Jewish House launches innovative app, Mend, to help solve homelessness in NSW
The CEO of the Jewish House, Rabbi Mendel Kastel and Sydney entrepreneur, Alexandra Tselios, have developed an app which brings the community and technology together to help the homeless.
They will launch it at the NSW Parliament House on Thursday evening 11th alongside MP Alex Greenwich, with Jane Caro as MC.
One of the most difficult tasks for the charities that assist the homeless is identifying where they are and offering them help.
And, for the general public, people often see homeless people and want to help but don’t know how.
Independent Member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich MP says “Unfortunately homelessness is increasing and there is no guide on how to be homeless. The provision of information through this app on services and supports will help very vulnerable people at an extremely confronting time and empower the public to help people in need.”
The app MEND – which can be downloaded on any phone – can be filled in by the general public, and the information goes directly to services for the homeless.
This is a practical and useful way for people to help and for services to find and assist homeless people.
MEND will eventually be national, but they are focusing on NSW first. They are also working with UTS on a research component that will provide a tool analysing homelessness risk.
Rabbi Mendel Kastel is the CEO of Jewish House and was recently appointed as a Mental Health Commissioner by the Australian Government’s National Mental Health Commission. Alexandra Tselios is the CEO of digital agency and publisher, The Big Smoke Group, and is a regular commentator on radio discussing technologies that impact our day to day lives.
Rabbi Mendel Kastel said: “We are launching this app to send a message loud and clear that every single person can play a role to end homelessness”. Alex Tselios agrees, “This is a tangible opportunity for every Australian to actively help those in their community who are homeless or a couch surfer. Mend provides this opportunity through building the foundation of real-time data.”
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