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Missionbeat Bikes hit the road |
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| 04 Jun 2009 |
 World Environment Day, 5 June 2009 On 5 June, World Environment Day, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore MP will launch Australia’s newest and greenest homelessness service, the Missionbeat Bikes, giving homeless people in Sydney better access to critical support and reducing Mission Australia’s carbon emissions. “The new Missionbeat Bike service will allow us to help more people sleeping rough in more places around the Sydney CBD and shrink our ecological footprint at the same time,” said Leonie Green, Mission Australia’s NSW State Director. “This is another way in which Mission Australia is seeking to transform the lives of people who are homeless and put them on a path back to a safe and stable life.” The bikes, helmets and uniforms were purchased with a grant from the Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP Salary Trust. Cr Moore and the Deputy Lord Mayor, Cr Marcelle Hoff, donate their Lord Mayoral and Deputy Lord Mayoral fees to the Trust, which has provided grants worth more than $650,000 to charities that help people rebuild their lives, promote animal welfare and support community environmental and sustainability initiatives. Cr Moore said the new Missionbeat service is an important part of City of Sydney’s goal of ending chronic homelessness in the inner city by 2017. “We’ve set ambitious targets for reducing homelessness and funding services like the Missionbeat Bikes is an integral part of our plans. “It’s a credit to Mission Australia that they’ve come up with this idea and I’m delighted to be able to support them in their efforts to help people living on our streets,” Ms Moore said. Cr Hoff said that Missionbeat does valuable work in supporting the homeless. “The Bike service will enable outreach workers to help people who are not easily accessed by the traditional vans. I hope it will encourage other support services to explore the use of bikes,” Cr Hoff said. Mission Australia’s outreach workers will criss-cross the CBD on the new bikes, offering assistance to homeless people and using the Mission Australia radio network to link them with other services – such as calling a nurse to treat and dress an infected wound; arranging transport from one of the Missionbeat vans to a shelter for the night; or contacting emergency services for crisis support. The Missionbeat Bikes will also dovetail with many existing Mission Australia services to ensure continuity of care. “This service is part of a much larger Mission Australia strategy to ensure people sleeping rough can receive all the different types of support they need to break the cycle of homelessness permanently,” said Ms Green. “But it’s a process that starts by engaging people in their own time and on their own terms. “People sleeping rough are often tucked away out of site, not only to try to maintain a skerrick of privacy but also to avoid getting drenched when it rains or suffer blistering sunburn. “By putting our outreach workers on bikes, we’re ensuring people living around the streets and stairwells, alcoves and doorways of Sydney will have access to services offering basic medical care and safe accommodation. We’ll also have a much better chance of knowing if they need urgent care and we’ll have faster response times than by simply driving around the streets.” The Lord Mayor said the initiative will support some of the cities’ most vulnerable people and protect the environment. “By setting up a bike service, Mission Australia is also helping to improve air quality and reduce traffic through the city. This service will not only benefit the people trying to survive on the streets, it will benefit all of us who use the streets everyday.” The recently opened cycleways around the city will also make the new Missionbeat Bike service more effective and efficient, noted Ms Green. “Cycleways make it much easier and safer for Mission Australia staff on bikes to get around the city and will help extend our reach, because of all the time saved. The cycleways couldn’t have come at a better time.” Launch of Missionbeat Bikes Homelessness Service
If the weather is bad, the event will be moved to Level 6, 580 George Street. If in doubt call Patrick Flynn to confirm Media contact:
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