Dave’s fund for the Melbourne Youth Bus
Hi,
For those new to me here’s a quick background story for you. I’m a volunteer bus driver and Covid-19 took out the funding for the Youth Outreach Bus.
I’ve been volunteering for the past decade driving around late at night building relationships and helping at risk homeless street kids in Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip to get them into mentoring, housing, drug programs etc.
The bus program was earmarked and eventually wound up by the charity but myself and a group of others simply refused to let that happen and wanted to at least go down swinging to save it. Problem was due to the pandemic a lot of people were in trouble financially so I felt asking directly for funds fundraising at the time to be a bit unrealistic and simply a bit on the nose.
But who said this couldn’t be fun trying to save a bus so I challenged myself to start writing music during lockdown, and see if I can put out a new song every week. You’ve might seen them pop on the page each Friday during the various lockdowns. I didn’t get much but every listen (which was free to do) not only helped raised some funds but if we had enough listeners jump on and listen there was a chance the Spotify Algorithm would kick in and put the song on a bigger playlist which could raise more funds.
In effect every listen was and still is a little lottery ticket to help save the bus. I really didn’t know how the bus thing was going to play out and to be honest for a big part of the pandemic I thought we had no hope. Eventually though we managed to find a new charity, put in an expression of interest for the bus with the old one, was then donated the bus by the old charity and a few months later with some amazing support and help we are back. The bus company Crown Coaches which originally donated the bus also came on board to continue supporting the bus by donating all maintenace for the vehicle including the roadworthy that was needed so it could change hands. Through the pandemic I think we all learned what was really important to us and what was worth fighting for and this little bus was. I’m just so so happy it’s back out on the road under the new charity In2Life with its new name MY Bus which is short for Melbourne Youth Bus, which was based on the feedback from the young people of them referring to it as “Their Safe Place” Cheers Dave :)
For those new to me here’s a quick background story for you. I’m a volunteer bus driver and Covid-19 took out the funding for the Youth Outreach Bus.
I’ve been volunteering for the past decade driving around late at night building relationships and helping at risk homeless street kids in Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip to get them into mentoring, housing, drug programs etc.
The bus program was earmarked and eventually wound up by the charity but myself and a group of others simply refused to let that happen and wanted to at least go down swinging to save it. Problem was due to the pandemic a lot of people were in trouble financially so I felt asking directly for funds fundraising at the time to be a bit unrealistic and simply a bit on the nose.
But who said this couldn’t be fun trying to save a bus so I challenged myself to start writing music during lockdown, and see if I can put out a new song every week. You’ve might seen them pop on the page each Friday during the various lockdowns. I didn’t get much but every listen (which was free to do) not only helped raised some funds but if we had enough listeners jump on and listen there was a chance the Spotify Algorithm would kick in and put the song on a bigger playlist which could raise more funds.
In effect every listen was and still is a little lottery ticket to help save the bus. I really didn’t know how the bus thing was going to play out and to be honest for a big part of the pandemic I thought we had no hope. Eventually though we managed to find a new charity, put in an expression of interest for the bus with the old one, was then donated the bus by the old charity and a few months later with some amazing support and help we are back. The bus company Crown Coaches which originally donated the bus also came on board to continue supporting the bus by donating all maintenace for the vehicle including the roadworthy that was needed so it could change hands. Through the pandemic I think we all learned what was really important to us and what was worth fighting for and this little bus was. I’m just so so happy it’s back out on the road under the new charity In2Life with its new name MY Bus which is short for Melbourne Youth Bus, which was based on the feedback from the young people of them referring to it as “Their Safe Place” Cheers Dave :)
Organizer
David Nealon
Organizer
St Kilda, VIC
In 2 Life Inc as the Operator of a PBI
Beneficiary