Friends of Friends

The Maronite Counselling Service began 23 ongoing discourse in relation to suicide and its prevention. As the counselling service was dealing on a daily basis with symptoms and indicators in clients who were pre suicidal, it was struggling with limited resources to respond to the growing demand.

Research indicated that in addition to the large number of successful suicides by young males there was an alarming increase in the rate of attempts by females. This information coupled with the community perception that suicide is a taboo subject, meant that mainstream services were falling short in meeting the need for a culturally competent response.

George and his team of friends worked tirelessly to establish ‘Robert's Charity Foundation for Suicide Awareness - Friends with Hope' a foundation determined to inspire hope and educate the community about issues facing young people and in particular the hopelessness that can be a precursor to suicide. As the communities awareness increased, the service provision arm of the foundation is aptly called 'Friends with Hope', a title decided by the youth within the Maronite Community. Through our involvement in debriefing and sharing our awareness with the foundation and its young people, the community at one of our discussions flagged the intent that, as so called non professionals, what can they do to share the dream of supporting those in need especially those suffering from depression? The idea of mentors was touted and we then spent months researching only to find that there was no record of any  authentic Cross Cultural mentor program.

The passion was ignited and the result of months of volunteer hours resulted in an idea, a submission and then our first taste of funding, from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). What was born out of the process was a cross cultural mentor training and development program that now in its fourth year is seeing measurable outcome in supporting vulnerable people in our community.

The vision of the Roberts Charity Foundation - Friends with Hope is ‘to create a forum of hope, encouragement and inspiration whereby we work together towards suicide awareness and prevention in our community.'

Its baby sister, The Friends of Friends Cross-Cultural Mentor Project has brought to life that vision.