We Care Connect exists to reduce the impact of poverty on disadvantaged kids in the Hunter & Central Coast. Why? 30,000 children live below the poverty line in the Hunter & Central Coast and poverty is more than deprivation – poverty stunts children’s emotional and mental development creating a new cycle of poverty. We provide disadvantaged children with pre-loved clothing, cots, prams, car seats and nursery items – that are all generously donated by the local community. We give children what they need to be safe and warm, presented as a community gift to show that each child is important and cared about.

Each month, our volunteer team provides over 400 children with bundles of clothing, equipment and care packs, and re-home over 12,000 items that otherwise might end up in landfill. Since 2016, over 24,000 children have been provided with essential material aid to address income poverty and social marginalization, to alleviate the income stress within families by providing these items free of charge. In 2024, we aim to support over 7,000 local children with the essentials they deserve.

Some of the family situations that are supported may be mothers with their children fleeing domestic violence with only the clothes on their backs, grandmothers finding themselves caring for toddlers without as much as a car seat to pick them up in, or homeless teenagers about to become mothers themselves. The statistics we collect from our current program are sobering: 62% of the children we help come from sole-parent families, 41% have been affected by family violence, 45% by medical or disability issues, 49% by unemployment. 33% have young parents, and at least 40% are First Nations children.