The Counselling Men Project (CMP) was granted funding from the Quaker Peace and Social Justice Fund.  CMP is so grateful for this support, the outcome shown below.

The major purpose of CMP is to inspire and lead men to live an authentic life™. The vision is to end homelessness, violence and suicide among men in Brisbane, by utilising our economic system toward human fulfilment and development. The main service that CMP offers is free professional counselling and trauma therapy specifically for men who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Since the project began, CMP has delivered 65 counselling sessions for 21 men in need of help. One of them is about to start a job and many others are heading in the right direction now.

However, while the real outcome is to help men to get their lives back on track and prevent them returning to a dark path, heaps of paperwork and bureaucracy had to happen to put a not-for-profit in place. The approved grant gave CMP the opportunity to contract a business consultant Marty from Orb Services to help the CMP Team to work professionally and to create a sustainable and concrete path of continuity and progression towards such a valuable cause.

In the first six months of 2021 many important items have been created and improved during many leadership meetings among the CMP Officers and Founding Members. Below is the list:

1. Website was created and is running in a professional way;
2. Digital Microsoft Share was implemented to facilitate the procedures of CMP in a productive manner;
3. Process to approve professional counsellors has been created and executed;
4. Men’s Group approval process has been implemented;
5. Major Purpose, Vision and Values have been created to guide CMP now and in the future;
6. A business plan to create and execute fundraising events have been created;
7. A process to invite new supporters is in process;

So far, since CMP became an official not-for-profit (not charity registered) it has dealt with the numbers mentioned before, and since the beginning of its creation in 2019, it has helped more than 40 men, delivered more than 350 sessions, and has had the outcome shown on the graphic.

Last year, we ran four fundraising events:

1. Screening the movie A beautiful day in a neighbourhood cinema;
2. Networking event with our business consultant;
3. Networking event with a CEO who became our ambassador;
4. Community fundraising event at Quakers Queensland where we had a meal and watched a movie together.

We raised more than $6,000 from these four events, enough for 40 counselling sessions.

You can check the pictures of past events here. 

The process of fundraising events has provided a great opportunity to create awareness for people to live their lives authentically. A life that includes stillness and contemplation as opposed to continuing their addiction of being busy all the time for no tangible reason. All four events were quite productive as they opened the eyes of those who showed up about what is important in life: community. The feedback has been quite positive.

At the last fundraising event one of the CMP clients came along and gave his testimonial. It touched many people’s hearts.

Some of the CMP’s clients don’t need therapy anymore. What they need is people (that are not part of their circle of friendship which is normally from a criminal life) to spend time with them, have a small meal, a coffee or simply a friendly chat in a park with their pets. CMP is hoping to include these activities in CMP supporters’ lives.

Right now, CMP is looking to increase the numbers of Supporters by introducing them to the project. I encourage you to become a CMP Supporter. Your help is essential. All that is needed is to donate one counselling session per year, value $150.00 – not tax-deductible. Here is the link for you to go and do it.

Thank you so much for the Quaker support CMP has received since the beginning. Your help has been invaluable.