Make a Difference, Community Housing, YP Space, Domestic & Family Violence Specialist Service, and Hastings Accommodation Solutions were represented at a stall at Port Central Shopping Centre.

The stall promoted National Homelessness Week, Make a Difference’s commitment towards an Orange Sky Laundry van to cover from Taree to Kempsey and other support services available.

Make a Difference secretary Alison Neale said Make a Difference was raising money for an Orange Sky Laundry van to help the homeless and disadvantaged.

Orange Sky Laundry offers a free mobile laundry service for the homeless but is about more than clean clothes.

“One of the purposes of Orange Sky Laundry is not only to wash people’s clothes but it’s to give those people someone to talk to and hopefully connect them back with the community,” Mrs Neale said.

She said the community support here had been outstanding.

National Homelessness Week raises awareness of people experiencing homelessness and the issues they face.

Mrs Neale said the week promoted in the community the message that homelessness was a problem and something that should not be ignored.

“We need to show people they mean something and we are here to help,” she said.

Domestic & Family Violence Specialist Service housing and intake coordinator Jenna Bamborough-Lakey said the service felt it was important as part of Homelessness Week, of which the 2017 theme was action and innovation, to get behind Orange Sky Laundry which clearly aligned with the theme.

“We are very much looking forward to having such a wonderful service that will complement homelessness services in the Port Macquarie-Hastings area,” she said about an Orange Sky Laundry van.

The stall raised awareness about the services too.

“I’m very proud to work in the Port Macquarie area for the partnerships we form and the way in which our homelessness services work together to ensure we remain client-centred and provide the services that are the best for the client seeking them,” Ms Bamborough-Lakey said.