Community Impact Award

Founder of homelessness charity Agape Outreach Inc., Theresa Mitchell is the winner of the 2025 Southern Cross University Alumni Impact Award for Community Impact, an honour that shines a light on her personal resilience and on the urgency of the homelessness crisis in the Northern Rivers and Gold Coast regions.

Theresa wraps her arms around a man on his first visit to the outreach centre. It’s a long hug, and it’s clear her compassionate approach is very much about dignity.

“Homelessness isn’t just about bricks and mortar,” Theresa says, ”it’s about belonging. People need to know they matter. Every person has a story, and every story matters.”

“The most important thing we give isn’t food, it’s unconditional, sacrificial love. That’s what ‘Agape’ means in Greek. People need to feel valued before they can start rebuilding their lives.”

Her own story, as Theresa puts it, “hasn’t always been easy. I’ve done it tough.” She endured domestic violence, and at just three weeks pregnant her husband left. For the next 15 years, she raised her son as a single mother while also fostering 37 children with intensive needs over six years.

During that time, she found herself pulled towards roles that centred on care and community, getting involved in church life and eventually becoming an ordained minister. But it was her encounters with homelessness on the streets that ignited her calling.

“I would walk past people who were hungry, and I couldn’t just ignore it. I baked a meal, walked down the street and said, ‘Who’s hungry?’”

Soon she was feeding 35 people a night, but the thought of jumping through government hoops to expand that offering was overwhelming.

Theresa’s ability to grow Agape into a professional, sustainable organisation with an holistic approach, owes much to her time at Southern Cross University where she studied a Bachelor of Psychological Science, graduating in 2022, and a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours) 2023.

"At first, I thought, how on earth am I going to get through this degree? But Southern Cross was incredible. It helped to shape the person that I am" she says

Her tertiary studies allowed her to lead a team of volunteers and staff with confidence.

“We have over 300 volunteers and ten paid staff. We collect about three tonnes of rescued food each week that would normally go to waste, and are feeding about 1500 per week.”

“We're finding senior citizens, or people on a fixed income, are in food insecurity. The cost of living is so high, all of their money is going into rent, and there's no money left for food, so we try to support them.

“We have a psychology department and a counselling department,” run with the assistance of Southern Cross University interns. “We do basic life skills classes, barista and cooking classes, getting ready for work programs, alcohol and drug aid, mental health and wellness programs teaching resilience.”

But, even after 16 years of Agape, the crisis is deepening.

"Homelessness is changing. We need to understand that this could be your neighbour, your parent, your grandparent. The ones you see are the rough sleepers, not the people in the motels, families, youth that are couch surfing, living in cars. Homelessness is so much bigger than what people expect or understand, and a person doesn't have to look homeless to be homeless.”

The next chapter? A plan to pursue her PhD with Southern Cross and a commitment to learning the language of politics.

“Their language is numbers and finance. If I want real policy change, I need to speak their language.”

Her doctoral research will put dollar figures on the costs of leaving people homeless, from hospital admissions to policing, long-term welfare reliance to mental health deterioration.

“If we can show the preventative savings of proper housing and support, it becomes harder for governments to ignore,” she explains. “My PhD is going to help me shape the future that I envision.”

The Alumni Impact Award “isn’t just for me,” Theresa says. “It’s for every volunteer who has cooked a meal, every person who has given their time or resources to help someone doing it tough.”

She says it’s recognition of the power of education, the strength of compassion and the belief that communities can change when people care enough to act.

“I have to fundraise every single month to keep the doors open because we're non funded. This award will cause ripples and raise community awareness of what we’re doing at Agape, and that makes it harder for politicians to ignore us.”

It was also during her studies that Theresa was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia and for a woman who once questioned whether she could finish her studies, there is something deeply personal in the honour.

“There was a moment of ‘Wow! I did it. I didn't think I could. That makes me teary.”

“I want people to know that no matter the struggles you’ve faced, if you’re resourceful, you can still change lives.”

In November 2025, Theresa was announced as the New South Wales Local Hero in the 2026 Australian of the Year Awards.