Relief funds for women’s refuge

Women’s refuge Lucy Saw Centre has received $50,000 through Lotterywest’s COVID-19 Relief Fund, which will help support women and children experiencing family violence.

This grant will help both centres, based in Rockingham and Fremantle, which service more than 800 women and children in need each year.

Lucy Saw Centre executive officer Anne Moore said without the help of the Lotterywest emergency relief fund, the centre would struggle to provide the same quality of service to those in need.

“We have successfully supported women and their children to remain in safe accommodation by helping to pay for overdue rent and also for outstanding utilities bills such as power, gas and water,” she said.

“We have paid for emergency accommodation when all refuges are full. We have paid for travel to safety, taxi and at times airfare.

“We help women and their children without income; this usually means we support every area of their lives including medical needs until we can secure their visas or they are granted a special benefit income.”

Premier and Rockingham MLA Mark McGowan said the grant would help the Lucy Saw Centre to extend essential support for women and children.

“WA is home to the only State Government-owned lottery in Australia where all the profits are returned to the community to deliver essential support to facilities such as the Lucy Saw Centre,” he said. “For more than 40 years, the Lucy Saw Centre has been providing women’s refuge accommodation and outreach serv-ices in Perth’s south-east.

“This $50,000 Lotterywest grant will help the Lucy Saw Centre to extend essential support for women and children experiencing family and domestic violence.”

The State Government, through Lotterywest, has committed $159 million into a COVID-19 Relief Fund to respond to the hardship being experienced by the West Australian community as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lotterywest’s COVID-19 Relief Fund is helping to meet costs related to increased demand for crisis-relief services affected by COVID-19.