Free school supplies for more than 100 local students

community

Jamie Jansen

Journalist

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Mossman Support Services engaged with local businesses for easy access to school supplies. From left to right: Holly Todd (Mossman Support Services), Wing (owner of NewsExtra) and Tanya (worker at News Extra).

Families in hardship who struggle to purchase school supplies for their children have received welcoming help thanks to Mossman Support Services and local businesses.

Earlier this year, Mossman Support Services allocated a set amount of money towards supporting families in hardship, enabling them to purchase school supplies including book lists, school shoes, backpacks, uniforms and even assisting with school fees.

Erica Mast, Community Development Officer at Mossman Support Services, said that the organisation recognised the challenges many families have gone through in the past year with jobs being impacted while the overall cost of living increased.

“We were lucky to receive a substantial government grant to assist the Douglas Shire’s community managing the impact of Covid-19. We brainstormed a number of ideas to best support the community using that funding and one of the most high need areas identified was the cost of back to school goods for our young people.

“Information about the program was sent out through the schools and community groups” Ms Mast said. “Letting families know the assistance was available for anyone who was finding it hard to make ends meet.”

Stress relief for families

Ms Mast continued explaining that for some families in the Douglas Shire, the return to school is a financially stressful time. “Adding up all the costs including school books, uniform and shoes, a medium sized family could easily be out of pocket $500 to $1000 for one school year”, she said.

“Especially with the job losses associated with Covid-19 and due to our emergency relief program we were able to identify the growing trend of families having to choose between paying their bills or readying their children for school.

“This is a decision that no family should have to make so we thought we would do what we could to help ease that stress.

“We were able to support a huge range of families, for example a single mother with three children. All three children required new uniforms, as well as their book lists and new shoes. We were able to assist them in purchasing everything they needed, which ensured she was able to cover her household bills and buy food for lunchboxes.”

Local businesses

For easy access to service and supplies, Mossman Support Services reached out to local businesses and schools. “We were able to collaborate with local business to initiate the program, streamlining the process to engage Mossman Newsagency, Mensland and the local schools in accessing the service and supplies while keeping business local.

“Mossman Newsagency worked out a very efficient voucher program with us to ensure all families got their book lists filled with little difficulty. Mensland in Mossman was able to bundle uniforms for students, again using a voucher program.”

Ms Mast said that Mossman Support Services would love to run the program again but that this will depend on funding availability in the future.

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