A desire to reach out to local residents as a voice of hope prompted Rosanna Baptist Church (RBC) to approach its not-for-profit organisation, 3081 Hope, to run a series of markets recently.

“Earlier this year, the church said they wanted to have more engagement in the neighbourhood because we wanted to get to know the community better, and for the community to know us,” said 3081 Hope Board Chair, Kathryn Green. “The markets are a fun and practical way to raise our profile in the area so that long-term relationships can be built with both residents and organisations.”

“The church is in a very prominent position but people don’t always notice it as they walk past,” said 3081 Hope founder and director, Melissa Enticott. “The market has been great for showing people that this is actually a church rather than a hall, for building trust and for raising awareness about what we do.”

Since 2020, 3081 Hope has provided community support services for disadvantaged people living in the 3081 postcode area, offering mentoring and resources such as job-interview coaching and course application assistance. “We saw a need for assistance amongst local families – the concept was to help particularly women who were unemployed or who had family issues and extra difficulties. We found that many hadn’t finished their education and so our idea was to listen to their needs, mentor them and assist in whatever ways were required,” Melissa said.

“One lady was interested in a career in cyber security, so we assisted her to find the right course and to work through obstacles that held her back from attending classes, providing her with childcare,” Melissa said. “We’re not about handouts, but we assist people to achieve their goals and follow along in their journey, helping them through to the end.”

RBC also runs 3081 Angels, another not-for-profit organisation which collects preloved children’s goods to give to local families in need.

“Our driving force is to show Christ’s love in such a way that people will have confidence if they ever wanted to take a further step to get to know Jesus or have Him in their lives,” Melissa said. “Interestingly, one person who attended a market came to our church on the Sunday because he’d felt a need to find God, and the market had shown him where this church was located.”

All hands were on deck for the market as RBC representatives helped with setup and pack up, cooked sausages and made goods to sell. Between 250-300 people dropped in to peruse around 30 stalls run by church folk, local businesses and organisations, selling things like jams, candles, spices, clothing and jewellery. Social media was a valuable tool for advertising the event.

“We were very encouraged by the feedback,” Kathryn said. “It was a very community-building event, and we were touched by the relationships that were created and by the way the stallholders all rallied around each other. We now have an email list that will be helpful for future markets and events.”

The aim is to run the markets quarterly, with the next one planned for 5-9pm on Friday, December 6.

For information on 3081 Hope visit www.3081hope.org.au, or email info@3081hope.org.au