By EMILY ROBINSON
Meet the Geelong group helping needy families take care of their most-precious members
Eager and excited, four-year-old Emily Carr donated her beloved pink dressing gown to Geelong Mums just in time for the winter season.
“It’s just too little for me – it’s for someone else now,” the toddler declared.
“I wanted to give it to someone else to help them and to keep them warm.”
It’s this kind of donation that warms the heart of Geelong Mums co-founder and general manager Kate Kent.
“It’s so nice to see young children understanding the impact that they can have,” Kate says.
Founded in April 2013, Geelong Mums is the result of five local mothers who desired to make a difference.
The organisation collects donations of nursery equipment and recycles cots, prams, car seats, clothes and other essential items which are rehomed to families on low incomes.
“Caseworkers have told us how challenging it is for families doing it tough to be able to afford everything you need to support a child,” Kate says.
“Geelong Mums is like a best friend people need at a tough time in their life.”
The idea is simple, but carrying it out can sometimes be more complex, with all donated items safety checked and quality checked before being made available for donation.
By utilising the motto of working smarter, Geelong Mums has harnessed the power of technology to make the job easier and more effective – to the point of winning an international award.
Along with its sister organisations, St Kilda Mums and Eureka Mums, the organisation won the Canvas ‘Ante Up’ Non-Profit of the Year.
Kate flew to Washington last year to collect the award along with founder and St Kilda Mums chief Jessica Macpherson.
Geelong Mums uses a smartphone app developed by US software company Canvas to perform the safety check on all donated baby and children’s gear.
“As a lean organisation, we were getting buried in a mountain of paper forms and manual entry processes required to conduct product safety checks and track inventory,” Kate explains.
“This allows volunteers to access the app at anytime and anywhere to safety check cots, car restraints, prams and other items so that they meet the current Australian safety standards.
“We also use Canvas to measure impact, recording what we give to whom, where and when.
“Reference data for products, safety recalls and supplier contact information is all saved in the one place.
“We photograph each item and record the date of manufacture and serial numbers.”
Ms Kent said the trio of organisations had been gifted lifetime use of the software through the Ante-Up program and as the 2015 winner, was able to choose another non-profit organisation to receive the same benefit, nominating New York charity Baby Buggy, which does similar work to Geelong Mums.
Canvas founder James Quigley said Geelong Mums, St Kilda Mums and Eureka Mums won the award for demonstrating a passion to make a difference in their communities by embracing technology.
It’s been a steady journey for Geelong Mums, started out by supporting six families per month while operating from a small shed and volunteers’ homes.
In 2014, the organisation helped 370 families and moved into a large warehouse in South Geelong. Last year the number of families helped grew to 900.
Geelong Mums estimates by the end of the year 1500 families will benefit from the organisation, with some 10,000 items donated.
But it is not only mums benefitting, Kate says – Geelong Mums also supports fathers, grandparents and foster carers.
“Anyone that plays a caring or nurturing role around a child – we are there to support,” she says.
Geelong Mums works in partnership with almost 60 welfare maternal and health services, such as Bethany Community Support, Diversitat, Barwon Health and Uniting Care just to name a few.
“We work in partnership to add value to these organisations. We take requests from them and then they come and pick the items up and take them directly to the families.
“It’s important we strengthen these workers to do more with families.”
Asked about stand-out moments at Geelong Mums, Kate says she experiences inspiring stories daily.
She recounts a recent story of a 10-year-old boy receiving a clothing pack.
“He’d been wearing poor quality clothing – there just weren’t finances available after rent, food and utilities had been paid,” Kate says.
“He’s gone from being a little boy concerned about how he looked, to a little boy modelling his clothes every day.”
When Geelong Mums first began, it received an unusual request from a case worker for a three-seater pram. But shortly after posting about it on Facebook, a local mum donated one.
“After it was safety checked, we contacted the case worker and it was given to the mum,” Kate says.
“Three years later, we had another request for a three-seater pram.”
As it turns out, the woman who donated the pram was the one who received it three years ago.
“Now it’s being used by another local mum,” Kate says.
Jumping right in
Geelong Mums have created ‘Jump in Puddles’ packs for the winter season.
“It’s our winter campaign. Children will receive a warm coat, a beanie, a scarf and gumboots – all of the tools needed to jump in the muddiest of puddles,” Kate says.
“It means children can just go and be kids and play.”
Those wanting to donate pre-loved items can visit geelongmums.org for more information.
