Donations to MyHome in Canberra since its start in 2014, including from fund-raising events, have totalled just over $100,000.
Some of these donated funds have been used –
- for publicity and organisation,
- for redesigning our website,
- for professional advice from KB West Advisory, and
- to help fund an indicative development plan for the envisaged site of MyHome in Curtin.
About $73,000 of donated funds remains in our bank account and investment account.
Annual Information Statements for MyHome in Canberra have been submitted to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) for each recent financial year. They include data for income and expenditure and balance sheet summaries. They can be accessed at our page on the ACNC website.
The proposal we made in March 2021 to the ACT Government involves setting ourselves a big fund-raising task when the Government commits to funding construction, to establish a back-up fund sufficient to ensure that operating MyHome after its construction will be viable for at least ten years, and in due course to replenish that fund.
But in the meantime, while we wait for ACT Ministers to translate their support for our proposal into budget commitments, we have tasks which may involve our providing some funding.
We began “proof of concept” work in late 2021 with ACT Health, meeting staff of the agencies which provide services to people in the ACT with enduring mental illnesses or, in the case of Carers ACT, to their family-member carers. Through these meetings we assessed there are numerous people in the ACT who are suited to living in MyHome and likely to benefit from it. After checking with ACT Housing and ACT Health on their related information-gathering, we plan to ask these agencies to remain in a network which, while not yet seeking residents for MyHome, would:
- identify a group of people whose needs correspond to what’s proposed for MyHome;
- cooperate in multi-year tracking of those in this group who agree to it, in all their different situations, so that in time MyHome can be evaluated in the context of other forms of accommodation which are more, less or differently supported; and
- identify prospective independent evaluators, discuss with them the evaluation task we propose in its successive phases, and formulate tender plans and a draft evaluation contract.
This is a necessary preparatory task which we are undertaking before the ACT Government provides funding for the design, construction and fit-out of MyHome.
It will establish the basis for equally necessary service-development work which we can begin as soon as the ACT Government includes funding for MyHome in its budget and accompanying forward estimates. We envisage appointing an independent person or agency to engage with the group mentioned above of people with mental illnesses, in order to:
- identify prospective residents for MyHome,
- help them in co-design of the MyHome buildings and services, and
- find out who among them opt freely to apply for MyHome.
This stage may include helping to fund specialist support for those who need it to establish or continue their eligibility for NDIS packages.