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From Luke’s Journal May 2025 | Vol. 30 No. 1 | MIMBY

I first started working at Soul Clinic in 2010 when a local GP was inspired to team up with Life Church’s Soul Café in Newcastle, NSW.

Soul Café was started in 2003 as a community response to the deep community need for Newcastle’s most vulnerable, homeless, and at risk.  The aim was to serve the community doing all that we can, with all that we have, for whoever walks through the doors. 

At the café, food is served at individual tables, brought to you by a smiling volunteer, who may also pull up a chair and have a chat.  Breakfast is served every morning and lunch from Mondays to Thursdays.  In 2024, almost 82,200 free hot meals were provided – an average of 225 per day! Those who attend are treated as guests and welcomed warmly with respect.  It is a safe welcoming space, with a host of volunteers, many regulars and a vast range of guests.

An Open Pantry is available three mornings a week for people to take food to cook at home. Many businesses donate regularly, as well as individuals.  There are also social events, including Christmas dinner, State of Origin nights, and regular “Friday Chill” live music at the nearby park. The vibe is that of a large boisterous family.  Fundraising is held in earnest once a year during the “Soul Sleep-Out” where a local parking station becomes a temporary overnight home for people in swags, tents, and cars.

Over the years, the café was expanded beyond serving meals to cater to the whole person.  It is now the centre for several different services – so much so, that the new name, Soul Hub, is much more descriptive.  There is a convergence of help from many different areas.  These include health and lifestyle services. 

Health options include regular:

1. Chiropractor
2. Audiology
3. SMART Recovery (for addicts of all kinds)
4. Podiatry
5. Medical Clinic
6. Gambler’s Anon
7. NDIS

For lifestyle assistance, there are:

1. Hairdressers
2. Laundry services
3. Showers
4. Hygiene packs

And if you need help getting back on your feet, other services include: 

1. Jenny’s Place (for abused women)
2. Centrelink support
3. Castle Employment
4. Family Inclusion Strategies Hunter (FISH) for parents and children who may have been separated by child protection authorities
5. WHOS (a NSW Health 6-week day programme for men and women on an opioid substitution treatment)
6. Services Australia
7. Legal Aid
8. Faith Discovery Group
9. VOCAL (Victims of Crime Assistance League)
10. Life Church

Most importantly, Soul Hub offers hope – hope that people care and that lives can heal.  Many volunteers have previously been guests who have been helped significantly and want to give back.  Over three hundred volunteers give over 1,100 hours per week to the community.  Soul Hub’s catch-cry is Everyone’s welcome, because nobody’s perfect, and anything is possible.

“Over three hundred volunteers give over 1,100 hours per week to the community.”

A local GP, Dr Milton Sales, was inspired in 2010 to coordinate with Soul Café as a point of contact. Soul Clinic aimed to provide weekly access to bulk-billed medical services for guests. Medicare rebates received were donated to the clinic to provide supplies for the patients, for example, medications at a partner pharmacy, dressings, COVID-19 RATs (rapid antigen tests), and the upkeep of basic equipment – thermometers, sphygmomanometers, scales, and the like. It is staffed by about half a dozen volunteer doctors who work once a month for a 1-2 hour lunchtime shift. About half of these doctors have a Christian faith background.

For myself, every few months I would come across someone whom I would take on in my regular practice to assist with long-term care. Those have been some of the most rewarding life journeys I have had the chance to walk alongside as a GP. Many have spent time in prison. Many have mental health issues. Many have traumatic pasts. Many are homeless or in public housing. Most are on Centrelink payments. It has been a joy to see people’s lives change over time: mental health stability, fewer incarcerations, commencement of employment, relationships established, and families forming. Of course, sometimes their lives improve, sometimes there are recurring cycles, and sometimes we lose track of people along the way. But overall, it is a privilege to be included.

As Soul Clinic enters its fifteenth year, some GPs have started regular weekly bulk-billed onsite services. A federal government-funded clinical trial will increase GP hours, plus add nurse and pharmacist hours. It will utilise generative AI (artificial intelligence) technology for pre-consultation and clinical decision support. This is improving whole person healthcare and the services for those in greatest need. Who knows what the future may hold?

“As health professionals looking to affect our ‘backyards’,  I wonder if there might be a similar service near you that would benefit from a model like this where you could volunteer?”

As health professionals looking to affect our ‘backyards’, I wonder if there might be a similar service near you that would benefit from a model like this where you could volunteer?

In the words of Jesus,“For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…. The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matt 25:35-36, 40)

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