Conner’s Corner

Week 34 and Week 35 of Conner’s Corner.
Place: Emma Miller Park, Wednesday nights.

Week 34:
Donations taken: 201 items
Brought back: 82 items

Week 35:
Donations taken: 247 items
Brought back: 74 items

The last 2 weeks have been really positive. The community and other services have been beyond understanding of our decision to stop donations. We are so thankful for the support we have received from the community at Emma Miller, from the other services and from all of you online.
The support has made a difficult decision easier to navigate and we are thankful to have your support ❤️

This week will be our final week of donations. We are preparing all the stock we do have to be donated to Uplift Brisbane to continue supporting the community with clothing, extras and of course their weekly hot meals.

I highly encourage you to follow other homeless support services so you can show them the same support you have shown us. Your encouragement, interactions, and support have not gone unnoticed and it’s thanks to you that we have been able to provide so many donations to the Emma Miller community.

Thank you for being a part of our journey, and I look forward to seeing how your support will continue to help others ❤️

Love,
Conner’s Corner ❤️

PLEASE READ: An important update on the future of Conner’s Corner.

I want to start by saying that we are incredibly thankful for all of the love and support we have received over the last 8 months. You helped make supporting the homeless community possible. With your donations, words of encouragement and support, we have been able to donate hundreds of hygiene items, clothing and extras directly to the community at Emma Miller Park.

I started Conner’s Corner as a way to make my grief productive, and to honour my nephew who passed away in March 2023.

I wanted to put the love and care that I wish I could give to him unto others, and so Conner’s Corner was born. I did this because I wanted the thanks of our efforts to go to him. My life could’ve gone a completely different way, and honestly, I thank Conner for a lot of why it didn’t. So I felt giving something in his memory was the least I could do.

Our only goal when we started was to donate 100 hygiene packs by December 2025 in Conner’s name. As you’ve seen, we quickly reached and grew beyond that goal. Clothing wasn’t apart of the plan but we saw a need and began sourcing.

Conner’s Corner opened many doors. It allowed Sean and I into a world we hadn’t seen much of or interacted with. We got to meet people of all ages and backgrounds living amongst different situations. We saw injustice and we saw grief. We learnt of traumas, we listened to and supported people going through rough times. We formed connections with people that we otherwise never would have met.

It taught us a lot. We have cried, laughed, talked for hours, and learnt so much about the difficulty of homelessness and how one can become stuck within it.

We wanted the community to be the first to hear the news: we are stopping Conner’s Corner weekly donations. We told as many of our regulars as possible on Wednesday night, and Uplift Brisbane. On Wednesday coming we will be telling even more members of the community so that they are prepared for our final night on February 18th.

This is something we put a lot of thought into over the last few months.

My study and work commitments have changed and it is getting harder to manage with less free time. We aren’t a charity with a team behind us. We are just 2 people who wanted to help, and put our heart and souls into it for the last 8 months.
I once felt Conner’s Corner could’ve lasted forever but with just the 2 of us sourcing, packing, and donating every Wednesday, it wasn’t as possible as I thought it could be.

We have discussed what happens now. We can’t commit to the same frequency of donations but we can ensure the community is supported during this time.
Uplift Brisbane attend Emma Miller Place - they have done so for years. They cook hot meals, bring drinks, snacks, and feed the community every Wednesday night. They bring connection and give people time and hope. They are a genuinely beautiful group of people with a large team.

It is VERY important to Sean and I that we donate ALL of our items we currently have to the community at Emma Miller. You have donated to us FOR them. We have sourced items FOR them. We will make sure it goes TO them.

Over the next few weeks we will continue to fill up the car and bring whatever we can squeeze in. After the 18th we will be donating what is left to Uplift Brisbane so they can still provide clothing for the community at Emma Miller. Outside of Conner’s Corner, Uplift does bring clothing each Wednesday, so we hope the need will continue to be met.

We will be coming back to see everyone, however it will be infrequent. At this stage, that is what is manageable. We will post an update when we go and help Uplift Brisbane - it isn’t a complete goodbye!

Please know this wasn’t an easy decision to make. We never want to promise more than we can deliver, and we hope you all understand.

We hope that we have done some good in our short time with this community of beautiful people, and we hope we have inspired you to continue helping where you can ❤️

Love,
Conner’s Corner ❤️

Week 33 of Conner’s Corner.
Place: Our weekly clothing rummage at Emma Miller Park. 7pm - 8:30pm every Wednesday.

Donations taken: 227 items
Brought back: 56 items

DONATION NOTICE: I apologise for not getting back to people regarding donation pickup! We are under a tight personal schedule at the moment and arranging pickup times is difficult. We will be posting an update this weekend regarding donation pickup ❤️

Week 33 was a bit different for us!
We have been noticing Emma Miller is getting busier, and with that has come more vulnerable people. This has its own challenges - resources are spread a bit more thin, different people with different struggles are mixing in an environment that is already on edge. It can be a lot.

This week a member of Rosie’s was (as far as we are aware) pushed by a member of the community. This caused Rosie’s to pack up and leave very quickly - completely understandable. Safety is always a number 1 priority.

On a more positive note, we had Dan - a member of the community who reached out a few months back and created a connection, surprised us with a visit and some donations of men’s shoes and hygiene packs. We donated these via Uplift Brisbane and within minutes the donations were cleared!

I spoke briefly with a woman who said she was “new to this” and briefed her on the services that are offered on Emma Miller. Sean spoke with another woman who had so much knowledge on the government housing system, realestate and different areas of Brisbane. We always leave feeling like we’ve learnt something - the ride home is never dull!

Love
Conner’s Corner ❤️

Hi everyone!

Sadly we won't be able to make it to donations tonight as Rhi is sick.

We apologies for any inconvenience and we look forward to seeing everyone next week.

We have let members of the community know so they can pass on our message.

Love
Conner’s Corner ❤️

Week 31 of Conner’s Corner.
Place: Our weekly clothing rummage at Emma Miller Park. 7pm - 8:30pm every Wednesday.

Donations taken: 170 items
Brought back: 56 items

This week was packed with people. I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.

Thankfully Rosies - Friends On The Street and Drug Arm come prepared with not only food and hot drinks but also extra items like sleeping bags and blankets. This has been helping out the community tremendously and we are grateful.

We filled our boxes this week and brought some sleeping bags and a tent my sister had donated to us, leaving the park much lighter than when we arrived.

Despite the growing number of community, Uplift Brisbane has done an AMAZING job at providing nourishing meals each Wednesday. Despite not having showers available on the strip anymore, people are leaving fed, clothed and valued.

From the second we get out of the car to the moment we are finished loading the table we have people grabbing for necessities.

We find it very difficult to ask people to wait so we can get photos of the set up, and as the months have gone on, the crowd has grown - it’s just something we literally don’t have space to do without breaching people’s privacy and capturing them in the images (any photos uploaded with members of the community shown were done so with their consent).

Thank you for being apart of Conner’s Corner and supporting our journey of supporting others. This started as a way to make my grief productive and help others. I’m grateful if we have inspired anyone else to do the same.

Love,
Conner’s Corner ❤️

Week 30 of Conner’s Corner.
Place: Our weekly clothing rummage at Emma Miller Park. 7pm - 8:30pm every Wednesday.

Donations taken: 152 items
Brought back: 7 items!!

Our first week back after a 2 week break and it was a busy one! We saw few people that we knew by name as floods of new people filled the streets.

As One Voice is no longer at Emma Miller, you can see the impact of the loss of service. We are hopeful this can be replaced with another shower van soon.

Everyone that we spoke to seemed to have a positive Christmas and New Year which we are grateful for.

This was our first time I think ever hitting below double digits on the items we’ve brought back! We brought less than usual - not expecting such a large jump in numbers of people, leaving us with 7 items left.

People are seeking sleeping bags and tents - something we don’t generally have, and if we do, it’s gone quicker than we got it. If you have any to donate please let us know! It seems there’s a lot of people new to the streets.

We hope you all had a safe and happy Christmas and New Year! ❤️

Love,
Conner’s Corner.

A recap of Week 27 of Conner’s Corner.
Place: Our weekly clothing rummage at Emma Miller Park. 7pm - 8:30pm every Wednesday.

Donations taken: 209 items
Brought back: 62 items

Week 27 was our final week of donations for the year! We have taken this week and next week off for the holidays 🎄

Week 27 was another busy one! Many new faces amongst the known. Thanks to our amazing friend Molly who supplied us with gummy bears and chocolate to bring to donations, we were able to spread a little pre-Christmas cheer and give out some extra treats.

We got there early and told as many people as we could about our 2 week break (including the services). Although we feel guilty about taking some time off, we were met with so much understanding and love form the community; no one felt the break wasn’t deserved and it filled our hearts to know the community looks out for us too ❤️

We saw the return of Aunty - a well loved and respected member of the community at Emma Miller. We shared a big hug and spoke of her time away - it has been a few months since we saw her but to know she is safe and well made our night!

We heard the shocking news that the One Voice shower van will no longer be servicing the Emma Miller community. This is detrimental to the community as it takes away a valuable method of hygiene, dignity and resources. If this service is not replaced, many will go without showers and basic hygiene access - something we all deserve to have. I can only imagine the impact this will have on the community.

We will be exploring other agencies that may be able to replace this service to some capacity (if this hasn’t been organised already).

Love
Conner’s Corner ❤️

Week 26 of Conner’s Corner.
Place: Our weekly clothing rummage at Emma Miller Park. 7pm - 8:30pm every Wednesday.

Donations taken: 195 items
Brought back: 87 items

We arrived at Emma Miller to a bag that was left on the footpath with a note stating that it was for us. We have no idea who left it but we wanted to say a big thank you! We also had the lovely Karyn drop off some more donations directly to us at Emma Miller - thank you Karyn! ❤️

As I have described in other posts, the majority of our interactions at Emma Miller are VERY positive. We have been welcomed into the community with open arms and are treated respectfully each week. However, we left the strip feeling a little disheartened this week as for the first time someone had become aggressive and physically acted out at our table.

This was our first interaction with this person. They were clearly not in a great place and when I was trying to remove the lid off a clothing box, they became heightened and pushed the box away from them.

Do I think they meant to hurt me? Absolutely not. It happened very quick.
I think they had entered into flight mode - there were lots of people at the table and the person wanted to leave and just shoved the box away, however it slid into me and it hurt. Quite a bit.
It didn’t just hurt my stomach but also a bit of mine and Sean’s motivation.

We always want to be completely transparent. We do our best to form genuine connections with other people and to approach with understanding - not judgement. We try to make a little positive impact each week.

I would be lying if I didn’t say that it caused us some anxiety. What if next time it’s an object that is thrown? What if someone tries to harm us directly? We had to set some lines in the sand, and talk very openly about what would cause us to stop running Conner’s Conner. One of which is violence.

We have complete understanding that we are entering a vulnerable community. There’s a lot of people on any given night, all within different stages of life, illness and/or beliefs. We can be empathetic and understanding but we have to have boundaries regarding safety.

Sadly this isn’t the usual positive update, but outside of this we had a great night and are of course so thankful for the community that has accepted us into their lives.

Love
Conner’s Corner ❤️

Week 24 of Conner’s Corner.
Place: Our weekly clothing rummage at Emma Miller Park. 7pm - 8:30pm every Wednesday.

Donations taken: 207 items
Brought back: 95 items

Late post regarding last week, we apologise!

As we are in the midst of moving, we have personally told members of the community at Emma Miller that we will be taking this upcoming Wednesday off. We miss everyone already 💔

Week 24 at Emma Miller was a busy one!

We had our usual light-hearted catchups, saw some faces we hadn’t seen in a few weeks and were able to meet new people and provide them with the essentials that we offer.

We brought both cars as we dropped off some large tents + air mattresses (2x beautiful followers donated these a few weeks back to us - thank you again!) to Emmanuel City Mission in South Brisbane. We didn’t even get these donations past the gate as a couple waiting outside was able to take the donations. We hope they have helped ❤️

We brought extra suitcases and bags in my car + a box full of extras, although by the time I found a park and walked my stuff over, the extras box was half empty! The extras box is always a very popular item we bring as there generally is a lot of variety.

On Week 23 we met a lovely woman named Shelly. We shared numbers and she has been working hard to help charities and volunteers like ourselves to source and provide donations to the community. She was able to provide us with soaps and extras on Week 23, and for Week 24 she bought tents that we could give away at our table ❤️ she is a very inspiring and committed woman, a huge thank you to Shelly!

Whilst Sean spent the night chatting to some of our favourite people to share laughs with, I spent a majority of my night talking with someone we recently had the pleasure to begin knowing. He is a cheeky gentleman who never seems to run out of dad jokes.

He and I spent the evening talking about his struggles; what weighs on him, and how he copes. He told me of all he tried to do to help a friend of his get better, but sadly his friend is past a point of return with his health. He and I became emotional talking about his journey. He shared some deep, personal things with me and it was hard leaving knowing we won’t be able to check in for at least 2 weeks.

By the end of the night we had flipped it around. We began recommending books to each other and I assured him I would read one by next fortnight (Week 26) and let him know what I think. I hope this gives him a little something to look forward to, as I’m excited to share this interest with him too ❤️

Love,
Conner’s Corner.

Week 23 of Conner’s Corner.
Place: Our weekly clothing rummage at Emma Miller Park. 7pm - 8:30pm every Wednesday.

Donations taken: 203 items
Brought back: 64 items

‼️Please look at our previous post regarding a missing community members dog named Boof. He is missing and we need to reunite him with his owner‼️

We heard the heartbreaking news of Boof going missing from one of our regulars. We are devastated and mourn the absence alongside his owner. We have been checking online forums and impounded/lost animal websites frequently. Please keep an eye out within Brisbane and online. If found, please contact us directly.

The days are getting warmer but the nights are still chilly so our output on summer and winter clothes have made picking what donations to bring a little challenging! Some weeks no one touches the winter clothes and others it’s all people want.

Thankfully SOS - Street Outreach Service came packed with tents and other goodies to keep people warm and comfortable. We have worked together alongside other amazing organisations such as One Voice and Rosies - Friends On The Street to assist people in need. It’s a pleasure to volunteer alongside so many likeminded people.

Connecting with the community is so important to Sean and me. We value our village and want to make sure that where able we can make a positive and impactful change.

The people that frequent Emma Miller rely on these services for many reasons, not just homelessness directly. For some it’s companionship, others it’s for advice and resources. For some it’s a simple hot meal or a warm shower. Whatever the need, the strip works together to ensure we can meet people where they’re at.

Love,
Conner’s Corner ❤️

‼️ATTENTION‼️

A well-loved member of the Emma Miller community is missing his companion Boof.

Boof went missing around 2-3 weeks ago approximately. He is a beautiful blue staffy, very bulky and muscular but the sweetest boy. He is blue in colour and has a white belly. He has a thick blue collar.

Please if you can keep an eye out within Brisbane City and online for impounded and found pets. We would love to return Boof home to his person.

Love,
Conner’s Corner ❤️

Week 22 of Conner’s Corner.
Place: Our weekly clothing rummage at Emma Miller Park. 7pm - 8:30pm every Wednesday.

Donations taken: 223 items
Brought back: 67 items

We had the BEST surprise of seeing our good friend Bianca! She is who first invited us to Emma Miller alongside Uplift Brisbane - giving Conner’s Corner a place to exist. Through Bianca and Uplift Brisbane’s kindness and support, Conner’s Corner has become independent within the community.

We again brought a large container of extras. We packed it full of socks, beanies, canned food and extras like hygiene items and belts. The box was almost empty when we packed to leave - another successful night of providing much needed items.

Last night Metallica was playing at Suncorp. The streets were bustling with crowds, and the community was filled with longtime fans. A few said they would go to listen to the concert on the outside of the venue and they were beyond happy to talk about their favourite songs and similar bands they like.

We often hear very personal stories from people. Stories of awful medical problems, trauma, loss of family and community, lack of sustainable housing…
Last night we were told something that has weighed on my heart since. This man within the depths of addiction said, “The hospitals see you’re a ju**ie and the people stop treating you like someone worth helping”.

I can’t help but wonder in what other ways we are treating people for what they appear to be on the outside, instead of looking at them as someone worth helping.

Love,
Conner’s Corner.