Dear Inner Circle,

“Hey Rev, I haven’t used a needle in four days!” We were standing on the main drag of Kings Cross. “Wow”, I said, “Congratulations! It must be an hour-by-hour battle.” “More like, minute-by-minute,” he said. He told me that Wayside was the only place he felt safe because everywhere he was surrounded by people who look like friends but who only use him for their own purposes. “My goal is to become a volunteer at Wayside and one day maybe, find myself on staff.” We hugged in the middle of the street and as I hailed a cab he said, “Rob was a drunk and he’s dry and alive and on your team. Andrew was helpless with heroin but he’s clean and on your team. If they did it, I can do it!” As I shut the door on the cab, I just said, “I’m cheering for you.”

Today, just a few minutes ago, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, Prime Minister of Australia, officially launched our iconic new book, Wayside. A crowd of 100 people gathered on the Wayside rooftop to get their first peak at a book which reaches right into the soul of Sydney and celebrates the diverse characters that call Kings Cross home. Media mingled with rough sleepers and Wayside donors in a community event that couldn’t capture the essence of Wayside more. Few have the capacity or stamina to be a PM but most in the country think they could do a better job. The PM’s love and passion for our vision and our work is 100% real. There are not many books launched by a PM and there have not been many PM’s who would launch such a book. We’re proud of how much love, sweat and tears have gone into making this book what it is, and we hope that you will love it too. You can get your copy here. The official launch will be followed by a party for all comers. Every street person who appears in the book will be given a framed, individual portrait, David Wenham will cut a cake and there will be speeches not just from Prime Ministers, but from street dwellers.

Keep reading here.