Tonight more than 105,000 Australians are homeless.  Of those, 28,000 are under the age of 24, and 17,850 are younger than 12.  For them, life is one long struggle to find the basic necessities most of us take for granted – something to eat, somewhere safe to sleep, somewhere to wash.

Enter One Voice, which believes that restoring dignity is the first step to restoring people’s lives.

One Voice was founded in 2012 to give homeless Aussies some basic help and support. In 2015 it launched a mobile shower bus to provide them with free showers along with toiletries, clean socks and undies, bottles of water – as well as a little dignity and hope for a better future.

Every Wednesday between 5-7.30pm, the One Voice van will be visiting Frankston, setting up next to Manpreet’s food van in the carpark of Tasman Meats.  With two showers as well as a washing machine and clothes dryer, the van is solar-powered, gas-operated and carries its own water supply and waste tanks.

Believing that taking a collaborative and compassionate approach has a bigger impact and that charity starts at home, One Voice is positively affecting more and more individuals every day. Its philosophy extends to providing services that are innovative and to which we can all contribute to help make a difference.  With love and respect, it is empowering and restoring the integrity of the thousands of homeless people who have found themselves in unfortunate circumstances.

As Frankly Frankston went to print, One Voice’s mobile van had provided more than 10,000 showers and washed 4500kg of laundry at 18 locations.   If you’d like to find out more, donate to the organisation or purchase slabs of bottled water for your office or business to support One Voice’s vital work, visit onevoice.org.au or @OneVoiceAU