A FORCE FOR GOOD
What started as a simple blanket drive has developed into a far-reaching charity collective, thanks in large part to the indefatigability of Donna Stolzenberg.
Athrift shop is hardly a unique sight in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick – but a new addition to the marketplace is doing business a little differently.
The Kala Space, which opened in Brunswick East this year, is an op shop committed to supporting vulnerable women through employment, training and connection. The latest in a string of charitable projects from the National Homeless Collective (NHC), the Kala Space exclusively employs women in a situation of homelessness or other housing vulnerability, and 100 per cent of profits are converted to wages.
The founder and CEO of NHC, Donna Stolzenberg, says that even though the benefits of the Kala Space are wide-ranging, the main drive is to help women reconnect. “It is connection to positive influences and different areas of their life,” she says. “To be connected to services and to people, to communities, to self, to friendship, to family … it’s about empowerment.”
“Homelessness is chaotic and it’s so hard to keep a job.” DONNA STOLZENBERG
The Kala Space staff will be trained to gain a Certificate III in Retail, and given support to find other work. The shifts are flexible, to accommodate the challenges of homelessness, and volunteers fill the gaps so the store keeps regular hours. Stolzenberg says giving workers this latitude is critical to offering true support.
“Homelessness is chaotic and it’s so hard to keep a job and be able to stick to time frames when you’ve got so much going on,” says Stolzenberg. She recalls a recent conversation with a staff member, who called to say she’d be late.
“She said, ‘I’m fine but I slept in a park last night and it rained. All my clothes are soaking wet, I have to go to a laundromat.’ How could you tell that to an average employer without disclosing the vulnerability of your entire life?”
The Kala Space doubles as a safe space for women to seek information on how to safely leave a violent relationship, and there are also plans to introduce a meditation area. Stolzenberg hopes The Kala Space will one day expand beyond Melbourne – but, for now, her hands are kept full.
Since establishing NHC in 2015, Stolzenberg has also led the creation of six sub-charities – including The Period Project, which supplies sanitary products to homeless women, non-binary people and trans men; The School Project, which offers educational equipment and support for kids experiencing homelessness; and The Plate Up Project, which uses food preparation to teach work and social skills.
The Collective was inspired by a chance encounter, which, at the time, left Stolzenberg frozen with indecision. While jogging in Sydney, where she was attending a conference, Stolzenberg saw a man sleeping rough. She thought of waking him, offering money or inviting him to use the facilities in her hotel room. She then secondguessed these ideas, worried they might be taken as offensive.
“I just stood there … then I just ran off,” she recalls. “I was completely lost, but I couldn’t stop thinking about him.”
Returning to Melbourne with that experience still on her mind, she started a blanket drive. Eight weeks later she’d collected around 3,500 blankets and sleeping bags, which she delivered to shelters and support organisations.
The blanket drive became an annual event, Sleeping Bags for Homelessness. One day, while out delivering the sleeping bags, she met a woman in need of sanitary products. This led to The Period Project – and on it goes.
“One project kind of bounced into another,” Stolzenberg says. “I was just putting out spot fires. Every time I put one out, another one would fire up somewhere.
“A lot of people have said to me, especially after The Period Project started, ‘I feel so bad – I never even thought of this.’ And I said, ‘Well, me neither’. It wasn’t a case of me being the most cluey person in the world – I didn’t know until someone asked me for sanitary items.”
A mother of five boys, and a former foster parent, Stolzenberg says that her life experience has also contributed to her charitable ways. Her youngest son, 10-yearold Jay, lives with autism and intellectual disability – and he inspires Stolzenberg to improve the treatment of, and options for, society’s vulnerable communities.
Stolzenberg also grew up with foster kids regularly coming and going from her family home. This experience helped to inspire her work with The School Project, in particular.
Not one to ever slow down, Stolzenberg already has her next projects waiting in the pipeline. Or, to use her own words: “I won’t stop until I’m dead.”