Awards Magazine 2017

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The Community Leader Awards
2015
11 7
Michael Curtin: I
just loved connecting
with people and not
having to run or
carry the weight of
organisations but
to actually support
them.
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0
1
7
What do you do in your community?
I’m a secretary-treasurer and accompanier with
Courage ministry. I work at the
centre. I’m an administration worker at .
How did you get started?
From about the age of 23, I was diagnosed with
schizophrenia. I soldiered on for another five years
in the public service. It was arranged for me in the
public service to be retired on the grounds of ill
health and I didn’t engineer it really at all, except
to sign. Then I became, at the age of 28, in posses-
sion of limitless free time. It was wonderful. I sat
in the chair for two years just trying to gather my
thoughts, which was quite a discipline, but after that
I started to branch out and I lived with a group of
six other men in a house for two or three years and
I started to get connections especially through Em-
manuel Community. And a few years later Bren-
dan Scarce invited me to work in his office. Bren-
dan was starting up the Courage group in 1998
with another man and he just invited me to offer
the man a lift across town and when I did the man
told me his story of having lived as a homosexual
and how he had gotten liberated by the love of Je-
sus. By that time I was helping out with mail-outs
at Emmanuel Community, especially for the Ignite
Conference and putting together their telephone
directory. And then Paul Ninnes had heard about
me and he invited me to work for some mail-outs
for Real Talk. I said yes. My usual answer to things
was “Yes”. In the meantime, Blind Eye Ministries
were going through a transition and I wanted to
accompany them through prayer when the transi-
tioning was happening. So the prayer turned into
“What am I going to do”. I thought I’ll just come
to Blind Eye and be who I am. I come most weeks,
a day a week, just standing there really and allow-
ing people to feel not threatened but to talk if they
want to. Usually I have contact once or twice a day
in a six-hour day there but it’s precious to make
the homeless feel that they can relax in a safe place
without intrusion.
What do you love about your roles?
I think because it helps me to feel structured in
my life and that I have a purpose. I just loved con-
necting with people and not having to run or carry
the weight of organisations but to actually support
them. I felt free as a person, the way I didn’t feel
when I was getting wage work.
Why is your faith important to you?
The Catholic Church is important to me because it’s
like a solid foundation for me whereas I would’ve
normally gone astray. It’s a dependable thing. I
knew Christ was good and that He had great plans. I
just thought I’ve got to hope in those great plans be-
cause that’s what he offered to everyone. I’ve really
felt like I’d just love to go to sleep but I’m still hoping
for things in life and the hope is actually what made
me connect with people.
What was your reaction when you
heard you were a finalist for the
Community Leader Awards?
I was stunned, I didn’t know what I was going to say
if called upon to speak. I see myself as being maybe
one of the minor parts of the heroic army. I do need
a lot of other people around me. I’m sure I’d be in
asylum; I’d be locked up if I didn’t have the other
people in the Church. Other people have been my
heroes – Brendan Scarce, who was a great rock for
me (and) when my mind reached great extremes he
would be steady and ask steady questions and he
would ground me. My psychiatrist for the past 34
years sensitively introduced me to writing and he
just enabled me to feel loved in what I thought was
a very harsh Australia. And Brian Smith was a great
giver of the Good News to me for many years. He
made a difference to my Church scene more than
anyone else.