Bright Place at Brookfield Place, St Barts hopes to ‘humanise homelessness’ as number of rough sleepers rises
In order to offer the satisfactory bowls of the soups that change life to Perth’s dense city crowd, Brookfield Place will have a bright yellow shipping container for the next two weeks.
Between 4-15 August, St Bart will run a unique Pop-up-Bright Place that combines soups, stories and art to raise awareness for homelessness.
For $ 10, visitors can enjoy a bowl soup made by Brookfield Place’s Heritage Wine Bar, Hello Tay, Ladle + Press, Printing Hall and W Churchill. In addition, there is a share that customers can donate food to someone who sleeps rough.
But more than the bright place than soup.
The container is a sound experience with a sound experience with a sound experience that shares honest stories from people who encounter homelesser.
Outside, a public bench, Common Thread, invites people to add messages of fabric and hope to a growing goblen.
Vanessa Baxter, General Manager of Strategic Partnerships and Participation in Strategic Partnerships and Participation, said that the initiative aims to humanize and provoke empathy.
“We hope that people will support us by making a warm bowl of soup, listening to stories, looking at art, interacting and talking to us,” he said.
“We actually want to humanize all the idea of homelessness, and to create conversations about what to experience or to be homeless.
“In the stories we share, we hope that people can establish more empathy with the situation faced by so many people and see it from a different lens.”
Ms. Baxter said Bright Place offers a rare opportunity to cleanse the misconceptions of Perth with the people of Perth.
“There is a wrong meaning that homelessness is a person’s mistake and that they can correct only their mindset, attitudes or conditions, and that they are not so simple,” he said.
“We hear, ‘Why don’t they just go and find a job?’ People cannot find a job unless they have a place to provide as an address.
“They can’t take a warm shower or they can’t feed themselves to get out and have energy to do a really good day.”
The organization aims to use the money collected in Bright Place to develop more transition accommodation for the homeless population in Perth.
“Homelessness is a big issue, Ms Mrs. Baxter said.
“There has been a major increase in numbers throughout Australia, and this is definitely reflected in our city,
“I think complexity, sometimes brick and mortar houses, although we can provide a real lack of these options in Perth, so people sit on the waiting list for a long time to secure social housing for a long time.
“There is a very limited transition accommodation for people to start their journey to a safe way for housing, and this is a systemic issue to be addressed.”
Bright Place will be open from 11.30 to 13.00 at Brookfield Place and invite people to stop, to share a warm meal, to listen and to talk.
