Find a local café, drink coffee and #helpyourhood on Friday 3rd August

CafeSmart is a major national campaign built on the energy and commitment of the coffee industry around Australia. It unites the community over our favourite brew to help fund local homeless services through the donation of $1 from every coffee sold at participating cafés.

Homelessness affects all communities and is one of the most pressing social issues we face today and many people want to do something to change this. That’s why over 650 cafes across Australia will be raising funds to impact their local communities.

StreetSmart pool locally raised donations and direct them back into local services that are working on the front line, many of which have little public funding to sustain their work. These are organisations serving up hot meals, showers, putting roofs over people’s heads, providing legal services, rental advice etc, and working towards long term solutions to the crisis.

According to 2016 Census data, on any given night, around 116,000 people in Australia are without a safe and secure place to call home. The situation is dire, with older women the fastest growing cohort, many finding themselves homeless for the first time. The housing system is broken, and homelessness can happen to anyone. Despite the growing critical need, many homelessness services are underfunded or have lost funding.

“The homelessness crisis is getting worse across Australia and smaller organisations are stretched beyond their resources.  We think much more can be done. The cafes who have joined up to support CafeSmart also think we can do more. The current crisis is the outcome of poor decisions on housing and the basic protections of the social safety net, domestic violence, poverty, mental health and it will take serious work to recover. CafeSmart is really a reflection of how our community wants to do something to help people and solve the problem. It’s a great team effort.” – Adam Robinson – CEO, StreetSmart Australia.

CafeSmart is a major national campaign of StreetSmart Australia, and is all about a whole of community response to homelessness. This year StreetSmart aims to put $300,000 in new funding back into grassroots organisations.

Coffee lovers can find a participating café in their local hood on a google map here.

Those who want to help but can’t get to a café can donate the cost of a coffee here.