User:Chelle-ma/Swags For Homeless

Swags For Homeless (also known and registered as Swags For The Homeless), is a national Australian not-for-profit charity that provides emergency relief portable shelter to street sleeping homeless. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living. It notes that:


 * “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

Swags for Homeless believes everyone has the right to dignity and addresses the lack of a basic human right to shelter by providing a range of creative products that: Swags for Homeless distributes their multi award-winning Backpack Bed (which comes in two models: cold weather version and tropical version complete with mosquito netting), polar fleece blankets, and portable torches to street-sleeping homeless turned away from shelter. As at the end of 2014 almost 20,000 Backpack Beds have been manufactured to give homeless temporary protection until a more permanent solution can be found.
 * ensure people have access to necessities that keep them warm, dry and safe;
 * enable people to connect with a community that encompasses support networks.

Swags For Homeless was awarded the Australian Human Rights Award in 2013.

Swags For Homeless has applied for 501c3 status in the United States under the name Backpack Bed.org.

History
Swags for Homeless was registered as a not-for-profit charity in 2007. An idea in church would answer the international question of what to do when homeless have no shelter. In the mid 2000s, Tony Clark, Founder and CEO of the charity, was sitting in church one day during worship, thinking about the homeless when he decided something needed to be done. In November 2007, national Australian charity Swags for Homeless was established. It took almost two years for the first 20 foot container to arrive containing 800 Backpack Beds - a product which recognised that there just wasn't enough shelters to house everybody. Efforts to have Swags for Homeless products made in Australia proved impossible so they turned to China, but were insistent that their products be ethically made. They refused to use sweatshops, which violate overtime rates, minimum wage, and minimum age requirements. The charity got off the ground with the help of grants from organisations such as George Adams Foundation.

Tony Clark worked unpaid for the charity for the first three years. Lisa Clark was one of five people to be part of the Vodafone Foundations 12 month “World of Difference” program in 2011. This enabled Lisa to become the first paid employee of Swags for Homeless. In May 2014 a third staff member was finally added to the team, Michelle Bendall (PhD).

Today
Swags for Homeless is a member of the International United Nations Global Compact whereby it agrees to integrate and support the Ten Principles of UN Global Compact within business practices and strategies in order to support broader UN goals. This is borne out of the charity's ethos of treating people how you yourself would want to be treated. It includes careful selection of overseas manufacturing that meets required UN core values in the areas of human rights, international labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption. Swags For Homeless' guiding mantra is to treat homeless the way you would want to be treated; that human rights are about recognising and respecting the inherent value and dignity of all people irrespective of the circumstances they find themselves in.

Because of public demand, the charity has developed a social enterprise whereby 100% of the profits return to the charity to fund further homeless projects. The Charity also owns Global Relief Aid, which provides high quality material aid that meets international standards for use in global disaster zones in particular flood, bushfire, tsunami, cyclone, hurricane, typhoon and earthquake disaster areas.

Awards
In 2011 Swags for Homeless was awarded the Australian Human Rights Award for Best Community Organisation – Australia’s highest honour for a community organisation.

Patrons and Ambassadors
Patrons of Swags for Homeless include Andrew Macleod, formerly of the United Nations, International Red Cross and Rio Tinto.

Professor Steve Keen, an Australian economist and author, Head of School of Economics, History and Politics at Kingston University, London.

Celebrity Ambassadors include the Australian comedian and actress Julia Morris, and Dr Jonathon Welch from the homeless choir The Choir of Hard Knocks