Geelong’s Amy Flint is vice-president of The Outpost, a service providing food and welfare assistance to those experiencing homelessness in the community. She spoke with Jena Carr about what she likes most about volunteering and living in Geelong.
What is your connection to Geelong?
Growing up in Gippsland and later residing in St Kilda, being close to the water has always been incredibly important.
When COVID struck, it was both a blessing and a challenge as I became redundant and needed to vacate my apartment. It was confronting but also provided an opportunity to re-evaluate, which led me to welcome my adorable chocolate labrador and call Geelong home.
As a migrating Melbournian enjoying all that Geelong had to offer, the first goal was to become an active citizen and give back to the community. Within the first month of arrival, I reached out online and registered to become a fortnightly volunteer at The Outpost. A year later, I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to join The Outpost committee of management.
The year after, I was humbled to make an impact as the vice-president serving others. This role connects me to all facets of Geelong’s community, who often find comfort in being greeted with a smile and acknowledged by their name.
What do you like about where you live?
Geelong has proven to be a passionately kind and generous place to live. The giving nature of community members (as young as five years old) donating their time, money, and resources is admirable. I am proud to belong to the Greater City of Geelong, surrounded by trusted, inspirational, selfless and philanthropic trailblazers.
What, if anything, would you change about where you live?
Living and volunteering in Geelong has also opened my eyes, thoughts and heart to those homeless and others in need. It is unacceptable in our community that some people do not have a safe, sheltered, or clean space to rest, and we need to work together to do better.
It is not OK that even one person may feel like they do not have access to ‘trusted’ medical care and, as a result, are leaving medical conditions too late to be detected, are suffering needlessly, or are passing sooner than they potentially should – as a community we need to find a solution.
What do you like about your work?
I am a strong advocate that you can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. I enjoy so many things about working and volunteering at The Outpost. The highlight has to be the people we serve. It is the remarkable people with their own experiences, challenges, and successes that I am grateful to share a small part of their story.
People may not know that The Outpost, which has resided for the past 22 years at the Busport Building in Geelong’s CBD (owned by local council), is being sold on June 30. There is no condition of sale on the building to ensure that The Outpost can remain on location and keep the doors open.
Ultimately, this means that the only non-referral, night-time food service operating 365 days per year may be joining those it aims to serve on the streets. While we remain optimistic about the Labor government’s pre-election commitment to support The Outpost in finding a new home, time is quickly running out.
The Outpost calls for all ideas and potential solutions from community members and leaders and encourages people to reach out.
