Our Story
The Helping Hands journey started with a small outreach project focusing on regional Victorian communities in 2007. Over the last 15 years we’ve evolved to become a strong presence across Victoria and particularly Melbourne’s north west, supporting over five hundred families each week through our Emergency and Material Aid Programs and running Op Shops that become central hubs for the community.
Helping Hands Mission Inc. began in 2007 when Melanie Gill was working for the North Essendon Uniting Church. Drought-affected residents of rural Victoria, who were already experiencing economic hardship, desperately needed access to inexpensive, quality clothing. Melanie and her colleagues at the church arranged for donated clothing to be sent up in trucks to central Victoria, where it was sold for $1 per piece. The response was overwhelmingly positive as the locals appreciated the price and quality of the clothing, and the Helping Hands Mission group was established as an outreach project of the Uniting Church.
As word spread of the work Helping Hands was doing, and demand for Emergency and Material Aid grew, it was decided that the group would become fully incorporated as a not for profit organisation and run its own op shop on Keilor Road. The shop served as a way to raise funds for aid programs using all the clothes, books, homewares and other items that were being donated.
Helping Hands Mission then moved from its Keilor Road shop to the site at 18 Knighton Avenue - now known as Gaye’s Vintage Shop - and in 2011 also gained access to the warehouse at 492 Fullarton Road, allowing the delivery of aid programs and providing a space to store and sell the large amount of donations that were now being received.
Fast-forward to today, where we have five Op Shops spread across Melbourne’s North West suburbs; run an Emergency Aid program that feeds over five hundred families every week; have vehicles on the road delivering crucial Material Aid every day; provide training and employment pathways for Work for the Dole participants and the long term unemployed; and have an army of 300 amazing volunteers that make up the face of the organisation!
