South Marrickville -- a needy area
	The Marrickville township is south of the centre of the Local Government Area. Other suburbs in the LGA include Petersham, Lewisham, parts of Newtown and Enmore, Tempe, St Peters and Sydenham. The nominal boundary between North and South Marrickville is Marrickville Road. Silver Street Mission is just in the South Marrickville section of the LGA. A 2001 Marrickville Council/ Commonwealth Government study identifies South Marrickville as among Sydney's neediest places. Although it doesn't suffer from the problems of homelessness and visible misery
often noted by visitors to parts of neighbouring South Sydney, it contains many needy families and isolated singles. Some years ago, we identified our primary mission area as consisting of a roughly 1km diameter circle around the church. This reaches to around Addison Road to our north, Cooks River to the South, Sydenham Station to the East, and Wardell Road to the west. These are all within walking diatance of the Mission's buildings. Within this circle, we noted that the greatest needs are in the area to the south of the church location. The vast high density government estates in Illawarra Road and Cahill Place provide housing for some of the most vital and community-minded people in the area, but also house some of the people with the greatest range of problems and difficulties. Apart from local primary schools, the Air League and two or three churches struggling in the same way as the Mission struggles, there are no facilities for expressing a community life. A team of 6 could be fully occupied in that area... if we had the resources. The Mission already has some members strategically placed in South Marrickville. Even before we can commit ourselves more firmly to The Devil's Triangle, we need to develop an outreach to the "many nations and tribes" of South Marrickville. Return to Top
What can we do?
There are two parts to reaching out in these areas...
The first is ingathering. By this we mean, finding, making friends with and encouraging existing believers living in these areas to link with the Mission. Alongside this thrust, there is a need to provide community-building activities for families and individuals living in the area, regardless of their state of faith. Possibilities include video nights and social evenings geared to people with small children. Many families need a relaxed night out that is still affordable   The second part is true outreach. This entails taking Christianity into the	identifiable sub-communities of south Marrickville. Possibilities include establishing a local evening service, probably linked with a community activity of some kind. Venues could include local schools or parks, or the Air League Hall. The Mission needs a team which it could send into such work. Please pray with us!

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