Hello Hunter is available for any person experiencing hardship due to social isolation, poverty, disease, disability, illness, age, mental health, family, social, or other community network breakdown.

The initiative partners with churches to mobilise volunteers to help those in need, regardless of their faith background, commitment, other social standing or identity.

Originally created to assist those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Hello Hunter links people in need with volunteers from local churches who can help.

Volunteers are available to make a friendly call, deliver essentials and assist in finding specialised help. On request, they are also able to pray with the person.

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Hello Hunter has a call centre which takes requests for assistance, and then notifies neighbourhood hubs to mobilise their volunteers. These hubs are formed according to suburb and postcode, with the overall goal being to support the person in need through assistance from their nearest neighbour.

Launched on 5 June 2020, Hello Hunter began due to talks between a group of church leaders within Newcastle, headed up by Rick Prosser from Kingdom Works.

Director of Pastoral Ministries, Teresa Brierley, is the initiative representative for the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. Mrs Brierley said Hello Hunter allows local churches of various faiths to work together, instead of trying to meet the need on their own.

“We all live in a community, so if that community can look after one another, how good would that be?” said Mrs Brierley.

Volunteer Opportunities

Hello Hunter are looking for volunteers with some specialist skills to help in a few areas:

• Call centre support: Do you have experience in the medical, aged care,
  disability or community service sectors? The people that Hello Hunter
  assist can have complex care needs that service experience would benefit.
• Administration skills: Updating databases, document management, emails,
  using communication software. All these skills are incredibly important in
  running a safe and accessible service.
• Getting the word out: Do you have experience in social media, writing
  articles, Mailchimp or website editing? Getting the word out about Hello Hunter is important and your skills could help us with this.
• Research skills: Compiling information about connect and help services
  and keeping the Hello Hunter Help Directory up-to-date.

If you have any of these skills PLUS you have time and a passion to volunteer Hello Hunter would love to hear from you. You can contact Hello Hunter by emailing help@hellohunter.org.au.

If you are in need of assistance, you can call Hello Hunter on (02) 4948 6837, or go online and request assistance here.

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