It’s difficult for many of us to imagine the harsh reality of living on the streets - yet the fact is that every night an astounding 100,000+ Australians find themselves homeless. Many of these are children, with 60,000 accessing homeless services each year. Few realise that 45% of homeless people are aged under 25 and 50% are women, mostly with young children.

It is these realities that motivate the restaurants that back StreetSmart Australia each year. Monday 12 November sees Australia’s 2007 StreetSmart campaign kick off as it runs for the six weeks leading up to Christmas Eve. Now in its second year running in New South Wales, over 45 top-nosh Sydney restaurants will compete to raise the most money for StreetSmart during this festive season. Participating restaurants include Bistro Moncur (NSW), Bills (NSW), Coast (NSW), Three One Two (VIC), Chez Olivier (VIC), Sails on the Bay (VIC), Cha Cha Char (QLD), Il Centro (QLD), Pier 9 (QLD), as well as new kids on the block Christine Manfield’s Universal Restaurant (NSW) and Crown Street’s hip Toko Restaurant & Bar (NSW).

The beauty of the StreetSmart campaign lies in its simplicity. The concept is for the patrons of participating restaurants to simply donate a voluntary $2 to their total when paying the bill. The good news is that 100% of the money raised goes to directly helping the homeless through smaller, local, grass-roots organisations that often don’t receive big sponsorship dollars or extra funding.

Last year’s campaign in Australia saw diners in more than 147 restaurants donate at the end of their meal to support the work of StreetSmart. A fantastic total of $115,000 was raised. However it’s still early days - in the UK, where the initiative has been running for nine years, 550 restaurants signed up in 2006 and raised over $1.2 million dollars! “We’ve got a long way to go but it’s a great start,” says StreetSmart Australia founder and CEO Adam Robinson who encourages restaurants of all sizes and categories – be they big or small, fine-dining or café, CBD or regional - to start signing up now for 2008.

StreetSmart grants support a diverse range of projects and services. As well as food and shelter, the grants have helped to provide funding for projects such as street choirs and arts and sports programs. It is initiatives like these that assist disadvantaged people to reconnect with their community and, with new-found support and confidence, potentially build the self-esteem and networks that might help them step out of the vicious cycle of homelessness.

For a full list of participating StreetSmart restaurants, as well as other information about the program, log onto  www.streetsmartaustralia.org