What you can do
Businesses
- Commit to the Pledge.
- Financially support community collaborations and organisations which make a difference on behalf of people experiencing homelessness.
- Include homelessness support agencies in your corporate social responsibility plans.
- Engage staff in volunteering at events or agencies that support people experiencing homelessness; grant them a day a year to volunteer.
- Implement a program in your organisation that supports work experience, training, mentoring and ultimately assisting people who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of, to transition to permanent employment.
Individuals
- Commit to the Pledge.
- Become an advocate - Let your local member know that housing and homelessness issues are important to you. Write to or email MPs; follow homelessness agencies on social media; pay attention to housing and homelessness policies when you vote.
- Volunteer at events or agencies that support people experiencing homelessness.
- Educate yourself and others - Dispel damaging stereotypes. People are not defined by homelessness. Understand the statistics and where the trends are happening.
Community
We can change our language. The media and social media can often unwittingly contribute to stereotyping people without homes and it is easy to follow a similar path with the language that we use. Help spread empathy and understanding in our community by speaking about people experiencing homelessness with respect. Start by using the term "people experiencing homelessness" or "people without homes" instead of "homeless people". Homelessness is not an identity. It's an event in a person's life - one that has a cause and a solution. Click here to find out more about the causes of homelessness.