by the Australian and Northern Territory Governments.

Caption: Aherlkeme residents enjoying the celebration