Good Omen Goodeze (affectionately known as GOG) is a grassroots charity that started about 5 years ago to engage Canberrans of all walks of life to craft beautiful comfort items for patients, families and staff in the ACT health services. GOG’s vision is ‘providing warmth and comfort for those in need, one stitch at a time’ and our key focus is crafting items for people in ICU, aged care and end of life settings, while also reaching out into other areas of the community including children’s vaccinations, local charities, walk-in centres and the ACT Ambulance Service.

Our charitable work focuses on engaging the local community through working bees, workshops, public events and online activities with a focus on fostering positive, supportive and inclusive opportunities for people to meet, learn and share a love of crafting – all with the aim of giving back to people in need in the ACT community. We engage community groups with outreach to people from culturally diverse or socially isolated backgrounds, as well as schools, universities and through online initiatives. Much of our work supports mental health in the community, and our comfort items also facilitate health care – GOG items are recognised as supporting two ACT health care accreditation standards.

In February 2019 we successfully piloted a Knitting for Mindfulness Program within The Canberra Hospital.  In September 2020 GOG applied for and won a ‘Covid19 Mental Health Innovations Grant’ which gave us the opportunity to provide a similar wellness program to the wider Canberra Community.  Further information regarding our Project can be found on our website under the ‘Community Threads Project’ section.