Donate to CSMC

For single mothers already stretched to their limits, the rise in the cost of fuel has become the difference between be able to work, getting children to school, or falling further behind. When you’re already struggling to cover rent and bills, there’s simply nothing more to cut back on.

Your donation will ensure that during the fuel crisis, CSMC is able to provide single mothers with the help they need, when they need it.

One day a week, to get to the Food Bank when it opens, Leanne leaves the house at 7am with a backpack, a pram, and two tired children. Her youngest, Mia, is still half-asleep when she’s lifted into the pram. Her son, Jack, drags his feet, already asking how long it will take. It takes two hours.

The rise in fuel cost means taking the car is no longer an option, although living in outer Melbourne where public transport is limited, that means that just getting to school, daycare and work, has become four hours a day of logistics, delays, and emotional strain.

Leanne’s situation goes far beyond a need for food. What she requires is coordinated support that recognises how all the pressures in her life are linked; assistance to make sense of complex services; practical help that eases day-to-day burdens; and a network of care that understands her reality.

When Leanne rang CSMC’s Support Line, she spoke to a Support Worker who has the lived experience of being a single mother, and “just got it”. She provided Leanne with emergency relief so she didn’t have to go to the Food Bank, information about services in her area that could help her and reduce her reliance on public transport, and advice about how she can work with Jack’s school to address the challenges he was experiencing. By the time she hung up, Leanne says she felt “understood, and more confident”.