ABOUT SIGNAL FLARE
Our Story
We began as a dream. The dream of a homeless man who envisaged a charity helping people like himself. He wanted to help people like him. He had not always been homeless, but a horrific accident cut short his career as a successful head chef, caused him to lose his home and everything else, and after nine long and extremely painful months in hospital he found himself on the streets of Brisbane with a back brace and a walking frame, still in horrific pain. He entered the very dark place of deep depression until he started to work as a Big Issue vendor and felt proud to be a part of working society again and to make new connections.
Then someone gave this man clothes to give away to a woman who was in need, which he did that same afternoon. He was deeply touched by the sight of the lady twirling around with joy at having “new” clothes, and that was the beginning of the idea for our BBQs for the Homeless and Others in Need.
During the day the man was busy selling the Big Issue, organizing BBQs for the homeless and others in need, and “doing a pie and Coke”, which meant that he invited other homeless people for a meal that he bought for them from the little money he earned as a Big Issue vendor. Then while eating he sat back and listened to their story, seeing if he could help somehow, and he didn’t shy away from asking his many contacts to assist him with this where he saw fit. He helped a lot of people forward this way. At night, the man slept on a park bench or in an alley way, and dreamed of starting a charity to help the homeless and others in need.
The man was Grant Richards, or Grant the Polite Guy, as his Big Issue customers affectionately called him. The charity was Signal Flare – he even already knew the name, because a signal flare is something that you throw out when you are in need, so that help is coming.
Today, Signal Flare is a registered charity and deductible gift recipient. Our BBQs have grown. Four times a year we offer a free BBQ lunch and free clothes, shoes, toiletries, non-perishable foods, children’s toys and more to the homeless and others in need in the larger Brisbane area, because we believe that everyone has the right to access the basics of life which we so easily take for granted but which are so expensive for someone who does not have much. Where possible we also offer free haircuts, job search tips and training and basic health checks.
All these products and services are donated by our amazing and compassionate community at large, and our BBQs are only possible with the help of many volunteers. We encourage employers to come and volunteer at our BBQs, they just have a chat with our guests, sitting on the grass or sharing a meal, and our guests don’t realize that the social chat is in fact a job interview. It has happened more than once that one or more of our guests left our BBQ excited to be employed, often starting the next day – our BBQs are always on a Sunday.
We aim at narrowing the gap between people with and without homes. We encourage understanding, social inclusion, equality and hope for the future. Our BBQs take a lot of work to put together but it is more than worth it, because when our guests see that we believe in them they might just start to believe in themselves again too; empowerment is often the first step towards change.
Grant the Polite Guy often says “I wish I met someone like me when I was homeless”, and we are sure there are many homeless people out there who, with a little bit of encouragement, are ready to catapult ahead into their next chapter, out of homelessness.
Can you help?
This is who we are. This is where we come from. This is what we do. If you can help, please contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
THE SIGNAL FLARE TEAM
Grant the Polite Guy - Co-Founder and Visionary
Grant the Polite Guy organized his first few BBQs for the Homeless and Others in Need while he was still homeless himself after suffering a horrific accident – yes, while helping someone! This cut short his successful career in the hospitality industry. Because he knew what hopelessness felt like, he was driven to help others, and in many cases he was a major part of why and how people managed to climb out of homelessness, well before he himself left homelessness behind him.
Although their homeless chapter is often something that people want to forget after rebuilding their lives, Grant himself kept connecting to his homeless past to be able to help more people also when he no longer lived on the streets himself.
Firstly Grant started organizing the BBQs on his own, then with help from Bernie the Polite Girl as The Polite Team, and eventually with the fully registered charity Signal Flare. The BBQs for the Homeless and Others in Need went from strength to strength. There is no better figurehead or better first President for Signal Flare than Grant the Polite Guy.
In 2015 Grant won the Community Leader of the Year Award by The Catholic Leader, and in 2016 he was awarded the Lord Mayor’s Australia Day Achievement Award for services to the homeless and others in need in the greater Brisbane area.
Due to health reasons Grant has had to scale down his activities significantly but his support of Signal Flare remains unwavering.
Berni Pailings - Co-Founder & President
Berni has a Masters in Musicology and a Grad Dip in Counselling. She was a counsellor for Drug Arm and has been a Family Support Coordinator for the Queensland Homicide Victims Support Group for the last seven years. She is passionate about social justice and believes in leading by example.
Berni met Grant the Polite Guy early 2012 when a mutual friend introduced her to him. She bought a Big Issue from him and the two started talking. They struck up a very special friendship, Grant nicknamed her Bernie the Polite Girl, and soon “The Polite Team” organized BBQs together, well before Signal Flare became a reality.
Talking with Grant, she was touched to learn about homelessness from the inside out, shocked to hear about the plight of living on the margins, and inspired because she realized she could – and would! - do something to make a difference. Outside of organizing the BBQs for the Homeless and Others in Need, she can often be found doing what Grant started and what he calls “a pie and coke”: sharing something to eat and drink, or just sitting on the footpath listening to someone’s story and having a chat. Being listened to in itself is very restorative, and often they just need someone to believe in them and a helping hand, somewhere to start, to move forward.
A founding member of Signal Flare, Berni is involved in all aspects of the charity and oversees its operational side. She also spends many hours meeting the homeless where they are, on the streets, in the parks, in hostels and at weekly homeless lunches and dinners, giving them flyers about the BBQs so they know there is a BBQ coming up for them.
In 2017 Berni was awarded the Lord Mayor’s Australia Day Achievement Award for her services to the homeless and others in need in the greater Brisbane area.
Joelle Williams – Secretary & Treasurer
Joelle joined the Signal Flare Board in 2017, bringing a wealth of experience in National and International Business in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and America. Over the last eleven years, Joelle founded two successful consulting organisations. She has led countess strategic and operational transformations and has consulted direct to board level of multinational and ASX listed organisations in the areas of strategy, culture change, human resources and business transformations.
Joelle started volunteering with Signal Flare after being impressed by the tangible, no fuss way the organisation assists those in need. Joelle’s goal is to help Signal Flare achieve its forward vision by providing business and corporate partnership guidance. Joelle holds an Executive MBA, GradCert Change Mgt, GradCert Marketing and a BMus.
Dr Gregory Peel Smith - Patron
Dr Gregory Peel Smith lived through a horrendous childhood, left school at 14 years of age and ended up addicted and homeless for 25 years, 10 of which he spent in a forest. Gregory decided to give society another chance, quit alcohol and drugs, went back to school, went to university, got his PhD and is now lecturing in Social Sciences at the Southern Cross University in NSW. His profoundly touching and uplifting memoir, “Out of the Forest”, is at once a unique insight into how far off track a life can go and a powerful reminder that we can all find our way back if we pause for a moment in the heart of the forest.
Gregory Smith has become Signal Flare’s Patron in 2019. Signal Flare looks forward to the inspiration he will bring to all homeless and in-need people. If someone with that background can turn his life around, then so can they. Gregory is a member of SignalFlare’s Circle of Inspiration.
Kerry - Logistics Coordinator
Kerry is passionate about Signal Flare and her role is in Logistics. She is a master of things like finding marquees, toilets, site set up, transport; all the exciting things that go on behind the scenes! When Kerry is not locating tables and wondering how to get them there, she volunteers with the Refugee Association of Logan as an English teacher and Events Officer, as an Education Officer at the RSPCA and at her local environment centre where she helps with events. She also loves to travel and help great causes. She has travelled to over 60 countries and is fascinated by other cultures; the people and the places. In her spare time, she likes to camp, binge watch Scandi crime series, read, and spend time in nature.
Jiya - Donations Coordinator
