b'BANKSIA GARDENS COMMUNITY SERVICESeverything from meditation to music, circus programs orconnected but then you need to provide a lot of support as even soccer clinics with Melbourne Victory. well, particularly where there are drug and alcohol issues, or violence in the home, Gina said. Those dont go away Newsboys has been a funder that has stuck around, alland what we noticed is a huge spike in family violence the way through, Gina said. Newsboys has just alwayson the estate, during 2020, so that would be one of the been there, and always provided great support, as well asbarriers to allowing kids to consistently get online to do finance and advice. their schoolwork. Thats not going to happen in a home The program has been around so long that its alumni arewhere you dont know from one minute to the next if youre now among the current volunteers and tutors, giving backgoing to be safe to sit at a table.where they can. We have story after story, Gina said.At Banksia Gardens, safe tables exist, and theyre even They say: This place changed me.carefully chosen, quality tables. Which is not an accident.One Somalian family at the 40 thanniversary celebrationWere a place-based organisation, Gina explained. This all had anecdotes relating to being assisted by Banksiais a really beautiful creative hub. We set our minds a few Gardens, including one son who said the Banksia crewyears ago to say we want it to be as beautiful as possible, had been his second family; the ones who had listened towe want everything we do to be the best quality that we his teenage dream of working in media and offered himcan. We even want all the furniture to be great. We want a place working on the organisations community radiokids to come into this space and for it to be lovely. When service. He now works at SBS.I came here years ago, it was a dump and I thought why Its no wonder Banksia Gardens was encouraged to havewould anybody want to come in here to do anything? If staff on the ground, throughout the pandemic, evenyou walk into a crappy space, it makes you feel crappy. We when, like most social enterprises, many of the educationhave beautiful internal gardens, community garden, and programs and other packages assisting young people werethe spaces that weve got, we want the kids to feel like moved online, where possible. theyre worthwhile.We had half of our staff at home, and half on workNick Placepermits, Gina explained. Wed never worked so hard. We had to get tutors organised to be able to work online, and there was a lot of money to get everyone Covid-safe, child-safe, privacy safe. We probably put computers into 138 family homes, she said. The only reason we stopped is because we ran out of laptops and other PCs. We also run a big school program, working with 15 schools, so were able to connect a lot of kids. There were a lot of assumptions that were busted, particularly around families who we thought theyd never come online for English or whatever, but many of them used smart phones, and they did. However, even where technology and internet connections were in place, Banksias challenge was far from over. Families with a lot of dysfunction, you can get them NEWSBOYS FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 202013'