Welcome to Veterans 360 Australia
What do we do? Provide immediate Australia-wide support for veterans’ and their families who are experiencing crisis . Provide crisis accommodation and emergency housing options for veterans and their families across Australia. Provide ongoing complex case management in conjunction with clinicians and allied health services. Engage ‘wrap-around’ services to assist veterans’ and their families as they move forward in life. Work with ex-service organisations to ensure transparency and accountability in the veteran welfare space.
What is Homelessness?
Homelessness is not simply being ‘roofless’ it can be one or any combination of the aspects appearing below:
Primary homelessness is experienced by people without conventional accommodation (e.g. sleeping rough, in cars or in improvised dwellings/squats).
Secondary homelessness is experienced by people who frequently move from one temporary shelter to another (e.g. crisis/emergency accommodation, refuges, staying with parents and friends “couch surfing”).
Tertiary homelessness is experienced by people staying in accommodation that falls below minimum community standards (e.g. rooming/boarding houses and caravan parks etc. essentially places without tenure).
Imagine having served your country proudly and returned to a place where you feel like a foreigner. Many who have served our nation both at home and at war have come back to a society they do not feel understands them or accepts them. This isn’t the fault of our community or of the veteran, rather it is a mixture of high level training that every member of the defence forces must undertake and the lack of ability for the branch they served with to put time and resources in retraining them for life in the civilian world.
Our vulnerable, at risk and homeless veterans are almost always affected by mental health injuries, sustained both in combat and other areas of life. What makes them worthy of our undivided attention is the fact they once signed a blank cheque for their nation that could have seen them sacrifice their lives in defence of our freedoms, liberties and way of life.
For these reasons and many more, V360A have sworn to locate, identify and assist every veteran with service in the Australian Defence Force, who is in need of support, assistance or other intervention to ensure they are successful in their journey through life. Our motto is, “To help today’s veterans succeed in tomorrow’s world and to provide solutions for veteran homelessness and suicide prevention.”
VetGuard – Immediate and Confidential Assistance for Veterans in Crisis
All over our country veterans of the Australian Defence Force have taken their lives after returning to Australia from active operations or leaving the defence force, feeling they have little direction in their civilian lives.
VetGuard was set up to provide veterans, their families and others who encounter them during vulnerable times, another tool in the veteran care and welfare space.
With a simple push of the button, a user can be connected to the nearest trained veteran responder. The app geo-maps the closest trained responder and their phone will ring. At the same time a series of SMS and email messages will be sent to the next three closest responders and to our VetGuard HQ monitoring centre, where a trained person will oversee the response and be able to assist with communication to emergency services if that is required.
PROGRAM SUSPENDED: Unfortunately the Department of Veterans’ Affairs declined to support the VetGuard program despite the obvious connection it can create between veterans and trained responders. In our opinion DVA are not interested in funding programs that will work towards preventing veteran suicides, this is a serious concern and another reason why a royal commission into Defence, Department of Veterans’ Affairs and veteran suicide must be called.
About V360A
V360 Australia Ltd. is a registered charity established in October 2015 with the aim of conducting assertive outreach, raising awareness and providing ongoing support for homeless veterans throughout Australia. Our outreach operators work Australia-wide and comprise a team of experienced people who are both veterans and civilian. When anyone is referred to us an immediate process of triage is undertaken. Most referrals are actioned within hours.
On any one night it is estimated that around 3,000 Australian Defence Force veterans are sleeping in conditions that are classified by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as homeless. (Thomas Goodall & Associates Report, 2009)
Veterans 360 Australia (as we are also known), are an assertive organisation. This means we respond immediately to referrals and actively look for veterans all around Australia who are living rough or otherwise experiencing homelessness and a range of other mental health situations that may require intervention and support. Our aim is to reach out to and connect with these veterans – in person – as soon as possible after identifying they are in need of immediate assistance.
Since 2015, we have received referrals from a variety of sources such as, hospitals, mental health professionals, civilian homelessness agencies, ex-service organisations. Families and peer groups are also a regular referral source when veterans are experiencing difficulty in the community.
Between 2016 and 2019 we received referrals from and held various contracts with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, providing support and services to veterans and their families. During and after that period, we have worked with DVA and Open Arms veteran counselling service (formerly VVCS), providing assistance to veterans in crisis.
You can assist too. Please click on the Get Involved image to be transported to our supporters and volunteers information page or if you are able, consider making a tax deductible donation by clicking the icon below.
Our Partners
