Did You Know?

• In 2007 Charlestown police are nominating Wesley Newcastle City Mission for a national crime prevention award, in recognition of the work that has been done in Windale. Statistics

  Volunteers contribute 2500 hours of work a year to support Wesley’s work in Newcastle. Without them we would not exist today.

  show that crime in James Street, Windale, has dropped by over 95% in the last 12 months.
• In 2001 we had 12 bedsit units in Adamstown and 3 houses in Maryland. By 2006 we had 38 bedsit units in Windale, 15 in East Maitland, 14 in Gateshead, 12 in Adamstown and 3 houses in Maryland. That’s a massive increase in five years.
• We have placed a sticker on every poker machine in the Western Suburbs Leagues Club and Club Phoenix to encourage club customers to deal with gambling addiction.
• Wesley Newcastle City Mission’s training arm was launched in September 2004. At that time we had no training rooms and only one staff member. Today, Wesley Training occupies four training rooms in our Hudson Street, Hamilton, premises.
• Our Community Visitors Scheme has 103 magnificent volunteers who freely give of their time to befriend the elderly, visiting over 32 nursing homes.
• As well as the Community Visitors Scheme we have another 20 volunteers who support the work that we do in Newcastle.
• Volunteers contribute 2500 hours of work a year to support Wesley’s work in Newcastle. Without them we would not exist today.
• In 2001 our office had one youth worker and a couple of vans that went out twice a week to assist young people on the street. We now have an entire youth centre that’s open five days a week. We see 1000 young people every year and assist them with counselling, job assistance, drug addiction and homelessness.
• In 2006 the McKenzie Day Centre distributed $155,000 worth of assistance to people in need. We helped more than 1500 of Newcastle’s neediest people.
• In 2007 we will visit 10 schools and talk to over 1200 students about life for the disadvantaged and the help we give them.
• In 2006 we received and distributed over 15,000 tins of food, 550 blankets and 195 toys.
• Family Services is an important and growing part of what we do in Newcastle. In partnership with Dalmar we run services in West Lake Macquarie, working with more than 250 parents each year and passing on the skills to help families function better.
• In 2005/06 our Mission Markets turned over $158,000 selling used clothes and furniture. We gave away $40,000 worth of goods to support people in difficult circumstances.

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.

You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.