When experiencing Domestic and Family Violence it may feel that the streets are safer than home. Life on the streets does not have to be your only alternative. Please know that support is available. Please read, and make contact with, for example, DV Connect if needed - 1800 811 811

From DV Connect: "Coercive control is more than red flags for physical violence.

It is abuse in and of itself and our specialist domestic and family violence workers understand the harm it causes.

DVConnect can support you with:

• safety plans if you are in a relationship, thinking of leaving or have left
• accessing emergency transport
• getting into crisis accommodation or refuge.

Call DVConnect Womensline on 1800 811 811.

Coercive control is:

• Making jealous accusations
• Isolating and monitoring you
• Coercing you into sexual activity
• Name calling and putting you down
• Preventing you from going to school or work
• Restricting your access to money/financial decision making
• Making you fear for your own, your children’s or your pet’s safety"

Today, ANZAC Day, a day of dignitaries, pomp and ceremony and proud parades, this post honours our homeless veterans.

I remember a few years ago I had watched the parade in the city on ANZAC Day, and on my way to the bus stop a few blocks away from the marching bands, the dignitaries and the shining medals there was a mate of mine. He was a war veteran. He was also homeless, unsung, unacknowledged, unnoticed. He couldn't handle all the noise and all the people. That's why he was a few streets down from where he normally is. He would probably have been "moved on" had he been in his normal spot. I was glad to see him on that day on which he felt extra homeless. He was glad to see me too. Sometimes it takes very little to lift someone. In this case, just a happy recognition and a chat was all it took - "Hey, hello!"

This white poppy for peace is for my mate and all veterans like him. They deserve to be acknowledged for their service too...

Lest we forget...

Good morning all, just sharing this great initiative for our homeless and others in need in the Inala area. Please share to your networks so that people who need it are aware... 🙏

My fortnightly post for the page of our amazing Patron Dr Gregory Smith. Thank you, Gregory, this artwork deserves to be seen... 🙏

I posted something similar to this page, but really, this image can't be seen enough. I hope it reminds us to "see" our fellow travellers in life, homeless or not homeless, and to remember that the key term here is "fellow travellers"...

A street artist draws a work of art: "the invisibility of poverty". A masterpiece. The artist’s name is Kevin Lee!

What a gut wrenching visual this is... The pain of the invisibility of poverty. It is a pain I have often been told about. It is the pain and worthlessness our homeless feel when people walk past while trying hard to look elsewhere so they don't have to look at them or talk to them. It is the pain and worthlessness they feel when passers-by look straight through them with a blank look on their face as if they are not there, as if they are the same as the air around them. Our homeless often literally talk about the invisibility so powerfully depicted here.

Kevin Lee's artwork is a conversation starter, it invites us to look inside and to share how this resonates. We cannot just admire the artwork, admit that this is a really sad part of societal behaviour, and go our merry way, looking straight through the next homeless person we see.

We saw Kevin Lee's artwork. We admired it. Perhaps we felt compassion. Perhaps we think we felt the pain of the person in the artwork. We know now. We have seen it. We cannot simply continue to ignore our homeless fellow human being. Because we know. We relate to the human in the artwork. Can we relate to the human in the street?

This is change on a human level. It is unrelated to change implemented by the powers that be. Change starts with all of us. It starts inside our hearts. It starts in our communities. In our city streets. Everywhere where there are people. It starts with our attitude. We can make it happen at any given moment. Why not now?

Thank you, Dave and Margaret, for individually sending me the link to this artwork. Much love, Berni <3