Donation to help meet city’s growing homeless youth demand

USQ's Faculty of Sciences are making a donation to help Toowoomba's homeless youth

As Toowoomba moves into the cold winter months, the need for food and clothing for the city’s homeless has never been greater.

This year has seen a concerning rise in the number of homeless kids in the Garden City and in response USQ's Faculty of Sciences has answered the call.

The Faculty will tomorrow, (Wednesday June 9), donate food and clothes to the Toowoomba Flexi School following a ‘request for help’ from the school last week.

Chair of Friends of Flexi Dr Glen Postle AM said that the donation was coming at a welcome time for the kids, as the Flexi School tries to meet the increased demand.

'Usually the Flexi School has between three and five homeless kids each year but for some reason the numbers have spiked, which meant that the food budget allocated for homeless youth had about gone.

'Last week Jo Brennan from the Flexi School put a call out for assistance to the Friends of Flexi which included Kathie McDonald from USQ’s Faculty of Sciences.

'Kathie took it upon herself to organise a Food and Clothes Drive within the Faculty and I know the donation will be a big help to the Flexi School and they are very grateful.'

While the school will welcome the donation, Dr Postle added that it was worrying that there were more homeless in need and said that there would be research conducted into why there was a greater number this year.

'We aren’t sure at the moment but we are trying to find out why this has happened,' he said.

'This issue is an important one and one that is being and will continue to be addressed through our Community Capacity Building Project.'

The donation will take place at 2pm at the Toowoomba Flexi School at Lot 1 on Chalk Drive.

The Toowoomba Flexi School has is a unique community-based initiative that has been successful in creating educational opportunities and pathways for homeless, disadvantaged and disenfranchised young people in Toowoomba since 1998.

Media are welcome to attend the event.

Contact Details:
Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 2559 or 0400 025 429