Kim Jeffs’ front door is surrounded by colour, down to the fragile stained glass that encompasses the top panel. A “Home” sign is attached alongside it and when Jeffs closes the door behind her, she feels safe in her Heidelberg Heights house.
But more than just the entrance to her home, the door represents a haven where she and her two sons can start anew after losing everything, including their Kinglake West home, in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
Jeffs uses this analogy as the basis of her online Front Door Project, which she hopes will reconnect people whose lives were affected by Black Saturday and anyone else who has survived a bushfire experience.
“Six months after the fire, it became quite clear to me and a number of my friends who were fire-affected that there was a big gap in the service provision for those dispersed by the fire,” Jeffs says.
“A substantial proportion of people have not returned to the fire-affected areas and we couldn’t get to meetings, or network with our previous groups.”
Jeffs says the most efficient way of engaging with these people is online, where information can be publicised via social media and reached by anyone, anywhere.
She says there are many ways to talk about the idea of a front door that will get people thinking about their situation. “It’s a non-threatening image and it doesn’t mention the fire,” she says. “It’s not about the fire, it’s about where you are now.”
According to Jeffs, the leading media paradigm has been around people rebuilding in fire-affected areas. ‘‘There’s not much about how people have moved away and how that might have been good for them or bad for them,” she says. “I’ve moved away and my life is much better now. I’ve been here [in Heidelberg Heights] for a year and a bit and it does now really feel like home.
‘‘I’ve put my stamp on the property. Mine is a positive story.”
The Front Door Project has also allowed Jeffs to spread her creative writing wings, something she’s been doing more of since making a book of remembrance for her sons.
“Poetry has been a really amazing thing for me,” she says. “Not only has it allowed me to express myself creatively for the first time in 20 years, but I’ve made a whole new network of friends in Melbourne who have been very important in terms of showing my artistic soul and just people to hang out with.
‘‘I feel like I’m embedded in my community.”
Details: visit Front Door Project.
