Alliance Down Under GIVES BACK
Community Service Projects during Alliance Down Under 2012

This year, Alliance Down Under is proud to announce a community service project offering with two activities that allow as many people to participate as possible. Both of these projects are bringing fantastic benefits to the local community and they have been designed to make them as accessible to all attendees as possible.

Dress for Success Brisbane - (www.dressforsuccess.org/brisbane)

Dress for Success Brisbane is a global not-for-profit organisation offering services designed to help disadvantaged women find jobs and remain employed.

The mission of Dress for Success is to 'promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life"

Since June 2008. Dress for Success Brisbane has assisted over 2,000 disadvantaged Brisbane women entering the workforce to boost their self-esteem and achieve their full potential.

Representatives from Dress For Success Brisbane will be on-site both Thursday - Friday, 8-9 November to collect your gently used women’s accessories (jewelry, handbags, shoes, scarfs). They have an urgent need for shoes, especially size 5-6 and 9-12, black handbags and unused mascara and lipsticks.  (lipsticks are to be in sealed packaging).

Collection hours are 10 am - 1 pm, 8-9 November in the registration/vendor area of the conference.

Guide Dogs Queensland -
(www.guidedogsqld.com.au)

Every minute of the day our team is working to equip, empower and educate people who are blind or vision impaired through a range of tailored services and programs.  All are offered to clients free of charge but it is perhaps our beloved Guide Dogs which attract the most attention, yet these devoted animals are the most costly to provide.

Each one costs $30,000 to breed, train and place and the demand for our Guides has increased dramatically. Presently more than 15 clients are on our waiting list for a dog.  But as the population grows, ages and working Guide Dogs are retired these figures are set to rise. Already an Australian loses part or all of their sight every 65 minutes.

Donations, bequests, merchandise, Art Union tickets and community support help pay for these remarkable animals, as we receive no Government funding for their training. We also receive limited funding for White Cane training, special education programs, school holiday camps, counselling, Low Vision clinics and many of our other services.

Without the efforts of the community we could not provide these and many other programs to the thousands of people who contact Guide Dogs Queensland each year.

Because there is no way of knowing exactly what kind of job the dog will eventually have, puppies must be exposed to as many different human situations as possible when they are young. They go to work with their puppy-raisers to learn the patience needed for human employment. They travel on every mode of transportation possible. They shop regularly with their raisers to learn that the meat counter in a grocery store, or the stuffed animals lined up in a toy aisle, are not provided for their personal enjoyment. They learn how to meet and greet people politely and with reserved interest, so that when they are eventually teamed with a client, they will know how to be steady and supportive at the client's side.

The dogs will be onsite Thursday 8 November between 10 AM - 12 Noon and  2:30 PM – 4:00 PM, and Friday 9 November, 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon  Look for them in the Registration/vendor area.