Step into Lou’s Place and you could be entering a family home. Smells from the kitchen, laughs from the clothing room, calls up and down the narrow staircase that lead up to the lounge room and then on up to the crowded arts and crafts room … and in this narrow house on Victoria Street in the Cross you’ll find an amazing array of people and activities. Legal, medical and counselling services, workshops in arts and crafts, a TV room, a balcony for chilling out – and the regular meals we offer to the women. When the shout of “Lunch is ready!” is heard, the women flock down to the kitchen and out into the little courtyard we have at the back to eat, talk, exchange their stories or sit in silence and just listen.
When we established Lou’s Place in 1999, there was nothing like it in Sydney – or in Australia, come to that. It is a special place – in atmosphere, in the way it’s run and in the respect it gives to each and every one of the women who come in.
Lou’s Place is right in the centre of King’s Cross. It’s a daytime centre for women – women who need a hand in putting back together lives that have crumpled under the pressures of abuse and neglect. They are homeless, in crisis or in need of support. Most are either victims of abuse, mentally ill, and/or suffering from substance abuse. At Lou’s they can eat, take a shower, seek counselling or just feel safe – safe from isolation and loneliness, hunger and cold, ill health and the dangers of the street or even dangers within their own homes.
Why are we so good at what we do? We suspect it’s because of two things: the way it’s funded, and the way it’s run.
Over half our income comes from private donors through the Marmalade Foundation, which gives us a flexibility that many other centres don’t have. (The rest comes from Mission Australia, whose partnership has given us the expert skills and administrative underpinning that is crucial to our daily functioning.) Our private donors include individuals, corporations and donations in kind – food, expert advice, special project funding.
And then there are the people who run it: a combination of professional welfare staff, and the volunteers who give it its special character. Ask any of them about their day at Lou’s, and they’ll all talk about their tremendous enjoyment. It’s a feeling that is clearly picked up by the women who come to Lou’s, and it’s why the place feels like family to them.
On this website we’ve set out a guide to the things we do, the workings behind the scenes, our history, and how you can get involved if you think it’s the sort of place that suits you – by sending your clients to us, by volunteering or by donating.
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