WOMEN SUPPORTING
WOMEN & CHILDREN IN NEED
Fundraising with Hummingsong
The driving force of Hummingsong Community Choirs is to establish, sustain and grow joyous community choirs for women. Our members are also committed to supporting other women in need in the community and from our earliest of days, it was important to our members that they are able to give back. We facilitate this by fund-raising via our singing - to assist women and children in need within our local communities.
Initially, one of our founding members suggested that we support our local women’s refuge in Lane Cove and this was then extended to supporting a refuge in Dee Why. Both locations provided a safe place for women, along with their children, who were escaping domestic violence and found themselves at a crisis point in their lives. We were able to establish and fund a Creative Arts Therapy Program in both of these refuges.
Recent years have seen Hummingsong’s fundraising energies predominantly focused on supporting 'Women's Community Shelters' (WCS), who are working within communities to establish new shelters for women, who are homeless or leaving domestic violence and providing short-term emergency accommodation and support. Did you know that one in two women across Australia, who apply for a bed in a crisis shelter, are turned away every night, usually due to a lack of space? These are just the ones who find out that there is a safe place to go, in order to ask for help.
Women's Community Shelters - Outreach Program
In 2016 Hummingsong established a pilot Outreach Program for Women's Community Shelters that supports women and families, who have experienced domestic violence or abuse, as they transition from crisis accommodation to independent living. This program has been tremendously successful and has continued to develop, year after year, since its inception. The ongoing support of WCS Case Workers, allows women to continue working towards their support goals, while improving their mental health and emotional well-being. The program also allows for early intervention as Shelter Staff can provide support to local women, who haven't yet been accommodated in the shelter, but who need support to stay safe or maintain their current accommodation. Both of these programs rely on philanthropic support in order to pay for the Case Worker hours.
Central Coast Choir (Lumina) Supports Allowah House
More inormation can be found about Allowah House here
Newcastle Choirs (Meraki and Sundara) Support Jenny's Place
More information can be found out about Jenny's Place here Melbourne Choirs (Allegra and Louella) Support McAuley Community Services for Women
More information can be found out about McAuley here
Our concerts and performances are a wonderful way to showcase our choirs, while giving our members a chance to shine on stage and experience all of the joys that a community project brings.
These performances have provided us the opportunity to raise both awareness and funds for women and children in need typically through our highly successful member led raffle. We're very proud to say that over the last 10 years, our choirs have managed to raise over $300k for our supported charities through our fundraising efforts.
This has also been achieved by the dedication of our own choir community, wanting to help and support other women who are in need. Some of our members have experienced this situation themselves and know only too well the hardships it brings. Others can only imagine the devastation of having to leave your home, especially if holding the hands of your children, in order to face a life of complete uncertainty just in order to keep them safe.
How Can You Support Hummingsong's Fundraising Efforts?
Any support that you're able to offer Hummingsong is incredibly and deeply appreciated by both us and the women we're able to support. Please consider supporting us in any way that makes sense to you.
You can support us in the following ways:
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Buy Raffle Tickets - When we have an active raffle, we will shout it from the rooftops and all raffle ticket proceeds will be donated
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Donate an Item to our Raffle - In conjunction with our Annual Concert, we run a very large and successful raffle. All the proceeds from raffle tickets will be donated. We're able to accept goods and services and if you have something that you're able offer, please get in touch: enquiries@hummingsong.com.au
