It’s 30 years since the Sisters of Mercy North Sydney established the Mercy Foundation, to continue their mission to combat poverty and exclusion following the closure of the Mater Public Hospital in North Sydney. Since 1990, through seed funding, advocacy, education and research, the Mercy Foundation has helped restore dignity to the lives of thousands of Australians.
Highlights over the last 30 years include:
» Establishing a working group to deliver the first Common Ground building in Sydney, a mixed tenancy model providing permanent housing and on-site support services for formerly chronically homeless people, living alongside people on low incomes.
» Ground-breaking research and continued advocacy on older women and homelessness.
» Funding to Asian Women at Work and the Fair Wear campaign to deliver fair work practices and protections for migrant outworkers in the clothing and textiles industry.
» Significant funding to help establish the Asylum Seeker Centre in Sydney.
» Helping communities run Registry Weeks to identify the name and needs of people experiencing homelessness, the first steps to ending homelessness.
» Engaging youth across Australia with social justice issues through the Mercy Youth Awards.
In the spirit of Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, the Mercy Foundation remains as committed today as it was in 1990 to bring about systemic change to combat poverty and restore dignity to people’s lives.
