On April the 11th we at Bonnie’s will be launching our very first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Our RAP has been a long time in the making, and we are immensely proud to have had the guidance of community leaders, Norma Burrows from Liverpool Council, and Delphine Leslie from South West Sydney Local Health District, […]

I was helping a young mum of two beautiful little girls; one of these girls was only 2 weeks old. This woman was escaping domestic violence, fearful for her life and the life of her daughters. She couldn’t believe that she was at this point – having to hide and with a newborn in arms. […]

I welcomed another woman to Bonnie’s last week who, like so many before her, asked me questions that I found hard to answer. They went like this: how did I end up here? What did I do to deserve this? Why does this keep happening to me? Where did it all go wrong? Shortly after […]

I’ve been so moved lately. Hearing about women coming together, listening and giving space to one another, to talk about challenging experiences, has made me hopeful for our future. Sharing our stories and connecting with each other is the first step to healing and that’s exactly the journey we’ve started. The #MeToo movement has been […]

I watched a great documentary the other night called ‘The Porn Factor’ and it got me thinking. I have often heard a lot about how pornography affects young people’s sexual development. The Porn Factor says that 90% of boys view pornography by the age of 16 and 60% of girls view pornography by the time […]

Rose and Yvette Gatwick  When I heard Tim Winton comment on one of his best reads of the year, a novel about domestic violence, he expressed how kindness can be transformative. It made think about kindness and what it means to be kind. While thinking about this, I happened upon a documentary, ‘The Last Chance Hotel’. […]

I received a phone call one day from a young woman offering to donate a room full of baby items. The woman explained that the items were all brand new and that she needed to drop them off today. The woman arrived at Bonnie’s soon after the phone call. I opened the gates to let […]

‘Australia Day’ has been and gone, however we should remember that the day is not a celebration for all people. For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Australia day comes with mixed feelings of sadness, grief, loss and also feelings of pride and resilience, because the day marks the invasion of land occupied by […]

At Bonnie’s, we recently learnt that a 6-year-old connected to our service won a writing prize for a story she wrote in the Patrick White Indigenous Writers Award! We loved the story so much that we felt it was worth sharing on our blog. We hope you like her beautiful story about bullying as much […]

As the end of the year arrives, Bonnie’s team have been working harder than elves in a Santa’s factory, to ensure it is a festive season for all of the women and children who access our service. There is a lightness and a buzz in the air at Bonnie’s as we gratefully receive and busily […]

We are all so caught up in rushing in our day-to-day lives. Getting kids ready for school, deadlines at work, picking up kids from school, making sure baths and homework are complete before bed (phew… am tired from just writing that!) that we forget to take little moments to nurture ourselves. In my job, self-care […]

Domestic violence is a silent topic. Victims hide it, survivors rarely talk about it, and society pretends it doesn’t exist. It’s the elephant in the room: everyone sees it, but no one wants to admit it is there. But ignoring domestic violence doesn’t make it go away; in fact, it is the silence that keeps […]