Not-for-profit wants to bring an innovative model of refuge to the Illawarra - can you help?

Penny Dordoy has an ambition to bring a new model of women’s refuge to Wollongong, but the organisation she leads needs your help.

The Supported Accommodation and Homelessness Services Shoalhaven Illawarra (SAHSSI) CEO says a “core and cluster” model refuge makes support more accessible for women and their children fleeing domestic and family violence.

The model gives each family their own unit with private facilities, in a cluster of other similar units around a central hub of meeting rooms and group spaces.

“A lot of women choose to stay in a violent home rather than enter a traditional refuge with a shared living space, especially if they have children with big traumas who might not respond well to other people,” Penny said.

“Core and cluster refuges are set out more like a retirement village.

“All the services the clients need are on-site, so they can get the help they need when they need it and build relationships with services so they continue to connect after they leave the refuge.

“There’s a combination of privacy and dignity for the family, but also common areas to socialise and it really helps to expedite their recovery.”

The not-for-profit specialist homelessness service has identified an appropriate site that needs some upgrades, but could be made available to women and children in need quickly.

It needs the extra capacity – fundraising manager at SAHSSI Marlowe Richards said they had more than 160 women on their wait list for housing, from Ulladulla to Helensburgh.

The charity has an application in with the State Government but has been told there are other projects on the wait list.

Staff are hoping some community support could get them over the line.

“We’re having to turn people away at the moment, but if we have a property available that we own and manage that would be a great outcome,” Marlowe said.

“We know people want to help tackle domestic violence and we are part of the solution.

“We’re looking for partners and corporate sponsors who want to lend their voice and make a contribution.

“This is a community-based problem and we want it to be a community solution.”

The core and cluster model was first piloted by Housing Plus in Orange in 2020.

It’s not news to Penny – she was acting CEO of the organisation at the time.

“We developed it in response to the needs of community,” she said.

“They had never had a refuge in Orange but the town had twice the state average of domestic violence victims.”

The pilot was so successful that in 2023 the NSW Government announced they would build 27 of the refuges across regional NSW, to be completed by 2026.

Penny said it was past time women and children in the Illawarra had access to the same gold-standard model of support.