Our partnership with Wayside Chapel supports their services for people experiencing homelessness and social isolation. We provide pro bono legal services, financial support from our DigDeep® workplace giving program, and collaborate on fundraising appeals and initiatives. A recent example was a pop-up Wayside Op Shop at our Sydney office, raising $6,500 in one day through the donation and sale of quality pre-loved clothing.

Jason, one of Wayside Chapel’s community service workers, says that every day brings new people to their centres in Kings Cross and Bondi, looking for fresh clothes or a shower. “We have people who are fleeing wars or leaving prison, being discharged from hospital, young families, young people, international students,” he says. “Our job is to be that warm welcome, that person they can connect with, know and learn to trust.”

Meeting those human needs with warmth and respect develops connections and potential for another level of support. “People who are very apprehensive or reluctant to talk to us, when they know that you're a safe person, they open up,” says Jason. “If you're helping somebody find a shirt, you might see a wound or something like that. And that opens up another conversation. What happened to you last night? Are you fleeing this particular situation?”

Through these relationships and conversations, Jason and his colleagues can start to engage Wayside Chapel ‘visitors’ in casework to connect them with health care, employment or housing services. “Everyone who comes through our door is a visitor, which makes us a host.” says Jon Owen, Chief Executive Officer and Pastor at Wayside Chapel. “If we use client, if we use patient, then that makes us clinical and detached.”

Jon also talks about creating opportunities for visitors to contribute as an essential part of the Wayside way of building relationships founded on dignity and respect. “We have opportunities where visitors can offer ideas and help run groups,” says Jon. “It's about creating that space where people feel safe and seen, and then giving them a chance to contribute.”

Jason agrees this is vital to the authenticity of relationships between everyone at Wayside, whether they are a volunteer, worker or visitor. “We're here to help people find support and walk with them,” he says. “There's no us and them and we don't see or treat people as problems needing to be fixed, so our relationships are genuine.”

That authentic connection is something that helps Mallesons lawyers when they’re supporting Wayside Chapel, whether through pro bono services or as volunteers. “People can take from an experience at Wayside something that will actually make them a better lawyer,” says Cilla Robinson, Partner in Employee Relations and Safety with Mallesons and Board Director at Wayside. “Because they're trying to understand the lived experience of the other person.”