Helping Those In Hardship & Tragedy With Relief and Aid
Bayside Community Emergency Relief is a 100% volunteer run, community driven charity. Our mission is to empower people experiencing hardship and tragedy by mobilising the community to help provide requested emergency aid supplies when a (usually larger scale) disaster arises. It varies each emergency but our work is usually short term and the requested donated items are delivered to approved relief and aid organisations on the scenes who then on deliver our goods into effected regions or families when they are granted access.
From a simple idea on New Years Eve 2019 , a Facebook group was launched New Years Day 2020. It was amazing to see how incredibly fast the Bayside community united and swung into action donating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of requested items for the January 2020 bushfire crisis.
It was extremely humbling to see scores of people pitching in and witnessing the many ongoing convoys heading into fire ravaged regions around Victoria. We managed to help not just people but wildlife shelters in distress too, as animals were a massive casualty of the bushfires.
Post bushfire season, the aim was to hand the model over so other communities could do the same. The group's model has been replicated by at least 1 other short term group with a similar amount of success.
However, after encouragement from many areas, Bayside Community Emergency Relief became an incorporated association with full charity status. This provides our community with the ongoing opportunity to continue to come together long term in an organised manner in times of emergency, not just Bayside wide but state wide.
Thank you to everyone for your amazing contribution during the bushfire crisis, through covid and beyond. We ask that you encourage people to spread the word so that we can make our communities contribution in times of emergencies even greater in the future.
We look forward to community events down the track where people can meet the faces behind the names. Join our active Facebook group to keep updated and get involved: https://www.facebook.com/groups/baysidecer
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respect to them and their cultures and to Elders past and present.
