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Refuge ‘puts my troubles in perspective’
A CONVERSATION with Nick Geoghegan, volunteer leader at Teresa House
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| By VICTORIA BROOKS
24 December, 2006 |
When Nick Geoghegan is having a bad day, he only needs to turn his mind to the homeless hostel where he is a volunteer and his troubles are all “put in perspective”.
Nick is responsible for the leadership of Teresa House, a crisis accommodation shelter in Redfern that provides 10 beds for especially vulnerable homeless people.
Among the guests are men and women suffering from mental illness and addiction; couples and transgender people.
Spending time at the hostel “puts the rest of your life in perspective”, says Nick, whose day job is in product management.
“When you are struggling at work, or when you are having a hard time, you think: 'I am so lucky, I am so lucky with what I have. I am blessed with a job and a safe place to live, I have got a gorgeous family, I am just so lucky.”
Teresa House is managed by Cana Communities, a volunteer-operated organisation that offers homeless services to those most in need.
Now in its 31st year, Cana was originally established as De Porres by Dominican Br Mark Brereton.
In 1995, it was officially incorporated under the name Cana (taken from the biblical story of the Wedding Feast of Cana).
The organisation is now under the leadership of Presentation Sr Anne Jordan and Jesuit Fr Brian Stoney.
Dublin-born Nick and his Australian wife Jannene became involved with Cana and Teresa House about seven years ago.
“We had been looking around for some way to help the homeless and Aleida Jansen (who established Teresa House) came and gave a talk at Mass,” said Nick.
“We thought it sounded great so we started coming along.”
He adds: “Jannene got very involved with running the hostel, and I was just doing regular shifts.”
Nick settled in Sydney almost 10 years ago after meeting Jannene overseas. The two married five years later in Nick's birth country.
“I met my wife in London, and she was coming back to Australia, so I came back with her,” he says.
“We got married in Ireland five years ago.
“We went back and got married in Wicklow, a rural area just south of Dublin. My father lives down there, and I used to spend a lot of time around that area when I was little.
“It is just beautiful and was really nice to get married in the little parish church down there.”
The Newtown-based couple now have two boys of their own: Rory who is almost three, and Luke who is only 10 weeks old.
With the birth of Rory, Nick took over the leadership of Teresa House from Jannene.
He says: “When Rory was born Jannene took a step back, and at the time she said: 'Nick, how about you help out', so I did, and I have been involved with the leadership ever since.”
“We kept it in the family which is great because we both feel passionately about Teresa House and we bounce stuff off one another all the time.”
Teresa House, which opens six nights a week, is staffed by about 80 volunteers.
“It is a big group of volunteers,” says Nick, “but the challenge is keeping them. People move on, they might get a new job, or have children; their life changes. So we are always looking out for new volunteers.”
While Cana is run as a non-denominational organisation, recruitment of volunteers is often done through speaking to church groups.
“We have a group of about 30 volunteers from the North Sydney parish,” says Nick.
“It is a great group because they are doing it as a parish and they know one another as a parish.”
Nick's own parish of St Mary's, Erskineville, is also very supportive of Teresa House.
He says: “Fr Barry (Brundell) is very supportive if we have a raffle to raise money, or if we need volunteers I can give a talk. The parishioners are all very supportive as well.”
Guests are referred to Teresa House by the City of Sydney's Homeless Persons Information Centre, says Nick.
“There are far less options for women, so men can stay one night a week in the hostel and women can stay three nights
“It is emergency accommodation, so the idea is not for people to move in until they find somewhere else.”
But that doesn't stop familiar faces re-appearing, says Nick.
“We have people who really come weekly.
“They will work out the program for the week, and where they can stay this night, this night and this night.
“There are different hostels open on different nights, so we have regulars like that,” he explains.
“We also have regulars who have burnt all their bridges elsewhere and no other hostel will have them, so they come their maximum nights a week.”
“Helping people that other people don't help” is what Teresa House is all about, says Nick.
But this, he says, creates its own challenges.
“We have guests who are difficult and we have guests who are mentally ill, and often they cause disturbances for the other guests,” he says.
“But we try really, really hard to help those people, because they can be the most vulnerable and the most in need of our help.
He adds: “Accepting that they are some of the most important people to help can be really difficult.”
Teresa House always tries to exercise forgiveness with difficult guests who have “stepped over a boundary”.
“We do our best to exercise forgiveness and get them back in and give them another chance,” says Nick.
While this can be testing, Nick says his Catholic faith “informs that and helps with that”.
“When I am at Mass and listening to the scripture and thinking what Jesus did and how he was so forgiving and open, it just reminds me that is central to what we do.
“It is about helping the people who need it the most, who are not necessarily the most grateful or the easiest to deal with.
Nick's work with Teresa House has also served to enhance his faith.
“My faith helps me in what I do, and what I do helps my faith,” he says.
“My faith has certainly been strengthened from the experiences I have had and the people I have met.
“Even the terrible experiences, looking back on them, you learn from them.
He adds: “Sometimes a situation is terrible, not because you recognise a problem with the person you are dealing with, but because you recognise your own weaknesses.
“You can be in a challenging situation and react wrong to it because you misread it and afterwards you have to reassess yourself.”
Nick says it is “the characters that you meet and the stories that you hear” that keeps him coming back to Teresa House.
“I get a sense of accomplishment knowing I am helping people.
“It is the feeling that we might not solve all their problems, but for one night at least they have got somewhere that is safe, secure and accepting and treats them like a human being with respect.”
Teresa House is looking for volunteers. For more information, or to make a donation, visit www.cana.org.au
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