Bankstown Hub

Be Kind Sydney Covid-19 Appeal: Bankstown

Mona Mahamed at Bankstown Community Support Services Village Pantry is one of our place-based program changemakers. To help this local community directly impacted by Covid-19 please read on.

CSS Village is working tirelessly to secure food and other supplies for those in need. We are seeking tax deductible donations to assist.

Mona is also calling for healthy volunteers in the local Bankstown area to deliver food hampers to vulnerable people in their neighbourhood.

Your donation will pay for food, delivery costs and ensuring safety equipment is available for volunteers dedicating their time to give help where it is needed most.

All physical classes are currently suspended and we are prioritising fundraising for The Village Pantry to assist vulnerable people to have their needs met.

Please read on our stories of programs we are seeking to fund in our 2020 Inspiring Your Giving campaign. Some programs will continue with remote service, others will resume once the crisis has abated. The demand for funds continues to grow.

The Village Pantry – Bankstown

Many families in the Bankstown community struggle to make ends meet and put food on the table. This project takes away the pressure of hunger. It enables parents and caregivers to know their childrens health and wellbeing is taken care of, while they find jobs to get themselves back on their feet.

Community Support Services co-ordinates fresh produce from Foodbank and Coles SecondBite.

Refugees, struggling families, and others in the community choose what they need. Anyone unable to pay gets food for free or those who can make a small contribution.

On the Job Skills for Work – Bankstown

Volunteering at Community Support Services, Centrelink work placement participants learn practical skills for future employment.

Through training, inspiration, guidance and a local support network, participants prepare for work. Running the Village Pantry, participants learn project management skills, how to track stock and handle money for transactions and customer service.

Community Support Services recognises the complex support needs of Newstart recipients and provides a caring environment to help them believe in their own potential and capacity to provide for themselves and their families.

UPDATE: Thank you to all the volunteers who continue to generously give their time to CSS Village to make sure The Village Pantry can continue to run now it is needed more than ever.

Tech savvy me (over 55’s) – Bankstown

Keeping older Australian’s connected with tech savvy skills. As communication moves online and customer service is digitised, more and more senior Australians are struggling to keep across the advancements.

From staying in touch with the grand children,to accessing medicare which can only be done by email, to staying relevant in an ageist job market, Community Support Services is making sure this generation stays connected.

Funds raised will purchase refurbished laptops and tablets and a tech savvy trainer.

UPDATE: This program continues to run virtually with all participants provided a log in to the training platform and support provided via email by the CSS Village volunteers. 

Women’s Sewing Circle- Bankstown

Many women in the Bankstown community, such as refugees, single mums, struggling families and more are often isolated at home.

Community Support Services offers women’s sewing lessons, providing social contact and valuable life skills, to improve daily life.

The classes offer a way to generate income and financially support themselves and their families.

Facilitated by a passionate designer, classes will
progress from beginner to advanced, one-off skill specific lessons, and expressive art classes for young people.

UPDATE: This program continues online with all participants connecting via a private Chat group. Video lessons are loaded and questions answered by the facilitator to keep the women connected. 

Y.e.s.s (Youth Education and Support Services) – Bankstown

Bringing the Bankstown community together to share their knowledge and empower school students, YESS provides educational supporting multidisciplinary subjects in the K-12 ‘key learning areas’.

Led by a passionate local community changemaker and qualified tutor, Community Support Services has designed and runs the program. With a focus on literacy, volunteers from universities and work placements will donate up to 500 hours of one-to-one and small group tutoring. The program is also well supported by passionate home schooling mothers and stay-at-home teachers.

UPDATE: For participant safety, the tutoring program is currently paused. Online options are being explored and will be rolled out if viable. 

Healing Art – Bankstown

Exploring culture and language with an experienced Art Therapy teacher, this project will guide participants to find ways to gently express pain through creativity and to heal.

Even in a thriving community like Bankstown, people feel very alone. They suffer and are not able to share their experience, emotion and process their trauma in a safe and healing environment.

Run by Community Support Services these classes will bring new beauty to old objects,exploring different art styles and techniques to create something authentic to their own experience.

UPDATE: Healing Art is currently paused for the safety of participants under current social distancing requirements.