For one Dalby volunteer, seeing victims of domestic violence overcome their hardships through her charity makes it all worthwhile for the veteran member.

Lizzie Harvey has been a part of the Dalby not-for-profit organisation Helping Hands for four years, helping its founder Carmen Evans in her endeavours to help the community.

“I originally started with Helping Hands to get myself out of the rut of being home, and I came across Carmen running a pop up shop out of a shed, and I saw potential,” Mrs Harvey said.

“After a conversation, Carmen and I put our heads together, and we’ve made it to here.”

Helping Hands moved to their new location at 48 Cooper St on February 3, hosting a grand opening to the community after a brief hiatus.

The organisation runs a drop in centre for domestic violence victims and a dollar boutique, offering discounted clothes, homewares and food to everyone.

“Whether you’re a struggling farmer or someone from town, anyone from any walk of life can come in,” she said.

“We will assist you whenever we can.”

Upon reflection, her main motivation to work with Helping Hands was the progress she would see with customers who had come from difficult personal situations.

“The best part is seeing how the whole process helps those in the community,” Mrs Harvey said.

“I love seeing the looks on people’s faces when we’ve helped them, and they’ve come back after going out on their own.

“Being part of that process is the most important thing to me, more than anything else.”

Now employed with part time work, Mrs Harvey will be step back from full time duties with the charity, but will continue to help during her down time to assist Carmen.

“She’s done a fantastic job, she is the icon of Helping Hands,” she said.

“It was worrying last year when we had to leave Loam St, we thought we were going to close for a while but it’s given us a new opportunity.

“I believe it’s definitely going to take off even further from here.”

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