The Good Samaritan Inn in Melbourne has received a federal government grant that will allow it to build 12 new units to provide accommodation for women and children escaping family violence, reports The Good Oil.

The $5.26 million Safe Places Emergency Accommodation Grant from the Australian Government Department of Social Services will fund the construction of the one, two and three-bedroom units which will provide up to 12 months’ accommodation for women, gender diverse people and children impacted by family violence.

*The Good Samaritan Inn is a safe haven for women and children escaping family violence. PHOTO: Shutterstock.*

The new accommodation will support them to live independently and with stability as they navigate their path to recovery.

The Inn’s Executive Director, Felicity Rorke, said the grant was “a huge new step forward”.

“Thanks to the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, who gave us a loan to acquire some land, we were in a position to apply for this government grant, which will now allow us to develop a purpose-built facility,” she said.

“The individual units mean that women and children escaping family violence can have their own accommodation, their own bathrooms, and space to prepare and share meals together.

“They will also have access to the group work we provide, such as counselling, to do the healing and recovering they need while being supported by our staff and living in a safe and appealing space. It’s very exciting.”

Felicity said the units would be built and designed in a way that featured lots of outdoor spaces, for both children and women to enjoy.

*PHOTO: Good Samaritan Inn/The Good Oil.*

“We want to ensure that the environment is as sensitive and healing as possible.”

“A lot of thought has gone into it. The units will also be close to public transport and schools,” she said.

Felicity said the decision to build independent units was in line with Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence (2015-16), which heard overwhelmingly that victim-survivors wanted their own space as they began their healing journey.

The new development marks a significant expansion for the Good Samaritan Inn’s operations.

The Inn has been delivering a specialist crisis refuge response to women and children survivors of family violence and/or homelessness since 1996.

Up to now, the Inn has provided short-term case work support to about 100 women, children and young people every year. Guests stay at the Inn for an average of eight weeks, with the provision of a bed, meals, crisis support, counselling, group therapy and referral to other specialist services as required.

A second site is now under development in a former convent within the City of Banyule, which will accommodate women and children who are moving out of crisis accommodation but are assessed as requiring further transitional housing and support.

This is expected to be fully operational by June next year. The project is a collaboration between the Archdiocese of Melbourne, a local parish and the Good Samaritan Inn.

The Safe Places Emergency Accommodation Grant will now allow for construction of the individual accommodation to begin on a third site, while state government funding and other grants would be sought to provide the services.

The Chair of the Good Samaritan Inn Board, Patricia Bergin, said the Board was “immensely grateful” for the Commonwealth grant.

“This funding allows us to expand our services and stands as a testament to our 26-year commitment to those in need, beginning with the Sisters of the Good Samaritan opening their doors to the homeless.”

“This project, which will see the development of our third facility, is a crucial step forward in creating more safe and stable places where family violence victim-survivors can begin their journey to healing,” she said.

Patricia said having the three sites would provide more flexibility in being able to direct victim-survivors to the accommodation and services best suited to their needs.

She said the board was working to ensure that governance remained robust and according to best practice as the expansion occurred.

“Governing one facility with seven rooms looks very different to a communal facility and 22 units with an optimum 80 people – women and children. So, we are very focused on change-management and capacity-building of staff, as well as the necessary infrastructure,” she said.

Patricia said that while the Inn’s accommodation was expanding, the services available to victim-survivors would continue, using the EMPath model.

The Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath) program is an evidence-based US holistic coaching model that recognises the effect of prolonged trauma on executive functioning skills such as the ability to maintain focus, establish priorities, follow multi-step instructions and mentally hold information. A lack of such skills can hinder a person’s ability to become self-sufficient.

“And augmenting all this, we have the Women in Work Program and a range of outreach services to support women and children in healing and rebuilding their lives, gaining workplace skills and readiness, and equipping them to move forward,” Patricia said.

*PHOTO: The Good Samaritan Inn/The Good Oil.*

“We have grown into a much more sophisticated organisation, but we are still very much based on the principles of the first Sisters.

“We hold that story very close. The story of the Sisters in this part of Melbourne goes back to 1905 and we would not have received this government funding without the Sisters’ help.”

Congregational Leader of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, Sister Catherine McCahill, congratulated the board, staff and leadership of the Inn on the successful grant application.

“This ministry is close to the heart of all Good Samaritans.”

“It was close to the heart of (founder) Archbishop Polding and the early Sisters,” Catherine wrote in a letter to Sisters.

“We are blessed that this ministry continues and will be more sustainable into the future because of the work of this generation.”

Sister Kerin Caldwell SGS, a member of the Good Samaritan Inn Board, said the story of the Inn, which grew from the outreach of a couple of Sisters to the homeless on the streets of Melbourne, was part of a thread of social work that runs through the life of the Congregation.

“It started with individual Sisters and the gift they had for the Church and the world of the time,” she said. “And today, we have a very professional board at the Inn whose members are heavily committed to the values of the Good Samaritan and Benedictine tradition.

“We are continuing that thread. We have picked up the legacy and are putting flesh on it now in a new way for new times. I think Polding would have been very pleased.”

Kerin said the Sisters were pleased that under the terms of the grant application, the new accommodation, while available to all, would have a particular focus on people with disability, migrants without permanent residency, and First Nations women and children in need.

“This is a group for whom the need in this area is very great and it is a group we feel we can help in a particular way. And that is very true to who we are.”

This is a slightly abridged form of an article by Debra Vermeer, published in The Good Oil, the monthly e-publication of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan.