One of the Carrical resos has started offering tuition in the basics of computing to fellow resos. A group of about half a dozen Carrical resos have started a weekly Bible study group. Two resos from Hamer who have been off the booze for a few months each now are looking fabulous – both having shed considerable amounts of weight – one of whom is using the treadmill that was recently donated to Servants. The 2 new greenhouses have arrived at Romana – the installation occurred to day in the pouring rain! Employment opportunities for a few resos continue to arise.

We received a $10,000 donation today – no strings attached. Another potential donor has been in touch with Servants wanting to know more about how we operate prior to making a donation. Run Melbourne is turning into the gift that keeps on giving – since the Run a couple of individuals have signed up to ongoing giving – one monthly, the other fortnightly. It is worth remembering that our first ever monthly donor has been donating 60 bucks a month to us for over 6 years now – this adds up to a significant amount over time.

I am off to Sydney next week for the annual Fundraising & Philanthropy Conference – I am very much looking forward to this. Last year was the first time I had attended and it left me with much food for thought.

I started back at work on Wednesday (yesterday) following holidays. Amanda and the Housekeepers have worked brilliantly over the past few weeks – especially as they have had some delicate matters to sort out. The saddest occurrence of August to date has been the death on site of one of the Carrical resos – Patrick.

Some of you might remember former Carrical reso Janet Poole. Janet was a lady who Isabel and I took out of Carrical and invited her to live with our family. Janet lived with us for about a year before she moved into private rental. Sadly, Janet passed away a few weeks ago.

The Leadership Victoria Williamson 2015 cohort visited Romana for dinner this evening followed by a presentation at HWBC. The Servants/LV nights are always wonderful affairs – but tonight’s occasion went to new heights. The level of engagement, always high, was just extreme tonight. I wonder if my presentation this evening was as good as anything I have ever delivered – anywhere. Paul and Richard from Romana accompanied me for the presentation part of the evening – both speaking publicly for the first time. They excelled.

This morning Connie and I attended the Roberts House Breakfast and Chapel Service at Trinity. As they did last year Roberts House have chosen us as their charity of choice for 2015 – which is lovely of them!! I spoke at the Chapel Service and was reasonably happy with my presentation – the students and parents were certainly engaged and I received some very encouraging words from parents afterwards.

I am THRILLED to announce that next Tuesday, whilst I am living it up in sunny Helsinki, our very own, intrepid Vice President Connie will be attending the Hindley House, Trinity, Breakfast and Chapel Service and will be presenting at the Chapel Service. We all know already that Connie will do an amazing job – but please do encourage Connie and keep her in your prayers in the week ahead. Somebody has to say it, so it might as well be me …………. I am not an easy act to follow!! To have Hindley House also choosing us as their charity to support for the year – as they too did last year – is equally special. These relationships are so valuable on so many fronts – not least of which is the cash that these relationships bring in to Servants.

Aware that this Heartbeat is beginning to take the shape of War and Peace I will boldly plough on. Following our adventures at Trinity Connie and I then retired to Bar Ristretto for thoroughly deserved coffees and our major Team Servants’15 debrief. It was a terrific time on reflecting upon the good, the bad and the, well, there really wasn’t too much ugly to reflect upon! Details of income/expenditure/leanings/thoughts for the future will appear in a separate Heartbeat. Suffice to say that as of RIGHT NOW we are closing in on income of approximately $40,000 with expenses in the vicinity of approximately $10,000. Amazingly, donations are still coming in.

Are you still reading this? Connie and I then went out and successfully fought man-eating tigers, completely painted the outside of an elderly lady’s home and, and, and …………………….

It has been a busy few days in The Wonderful World of Servants. Amanda and Hamer Housekeeper Patrick were in court yesterday to finalize a Personal Protection Order on the chap who played up Monday night who we had to evict; I spoke at Rotary Club of Yarra Bend on Wednesday night and knocked their socks off; we had a Residents House Meeting at Romana on Thursday evening; I am currently blogging live from Bar Ristretto where they are holding their annual Team Servants day for us – should generate quite significant funds; the ground has literally been prepared for the arrival of greenhouses at Romana in the next fortnight; the very first reso we took into Romana moved out earlier this week; accounts are preparing for next week’s audit; all systems are go for this Sunday’s Run Melbourne events, including 1200 showbags that will be painstakingly compiled on Saturday by volunteers and staff; donations in the past few days have included cups for Hamer and a rather posh TV; 3 Romana resos and me looked rather splendid together in our photo in this week’s Progress Leader ………………………………………… and so it continues …………………….

I asked resident Paul from Romana to say a few words to a group of LV Williamson folks when they visit Servants in a few nights time. The following is what he is going to say. I am sure that one way or another we all feel privileged to be involved with SCH – if not, perhaps Paul’s words might change your mind!!

‘When I came to Servants I was on the verge of becoming homeless once again. I was physically very ill and mentally I was trying to keep myself away clean and away from drugs but constantly getting drawn back in and I hated the person I was. I was desperate to change everything about my life and myself. This was as far as I was concerned the last chance – I only saw one alternative and that was death – this was looking more and more like the best option.

While I was in hospital my social worker and drug councilor found Servants – at first it was just somewhere to go – it seemed expensive, but sounded interesting after meeting Matt. I was confused. It sounded too good to actually be true and he seemed so honestly passionate about it all and he assured my social worker that he thought Romana would be very good for me. I’d been assured by Matt that the house was ‘drug and alcohol free’ – but who believes that shit? – they all tell a good tale until it comes to the point of backing up words with actions. The first week it seemed different, friendly, caring – the I ended up in hospital again and I must say I was excited to be released after a week. I wanted to go home. I hadn’t had that feeling for a long time. Hospital had become the only place I really felt safe in – now I felt safe at home as time went on. This was now my home. Pat and Brian our house managers are fantastic along with Matt and the rest of the staff they make everyone feel wanted. They all give you respect, treat you with dignity and in turn you can then develop your own hope. This very simple model they work by it really works – every single person is treated equally. I personally felt safe and secure enough to stay off drugs and get rid of all my old friends and associates so I could stay clean. I’ve also changed or should say that I’m changing all the things I hated about the old me – the person who honestly did not care if he lived or died. I am physically the healthiest physically and mentally I have been in a very long time. I have my own small business starting all thanks to Servants. I can very confidently say without Servants on and by my side I would be dead and happy it was happening. Servants is my home, the people are my family and I m proud of them and I’m so very proud of the things I am achieving and the person I am becoming. Servants Community Housing and Hawthorn West Baptist Church thank you from the bottom of my heart.’

I guess I am very fortunate in that so much of my role with Servants involves equal quantities of business and pleasure – talking to folks, hanging out with resos, coffee, storytelling, infecting people with Servants etc. By my own admittedly high standards of being able to mix business with pleasure I had a great day today as I was invited down to the North Melbourne footy club to have a look at all things Kangaroos followed by talking with folks from their community venture, The Huddle. These contacts came about through LV connections. I was able to take Hamer Housekeeper, Martin, a Kangaroos follower of about 95 years with me. The Huddle is an extraordinary community based idea. I am sure there will be a little bit of crossover between Servants/The Huddle going forwards.

As of earlier today Team Servants ’15 was ranked as the 10th highest placed Team for Run Melbourne in terms of fundraising. Our total at that point was about $13,900. I would be pretty pleased if we managed to stay in the Top Ten.

LV asked me today to talk to a group of WorkSafe execs in February 2016. There is nothing quite like forward planning! I am really pleased to be invited back to talk to this group as when I spoke to them this February I was not in a very good place personally and knew that I delivered a presentation that was far from my best.

Now to find a 2016 diary ……………..

As I type I am slowly defrosting from having spent 7 hours on the pavement on Glenferrie Rd promoting Team Servants ’15. What a filthy day in terms of weather! In terms of promoting our Team it was a great success. I had made up Servants showbags and gave away 60+. Thanks to Connie, Grace, Amanda and reso Paul from Servants who came down to help. We also had a variety of other Servants supporters helping out. Rotary had their BBQ trailer present – they lured people in with the promise of a free sausage and then I got to work infecting them with the Servants message. We will undoubtedly have more donations and runners as a result of today. We raised a few hundred bucks from donations and t-shirt sales. If we commit to Run Melbourne 2016 I would definitely look to hosting such a day again. Hopefully next year will not be so cold and wet!

Such stories as the following always make me smile:

The Running Club of Ruyton Girls School in Kew recently held an event and raffled off a few prizes – all proceeds from the raffle came to Servants – an amazing $717. I mean, that is a lot of money – equating to nearly 3 weeks board and lodging for one of our resos – and it comes from a raffle. Oh well, we live in a funny old world – long may such occurrences occur!!

I attended a course today entitled Measuring What Matters – dealing with the issues of measuring, managing, monetizing and communicating social impact. It was fascinating. I have been trying to attend such a course for a couple of years now but the only ones I have seen available prior to today have been organized by the money-grabbing Criterion Conferences group – charging around $3000 for the privilege. Today’s course was one tenth of this cost and was hosted by Communities in Control – a group I have dealt with on many occasions. It was a terrific day and provided me with much food for thought in terms of what we actually do and how we might best provide statistical information to prove the benefit of our model from a social impact perspective.

As an added bonus today I commenced my plan to present at next year’s Communities in Control Conference by starting a conversation in regards to this with the powers that be who were present.

Some of you will already know that Kara, our Accounts person extraordinaire, had a very nasty fall on Sunday at HWBC as she came down the stairs leading from the Servants office. An ambulance was called and she spent several hours in hospital. I am happy to report that nothing was broken and that Kara is currently recuperating at home with her family.

Two Year 9 boys from Trinity, Nathan and Kyle, have just finished a week of work experience with Servants. The boys were terrific – helping in ways including some tasks in the office, some cleaning at Hamer, market shopping and generally being available to participate at the houses when required. They had a good week and certainly had their eyes opened to a different side of life!!