Every child needs a safe place to call home.
On the surface, Katy’s life seemed normal. No one would have known that eight-year-old Katy* and her mum, Melinda*, were homeless. When Melinda’s ex-partner threatened Katy, the pair fled and was forced to sleep in the car for months.
I miss my bed, but mum says the car is safer than our home.
–Katy, 8 years old
When vulnerable families escape domestic violence, they often have nowhere else to go. Services like Mission Australia can provide people like Katy and Melinda with crisis accommodation, essential items and ongoing support to end the cycle of homelessness.
Your compassion can help vulnerable families find a safe place to call home.
Domestic and family violence: an invisible pandemic.
When Melinda made the difficult decision to leave, she knew the car wasn’t safe either, but anything was better than raising a child in an abusive environment.
Domestic and family violence is a leading cause of homelessness in Australia and sadly, experiences like this are not uncommon.
Tonight, around 17,000 children younger than 12 years, won’t have a safe home1.
With your generosity, we can extend our services to reach more children and families in need of a safe home.
Will you help families like Katy and Melinda find a safe home today?
How your generosity helps families fleeing violence
When a child’s life is disrupted by events outside of their control, your support help us provide them with a safe place to call home and stable environment to thrive. Your generosity can help provide:
- Crisis accommodation
- Essential items including groceries, household items and personal hygiene products
- Access to counselling sessions to support victims of domestic and family violence
- Ongoing case management and wraparound support to end the cycle of homelessness
- Assistance to help find permanent and affordable housing.
Our promise to you

Mission Australia has been helping people move towards independence, and our commitment to this vital work has never been stronger.
Thanks to your support, together we helped 149,096 people in 2023 by combatting homelessness, assisting disadvantaged families and children, addressing mental health issues, fighting substance dependencies, and much more.

In 2023, 91.0% of our income went straight back into delivering services that assisted vulnerable Australians.
We appreciate every donation we receive and ensure that each dollar goes where it is needed most.
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*Names and images have been changed to protect the identity of our staff and the people we help.
1ABS (2021) Census of Population and Housing: Estimating Homelessness