If you have further questions or concerns, you can contact us via our Get in Touch page.
We provide services for the Canberra Community, including people experiencing hardship and disadvantage, people living with disabilities and the broader community through Community Development events and our Community Centres. Communities at Work is one of Canberra’s largest not-for-profit organisations and the largest provider of children’s services in the ACT.
Last Christmas, Communities at Work helped over 630 households (+1,700 individuals) by
offering access to essential food and gifts to ensure that everyone in need gets
something to make their and their family’s Christmas special.
Each year, our volunteers and staff set up specially decorated Christmas rooms in the Gungahlin and Tuggeranong Community Centres called “Christmas Rooms”, where we display all the donations. Clients of our community pantry or crisis support services are invited to visit the rooms and choose gifts for themselves and their families.
We check a person’s Medicare card to confirm the number of people in a family.
This indicates how many gifts a person can collect.
Please don’t wrap your donations. Our team checks gifts to ensure they are safe and suitable. We offer unwrapped gifts because people want to see what they are choosing for their loved ones; however, wrapping paper and cards are provided.
You can download the donation list here. We’re often short of Christmas food and gifts for teenagers and adults. If stuck for ideas, gift cards are useful ($20-$30 lots).
You can drop off your donations at the below sites.
We’ll update the location list as and when other places/organisations/shops begin accepting donations for Communities at Work.
This is an award-winning Christmas fundraising drive set up by radio station Mix 106.3 and Transport Canberra. They encourage the community to donate to our Appeal and then drive a specially decorated bus for 2-3 weeks in December to pick up donations from schools, businesses, government departments and community groups.
In short, they ‘pack the bus’ with Christmas donations for our Christmas Rooms!
We accept donations at all times of the year. We provide people with free food, hygiene items, bus tickets, pay for medical scripts, provide showers and shower packs, give information and referrals, and assist in any way we can.
Find out more about how we help people in need here.
