When Fran packs a case for kids in out-of-home care, she delivers a boost of self-worth
Teary-eyed and emotional is the way Fran Signorelli describes feeling on being named the Westfield Chatswood Local Hero. “I was so overwhelmed,” Fran says. “(Just to know that) something I hold so deep in my heart means so much to other people.”
A $20,000 grant was awarded to Fran’s charity, Hope in a Suitcase, as she received the highest number of votes from the public. Runners up John Hartley from the Rotary Club of Chatswood Roseville and Rachel Krippner from Lifeline, each received $5,000 grants for their charities.
Fran, 61, runs the North Sydney branch of the non-profit organisation that provides children who are going into foster care or out-of-home care with suitcases filled with new clothes, pyjamas, toiletries, a book and a soft toy or doll.
“For the young people who are receiving the bag, it gives them hope and dignity,” Fran says. “It also sends them a very strong message that they are cared for and thought about by the community.”
“It’s not going to fix the immediate issue at hand, but it changes the way the children view themselves.”
Fran and her husband Paul have owned the High Street Flower Market in Willoughby for 46 years and started the North Shore branch of Hope in a Suitcase in March 2022. “It was the middle of COVID, and Paul and I decided that we wanted to do something that was going to lift the spirits of the (Willoughby) community,” she says.
Fran had friends who were foster carers, and she and Paul had provided children with crisis care themselves. She explains that often children are removed from their families in a rush, with no time to pack their belongings, so will come into care with just their school bag and the clothes they are wearing. “So it falls on the foster care family to provide clothing for them,” she says.
She explains that babies go into care too, sometimes straight from hospital, and can arrive in just the nappy and clothes they are wearing. Hope in a Suitcase provides bags for babies, filled with essential items like nappies, bottles, clothes and wraps, along with bags for children and teens of all ages, suited to their needs.
Fran calls on the local community through social media to donate new clothing and goods for the suitcases, and suitcases themselves, which are then dropped to her flower market. While she originally started collecting, storing and packing the bags out of her North Ryde home, Fran now has a space in Pymble which was generously offered to her by a local business. Last year she delivered 5,000 bags to the Department of Communities and Justice.
She spends around two days a week on the charity and has a large number of volunteers to help her pack the bags. “When I say the community is amazing – they’re amazing,” Fran says. There’s even a knitting group at the Dougherty Community Centre in Chatswood who donate hand-knitted baby blankets and cardigans, ‘that will go with the child and be valued.’
Grateful to Westfield for the grant, Fran says it will help her to continue to give hope and dignity to children entering out-of-home care. “It’s not going to fix the immediate issue at hand, but it changes the way the children view themselves,” she says.
Those wishing to volunteer or donate to Hope in a Suitcase can email: northsydney@hiasc.org.au