WELCOME TO HOPESTREET
Hopestreet is a vibrant grassroots youth movement dedicated to supporting at-risk young people in Playford. For the past 10 years, we’ve been on a mission to uplift our youth—starting as a youth ministry for 5 years before transitioning to operate under Careworks, a nonprofit organisation, for the last 5 years. With the support of local community groups, the local council, and churches, we create safe, fun, and inclusive spaces that understand the unique needs of the youth of Playford. We have a place based community hub in Davoren Park and operate our youth programs at key sites across Playford.
WHO WE ARE
Based in in Davoren Park, Hopestreet connects with over 220 young people each week through the efforts of more than 40 passionate volunteers and dedicated staff in our community hub and at outreaches. Our community faces significant challenges, including high youth unemployment rates and educational disengagement. In fact, Davoren Park and surrounding suburbs have a youth unemployment rate of 61%, which is eight times higher than the Adelaide average. Many young people in our area come from low-income families, with two-thirds not completing Year 12. Despite these challenges, we focus on building resilience and hope among our youth. Our programs aim to provide support, understanding, and opportunities for growth for these young people.
OUR HOPE
Hopestreets HOPE is that every young person in Playford will experience...
Knowing they are LOVED
They have PURPOSE in God
They are CAPABLE of living out that purpose
Knowing they are LOVED
They have PURPOSE in God
They are CAPABLE of living out that purpose
HOW WE DO IT
We do this by creating
SAFE spaces
Providing POSITIVE role models
A place to BELONG
SAFE spaces
Providing POSITIVE role models
A place to BELONG
OUR STORY
Hopestreet started in a carpark of a local church in Davoren Park
Northern Communities of Hope (NCOH) church (A Church of Christ church) was established in Davoren Park in 2002. It has provided a place of family, encouragement and support for many people in the local area. NCOH church was attracting a number of young people to its Sunday night services who would hang out in the car park and were engaging in anti social behaviours. In response to this, in March 2015 Bekk Shaw (Hopestreet Founder) who was working as a local highschool Chaplain at the time and a small team of caring people starting meeting these young people where they were at and building relationship. This lead to the establishment of NCOH Youth in March 2015. It began by opening the doors in the local youth centre on Sunday nights to these young people and others in the area.
This attracted many young people from the beginning that had significant disadvantage and developed into a program called ‘Sunday Night Youth’ which provided a meal and relaxed environment to build relationships, talk about life and faith. This gained momentum with volunteers coming from a variety of churches to be positive role models and build positive relationships with the young people as well as getting to know the many families who were also connecting and the significant needs that were in the local community.
This gained momentum with volunteers coming from a variety of churches to build positive relationship with the young people as well as many families were connecting. NCOH youth then started a youth drop in program during the week that also grew significantly and provided food, activities and friendship for the local young people. Over the next few years through grants and donations NCOH youth run several successful camps and various other positive initiatives for the community using a community development model. It had (and still does) a growing number of positive relationships with local churches, schools, community groups and community members. Due to the growth and needs identified in the community, as of 2020, NCOH youth has become a program of Careworks and has changed name to Hopestreet as they enter this new partnership as part of a Non-Profit.
CareWorks is responsible for the benevolent programs of the ‘Conference of Churches of Christ in SA & NT’, and the encouragement of churches to provide local community-based caring programs. CareWorks is a not-for-profit organisation and has the dominant purpose of the direct relief of poverty, sickness, destitution, suffering, helplessness, or misfortune, and for the benefit of the community.
From 2020, Hopestreet took over a shop front in Davoren Park to run youth activities and a pop up op shop. The youth programs quickly outgrew the space and Hopestreet entered a partnership with the local council to deliver their youth engagement drop in at council facilities as well as started some outreach at the local skatepark. Over the years Hopestreet continued to grow and see many young people connecting and finding a community to belong to. The shop front developed into a cafe & op shop social enterprise that provided work experience and skill building for young people in a safe and comfortable way. Local parents started getting involved and the space started attracting many families from the local area. Soon the parents started volunteering and taking on leadership over the space which eventually would become the 'Hopestreet Community Hub' as it was clearly identified that many took solace and make connections through the space. Through the relationships with the community and support, Hopestreet has also been able to run a local kids club and parent groups 'Families of Hope' which is led by local parents.
Hopestreet is now engaging 220+ youth per week at its programs. It is predominately volunteer run and has over 40+ to keep everything operating. When you meet a volunteer from Hopestreet, you will know how important the community is to them and how passionate they are about keeping Hopestreet going to impact lives.
Northern Communities of Hope (NCOH) church (A Church of Christ church) was established in Davoren Park in 2002. It has provided a place of family, encouragement and support for many people in the local area. NCOH church was attracting a number of young people to its Sunday night services who would hang out in the car park and were engaging in anti social behaviours. In response to this, in March 2015 Bekk Shaw (Hopestreet Founder) who was working as a local highschool Chaplain at the time and a small team of caring people starting meeting these young people where they were at and building relationship. This lead to the establishment of NCOH Youth in March 2015. It began by opening the doors in the local youth centre on Sunday nights to these young people and others in the area.
This attracted many young people from the beginning that had significant disadvantage and developed into a program called ‘Sunday Night Youth’ which provided a meal and relaxed environment to build relationships, talk about life and faith. This gained momentum with volunteers coming from a variety of churches to be positive role models and build positive relationships with the young people as well as getting to know the many families who were also connecting and the significant needs that were in the local community.
This gained momentum with volunteers coming from a variety of churches to build positive relationship with the young people as well as many families were connecting. NCOH youth then started a youth drop in program during the week that also grew significantly and provided food, activities and friendship for the local young people. Over the next few years through grants and donations NCOH youth run several successful camps and various other positive initiatives for the community using a community development model. It had (and still does) a growing number of positive relationships with local churches, schools, community groups and community members. Due to the growth and needs identified in the community, as of 2020, NCOH youth has become a program of Careworks and has changed name to Hopestreet as they enter this new partnership as part of a Non-Profit.
CareWorks is responsible for the benevolent programs of the ‘Conference of Churches of Christ in SA & NT’, and the encouragement of churches to provide local community-based caring programs. CareWorks is a not-for-profit organisation and has the dominant purpose of the direct relief of poverty, sickness, destitution, suffering, helplessness, or misfortune, and for the benefit of the community.
From 2020, Hopestreet took over a shop front in Davoren Park to run youth activities and a pop up op shop. The youth programs quickly outgrew the space and Hopestreet entered a partnership with the local council to deliver their youth engagement drop in at council facilities as well as started some outreach at the local skatepark. Over the years Hopestreet continued to grow and see many young people connecting and finding a community to belong to. The shop front developed into a cafe & op shop social enterprise that provided work experience and skill building for young people in a safe and comfortable way. Local parents started getting involved and the space started attracting many families from the local area. Soon the parents started volunteering and taking on leadership over the space which eventually would become the 'Hopestreet Community Hub' as it was clearly identified that many took solace and make connections through the space. Through the relationships with the community and support, Hopestreet has also been able to run a local kids club and parent groups 'Families of Hope' which is led by local parents.
Hopestreet is now engaging 220+ youth per week at its programs. It is predominately volunteer run and has over 40+ to keep everything operating. When you meet a volunteer from Hopestreet, you will know how important the community is to them and how passionate they are about keeping Hopestreet going to impact lives.