Welcome to Episode 74 of our podcast, Courageous Conversations, hosted by Leanne Pilkington.
In this episode, our guest is Suzanne Hopman, Chief Executive Officer of Dignity. She talks about what Dignity provides, how the team responds to a homelessness crisis call, how the charity found its beginnings and achieved its growth, the charity’s experiencing winning a number of prestigious Telstra Business Awards, and how Suzanne has developed her reliable team under strong leadership through one simple realisation.
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00:30 – What is Dignity and what do they provide as a charity
01:20 – A walkthrough of what would happen when responding to an emergency homelessness crisis call
03:00 – Creating a ‘safe’ place with their properties – meals are also home-cooked by their volunteers
04:30 – An example of the kind of crisis call Dignity may receive
06:45 – How Suzanne brought the charity to life through her own frustrations of the gaps in social services
07:35 – Visiting someone she knew who was experiencing homelessness and how the poor quality of her accommodation motivated Suzanne to find ‘a better way’
08:45 – Quitting her job in her path to form ‘a better way’ and launching the first home in the Southern Highlands in 2015.
09:30 – How Suzanne funded the first home through the sale of her own house
10:55 – Dignity now has 22 locations, and supports up to 250 people a night.
12:00 – Cooking for the homeless; starting from her kitchen to then working with OzHarvest with distribution
13:00 – 130,000 meals a year are cooked from their team of volunteers
13:30 – Night by night grants from the government; how it can vary between locations
14:40 – Currently there are only houses in Sydney; plans to expand in other states and regional areas (leases upon demand)
15:45 – Suzanne’s experience with working with agents to find properties to lease, and building great relationships with them
17:00 – What it would require for Suzanne to expand into Melbourne
18:20 – Winning Social Change Maker Telstra Awards, but more surprisingly winning the Australia National Business of the Year Award as a charity
19:20 – Reflecting on why Dignity won the award, and why it’s an important win and a reminder that ‘every dollar counts’.
21:30 – How Suzanne navigated as a leader by realising she doesn’t know everything, and building a strong, reliable team around this
23:00 – The causes of homelessness across different segments; homelessness can happen to anybody.
24:25 – Visit dignity.org.au and connect with Dignity on social media