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William David CrewsAM[1] (born 1944) is an Australian Christianminister of theUniting Church. He is the minister of theAshfield parish in Sydney'sInner West.
Bill Crews was born in England in 1944[2] and migrated to Australia in his early years. He studied electrical engineering at theUniversity of New South Wales under a scholarship provided byAWA. He worked with AWA in microelectronic research studying the properties ofsilicon until 1971, including building the first machine in Australia to grow ultra pure single crystal silicon.[citation needed]
In late 1969, he first visited theWayside Chapel inKings Cross and ultimately became involved in voluntary programs, visiting the elderly, sick and shut-ins of theWoolloomooloo-Kings Cross area.[citation needed]
By 1971, he had decided to quit engineering and work full-time at the Wayside Chapel. Crews was a member of the team that created the first 24-hour crisis centre in Australia. By 1972 he was director of the crisis centre and directed all the social work programs of the Wayside Chapel until 1983.[3] During that time he established the first program in Australia to reunite adoptees and birth parents (Reunion Register), and the first program to assist parents who were at risk of abusing their children (Child Abuse Prevention Service). He also established the first modern youth refuge in Australia.[4]
In 1973, he was made a member of the New South Wales Drug and Alcohol Authority and was intimately involved in establishing drug rehabilitation, education and prevention programs throughout New South Wales.[citation needed] Together withTed Noffs, in 1978 they created the firstLife Education Centre, that have since spread all over Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, New Zealand, England and America, promoting drug avoidance and harm minimization strategies.[citation needed]
After leaving the Wayside Chapel, Crews went into the Uniting Church ministry and eventually became minister at the Uniting Church in the Sydney suburb ofAshfield. He then became founder and chairman of theExodus Foundation, a charity that assists homeless[5] and abandoned youth.[6] He is also the founder and CEO of the Bill Crews Charitable Trust. The Exodus Foundation's activities include a free kitchen (restaurant) in Ashfield which feeds 400 people each day, health both dental and medical and welfare services for the homeless and needy, and an outreach program for homeless youth. There is also a night food van providing meals to the homeless at Woolloomooloo.
From 1996 to 2014, Exodus (in collaboration with MULTILIT) operated a literacy program which offered free remedial reading tuition to disadvantaged primary school children, with tutorial centres located in Ashfield,Redfern,Coen, Queensland and Darwin, Northern Territory. The NSW State Government terminated funding to the program on 30 September 2014,[7] and the Ashfield and Redfern centres closed soon after, although The Bill Crews Trust continues to operate a literacy program for indigenous students in the Northern Territory.
Since 2002, Crews has hosted the radio programSunday Night with Bill Crews on Sydney radio station2GB and Brisbane radio station4BC. Guests have includedClive James,Helen Reddy,Bob Hawke, andKerry O'Brien. He is known to have acentre-left political viewpoint. Crews was the subject of a documentary film released in 2020,A War of Compassion, directed byWarwick Moss.[8]
A comfort women statue was unveiled in SydneyIn 2016, Crews accepted the installation of a statue outside his church commemorating Korean women who weresexually enslaved by theimperial Japanese army, after it had been rejected by the local council of its intended location.The big row over a small Australian statue.[9]
Crews has been awarded an International Paul Harris Fellow by theRotary Foundation. He has been votedFather of the Year andHumanitarian of the Year (1992). In February 1998 Crews was included in theNational Trust of Australia's 100 "National Living Treasures". In 1999, he was appointed a member of theOrder of Australia (AM) for his services to the disadvantaged and his work with homeless youth.[1]
As part of the2000 Summer Olympics, Crews ran a leg of theOlympic Torch Relay and the Paralympic Torch Relay. He also distributed hundreds of donated tickets to those who would otherwise not have had the financial means to partake in the Olympic experience.[citation needed]
In 2001, Crews was named Ashfield Citizen of the Year for his contribution to the local community. He received the William R. Tresise Fellowship Award from the Australian Lions Foundation in June 2001 – the highest honour the Foundation bestows for humanitarian services.[citation needed] In 2001, Crews also received an Alumni Award from the University of New South Wales.[citation needed]
Crews is a patron of Australians For Just Refugee Programs and chairman of Fair Go Australia – an anti-racism project sponsored by the NSW Government through the Community Relations Commission.[citation needed]