Support Keep Australia Beautiful Week

With only just over half the total 43.5 million tonnes of waste Australians produce each year being recycled, we all need to find ways to help increase the amount of waste we reuse and recycle instead of simply throwing it away.

Whilst around 90% of households have access to kerbside recycling and 99% of people say they are participating in some form of re‑use or recycling at home, we continue to produce waste at unsustainable levels.

A major challenge for us all is to find ways that we can recycle more when we are away from home. By recycling more when we are out and about, it means our rubbish can instead be recycled into new products. This reduces our use of natural resources and means less rubbish in landfill.

Many councils, venues and businesses are introducing public place recycling bins, so it’s up to us all to do our bit and start recycling our empty drink bottles and cans, rather than throwing them in the rubbish bin. And, if you can’t find a public recycling bin nearby, then make the small but valuable effort to take your empty containers home for recycling.

As part of their involvement in Keep Australia Beautiful Week, Principal Sponsor Hungry Jack’s will be launching a three-month beverage container recycling trial with the support of Coca- Cola. Look out for the brightly coloured recycling bins in selected Hungry Jack’s stores, as well as other public place recycling bins in your local area.

Check out the KAB Week website pages to download a wide range of tips and resources to help ensure you are recycling right, and to find out what your rubbish is being ‘reincarnated’ into.

You can also be a get involved by organising a litter count in your neighbourhood and organise a Tidy up. Click here to see how.

Dynamic Duo Makes a Difference!

Homeless Connect Brisbane has helped over 4,200 people by coordinating businesses and community groups twice annually, providing free services to individuals who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or do not have secure accommodation. Around 700 people attend each Homeless Connect event and goods and services provided by generous partners, sponsors and volunteers include medical care, legal advice, accommodation, personal grooming and clothes.

Kevin and Neru - the dynamic duo - have been volunteering at Homeless Connect and now tells their story of how they have been serving Brisbane!

Tell us, what did you do?
Neru & I take part in Homeless Connect every 6 months. On 11 May, we took part again, and this was our third contribution. Being a dentist, Neru provides free dental consultation while I assist her in the administrative and coordination work.

What were some of the highlights for you?
Seeing people who are homeless who do not usually receive any positive attention really appreciating the work we are doing. We've been seeing some of them in church too which has been a great spin off. Its nice for them to be in a community that really cares for them and love them.

What valuable lessons did you learn?
We were able to understand the homeless better and see the benefits of this experience in enabling us to build UNIDUS community service in future. We would definitely recommend this to other groups when it comes up in the future.
Just go to www.homelessconnect.com.au to find out when the next event is!

Kevin and Neru - you have both contributed 12 hours towards 500 hours of serving Brisbane!

Lighthouse Acting Local + Global

Lighthouse - the young adults group of the Ablaze Service have been rolling up their sleeves to put their actions where their mouths are - by serving Brisbane. But their cause is two-pronged - serving Brisbane in a really practical way, and fundraising for a Global Cause. Find out more as Melissa Ke, one of Lighthouse's community service coordinator tells us the story.

What did you guys do?
Essentially, we had a two-pronged approach - contributing towards both a local and global cause.

We cleaned up a park in Inala (which included scrubbing the dirty BBQ pit until it was squeaking clean!). After the clean up, we cooked a up simple BBQ and played some games as our well-earned treats!! So it was good for bonding and fellowship too!

People contributed $5 towards the event. Half of that went towards costs of the BBQ, and half went towards building a house in the Watoto Village to help build homes for orphans in Uganda.

What were some of the highlights of the day?
Getting together to focus on others - to serve our community and impacting a community overseas. We had a lot of fun having a small competition to see which group would collect the most trash and there were bags full! We got to get rid of sharp objects, broken beer bottles - just to name a few dangerous items in a family park!

Would you recommend this activity for another group?
YES! It is simple to organise, creates awareness about both global and local issues. It is something groups can keep doing in different local parks. It was relatively cheap to execute. Administration wise, it was also quite easy! All in all a great activity to bring the group together!

Any low-lights of the day?
The day was so fun and rewarding we wish more people would have come! Especially more friends of our members. (We had 20 attend on the day).



Congratulations Lighthouse! You've contributed 80 hours towards 500 hours of serving Brisbane!

Little people, not litter people!

They may be young, but they're unstoppable! Justin Chan from Voltage (Ablaze) tells the story of enthusiastic highschool students hitting the streets of Sunnybank... no, not for chinese food... but to clean up its streets! They did this in March as part of Clean Up Australia Day.

So what did you guys do?
We gathered the youth in high school to participate in Clean Up Australia Day. We chose to clean up Sunnypark Shopping Centre. We walked around in groups of 3 and 4, walked around picking up bottles, cans, cardboard boxes, chip packets and anything not organic lying on ground. After we cleaned up we took a well deserved break with some ice-blocks and took our bags of rubbish to the collection point at granadilla park.

Tell us some highlights of the day?

• Competing with other groups for who could fill up the most bags of rubbish...
• Hanging out with others and doing some good for the community...
• Seeing people stare at us like we're crazy haha...
• Young people getting involved in something besides playing computer games or hanging out in a shopping centre
• We also had some other youth join us who are not apart of our life groups

Would you recommend this activity to others?
Definitely! Be prepared to pick up a lot of rubbish! Its not usual to see people pick up rubbish (esp if you're a bunch of young people!)... so you will get quite a few odd looks from people! But hey... its a good deed so it doesn't matter!

One tip though... wear thick, water proof gloves! We were given material gloves which is not good when it has just rained and all the rubbish is wet (yuk!)

Guess you guys learnt the hard way... thanks for the tip! It looks like they had a ball! And they were each rewarded with an ice-block! What a great way to end end a day of hard yakka! :)



Well done guys! You've contributed 75 hours towards 500 hours!

Our "Professional" cleaners on ABC news!

Two weeks ago, a group of working professionals from Hope Church, Brisbane rolled up their sleeves and went out to participant in the annual Yes We Care initiative organised by Kenmore Baptist Church, support by the Lord Mayor Campbell Newman.

Some of our friends from the New Generation group were interviewed by ABC news on the day.


Last Saturday, more than 2000 volunteers unites for Yes! We Care day, when 600 householders were assisted.

Erica Platt was one. "They're helping me out because plants have got away from me and they're growing all over the fence line, so hopefully I'll have a nice tidy yard by the time they've finished!" she said.

Erica was amazed when a group of about seven youths wielding secateurs and clippers knocked on her to offer their help.

"I couldn't believe it!," she said. "I thought I was getting one man and maybe a lad or something like that."

"Their blood's worth bottling - they can come again," she laughed.

Read the full article.

Yes We Care!

On Saturday 29 May, about 50 enthusiastic volunteers went out to lend a helping hand to residents living in South-West. Despite the rain, they were ready to clear the yard, clean out gutters and do some gardening. They started with a hot breakfast at Kenmore Baptist Church before heading out to do work. Click here to see some pictures from the day.



Yes We Care takes place once a year in May. Go to www.yeswecare.org.au for more information on how you can register for 2011 . Stay tuned for more stories from the individual groups to come!

Well done guys. You guys have contributed 200 hours collectively towards 500 hours!

"500 hours"

The '500 hours' campaign is all about harnessing the sum of each person's effort to serve Brisbane. The campaign will end on 5 September 2010. So if you're thinking about doing some community service as a group, get in before 5 September and make it count towards 500 hours!

Be a part of this exciting venture to collectively achieve 500 hours of serving Brisbane! Every little bit counts!

To register your interest, click here. Be quick to get your group together and plan something... you know how fast time flies!

Every little bit counts!!

Every act of kindness creates a ripple of no logical end - Scott Adams