In the back streets of an industrial estate in Cockburn Scott Johnson and his partner David Paton Metliss Johnson have created a massive charity organisation that many people simply don’t even realise exists.
In a giant warehouse there’s an op-shop, a food bank for people who struggle to buy enough food, outside people work on a community garden. Many of the people volunteering here do so in return for a roof over their head.
Aside from the gigantic operation in Cockburn, Johnson’s charity AYLA: Assisting Your Life to Achieve, has set up several emergency housing accommodation spots for LGBTIQ people in need.
Chatting to OUTinPerth Johnson said the first spark of an idea to build the massive operation came from his own personal experiences.
“It came from a place of real hardship many many years ago, and understanding if I didn’t do anything about my own personal hardship I’d be left with two choices, I kept on persevering and persevering and then I decided I wanted to continue to help other people.” Johnson said.
For Johnson his personal hardship came after his long term relationship ended, his family broke-up and he realised that he was gay. He moved overseas to London and soon met his partner David. The couple have now been together for over a decade.
To begin with Johnson worked in Africa helping build schools, and he initially thought setting up a charity that allowed people to have the same overseas experience might be helpful. He realised however that there was a more immediate need to help people struggling in our own local community.
He named the charity after his daughter, using the letters of her name to spell out the organisation’s ethos.
“I did a huge questionnaire in the local community and found that people wanted to give to something within their own backyard, to help their neighbours and teach their children some sort of value based system.” Johnson said.
Having spent some time working in the mental health area Johnson set up AYLA to have an emphasis on changing minds and chings lives.
The organisation Johnson has created is multi-faceted, there’s a sewing area which helps people create and adjust clothes, there’s an affordable hairdressing salon, an op-sop, a food bank and the organisation often runs workshops to help people in their journey.
Recently a tattoo artist spent some time at the organisation’s Cockburn facility creating tattoo’s for people who wanted to hide scars from self-harm.
Last year AYLA launches it’s most ambitious program, taking over the leases of several houses to provide emergency accommodation to LGBTIQ+ people.
Johnson said that there is a lot of evidence to show that members of the LGBTIQ+ community experience homeless at a higher rate than the rest of society, and often have trouble accessing services. Transgender people were the worst affected and often struggled to find a place in gender specific shelters.
“It took me about fourteen months to get all the approvals, and within five weeks we were at full capacity.” Johnson said.
Their first home facility delivered a medium term housing solution to seven clients. Some of the people accessing the service were just teenagers.
“We met 14 and 15 years old who were living out in the bush, we’re talking young children who just because of their sexuality or because they identify as trans they shouldn’t be kicked out of home.”
Johnson said it would surprise most people that there is a homelessness challenge outside of the CBD, saying that many of the organisation’s referrals came from city rangers discovering people living in parks and bushland.
Delivering services on a massive scale is a huge challenge and the organisation is looking for businesses that will support their homelessness services.
Johnson says the solution to homelessness has to be more than just putting a roof over someone’s head. It has to be about building up the person’s self esteem, and giving them skills that will lead to employment and an income. The charity works with training provider to help their clients get qualifications in retail, hospitality, horticulture and hairdressing.
“That’s when people start getting confidence, when they have financial autonomy, they have independence and they have skill sets.”
Johnson said as word spreads of the charity being supportive of LGBTIQ+ people so does the demand, sharing that they now also get referrals from regional areas. Transgender kids who leave regional towns due to discrimination is quite comment.
The couple hope they can continue to build the range of services they offer, and also provide a space for the queer community which is outside of the expected inner-city area.
To find out more about ALYA: Assisting Your Life to Achieve visit their website or drop in to their op-shop at 10 McKinnon Street, Cockburn.
Graeme Watson
