April 2008

• The young Brisbane woman behind an initiative to provide some comfort and dignity for the homeless will be the patron of Catholic Education Week celebrations.
  In 2005, Catholic school teacher, Jean Madden, saw an ABC TV documentary highlighting the plight of tens of thousands of Australians ‘sleeping rough’ each night and took on the challenge of doing something about it.
  She contacted local charities, government bodies, and homeless people themselves, to identify their specific needs and together with her mother, Catherine Cloake, designed and produced the first prototype swags.
  In 2008, with growing support from the corporate sector, government, charity groups and schools, Jean aims to distribute around 4000 Street Swags to homeless people around the nation. Her goal is to increase this to 10,000 swags in 2009 which she says still won’t come close to meeting demand.
  Queensland Catholic Education Commission Executive Director, Mike Byrne, said he was delighted a young woman of Jean’s calibre had accepted the invitation to be Patron of Catholic Education Week. “It is particularly fitting that Jean should be our patron in a year that as a state-wide Catholic education community, we celebrate with the theme Faith in our Youth. Jean’s work is a great example of the social justice values integral to Catholic education. Homelessness is a terrible blight on our community and Jean’s work in helping highlight the issue and bringing some comfort, hope and dignity to these people is an inspiration to us all. Jean is a role model - a woman who embodies many of the qualities we would hope for
  the young people in our Catholic schools,” Mr Byrne said.
  Catholic Education Week will be celebrated by Queensland’s 286 Catholic school communities, Australian Catholic University, and other agencies across the state from July 27 – August 2 this year. For more information about Catholic Education Week visit: www.catholiceducationweek.com.au or about the Street Swags project visit: www.streetswags.org
  

[Appeared in NIB Vol 27, No. 3 May 2008]