Red Shield funds bring mission and community together in Wollongong
BY LAUREN MARTIN
A Red-Shield initiative kids’ school holiday program at Wollongong Corps (NSW) recently illustrated how Local Mission Delivery (LMD) can wrap community connection around Salvation Army service delivery.
A Wollongong Corps kids camp was an idea born from an LMD planning day held a few years ago when Lieutenant-Colonel Lyn Edge was first appointed to the corps on the NSW South Coast.
The Red Shield holiday camps, held for many years at The Salvation Army’s Collaroy Conference Centre in Sydney, had ceased, and the corps wanted to run an outreach for the families that it assisted each Christmas with toy and food hampers.
The first Wollongong Corps holiday program, funded by the Red Shield Appeal Initiative, was held in 2023 and was a huge success.
This year, the team built on what they had learned from 2023. They wanted to reach more families, so they deliberately invited children who were not at the 2023 holiday program, offering the initial attendees the opportunity to attend other kids’ and family events that the corps has planned throughout the year.
“It was fantastic,” said Lyn. “The holiday program was staffed with leaders and people from the corps with the support of another church in our local area – we had helpers from age 16 through to age 80!
“We had a mix of activities – some at the hall, and some were outings.” (The visit to Jamberoo waterslide park was a huge success, despite it being a cold, wet day!).
Lyn said that the beautiful thing about the initiative was seeing how corps-based LMD events wrap around Salvation Army services such as Doorways and the local Illawarra Carinya Women’s Services, which provides accommodation and support for women and children experiencing homelessness and/or family and domestic violence.
Children from families in each service and those assisted with Christmas hampers were invited to attend.
Pop-up shop for kids
A new collaboration this year with Salvos Stores saw an unexpected ‘hit’ with the kids – a pop-up clothing store for the children to choose an outfit for a special sit-down dinner on the final evening of the camp.
“The kids loved it,” Lyn said. “They felt so special. A few of the kids said it was the highlight of the program for them. They could go into the Salvos Store pop-up shop and choose what they liked, and then at the end, they got to take it home.”
For many children attending, going out to a restaurant is a rare luxury, so they loved what they called the ‘fancy’ dinner in the corps hall.
Carnivale day
After the week-long day program, the corps held a ‘Carnivale’ Day, where they invited anyone from the community – and those families who had attended the school holiday program the year before – to attend for a day of fun and activities at the corps. About 350 people attended.
“We had so many families stop and say ‘thank you because we can’t afford to take our family out’, and they didn’t know what they were going to do in the school holidays,” said Lyn.
The corps has worked hard this year to maintain connection. About a month after the holiday program, it held a follow-up family movie night, which saw 100 children and parents attend. It also launched a new Kids in the Kitchen program with children from the community who had connected through the holiday program.
Lyn says that Wollongong Corps is using Red Shield Appeal funds to “amplify” the amazing work of existing Salvation Army services in the Illawarra, which aims to love and care for whole families for the long haul.
