Proud to Be Toc H

We’re proud to be Toc H because it brings people together in meaningful ways. It’s about connection, service, and creating places where everyone feels welcome to belong and contribute.

That spirit began in Talbot House during the First World War, a simple house with an open door where rank was left at the threshold and humanity took its seat at the table. Soldiers found warmth, conversation, music, faith, doubt, laughter, and rest. It was never about spectacle. It was about presence. That idea, of radical welcome and practical care, has travelled a long way from a small town in Belgium, and it still travels well.

We are proud to be Toc H because its compass has never wavered. The four points remind us to build friendship across difference, to seek fairness and equality, to serve with generosity, and to honour the spiritual and moral life in ways that invite rather than impose. These are not slogans for a wall. They are guides for how we show up in communities, especially when things are complex or uncomfortable.

Here in South Australia, being Toc H means believing that community is something you actively create. It is shaped through volunteering, shared responsibility, and a willingness to roll up sleeves and listen. It is expressed through programs that bring people together, places that feel safe and welcoming, and opportunities for people to contribute in ways that suit who they are, not who they are expected to be.

We are proud of Toc H’s deep respect for volunteerism. Volunteers are not an add-on. They are the heartbeat. They carry stories, skills, humour, patience, and care into spaces where connection might otherwise be thin. Through Toc H, volunteering becomes more than helping out. It becomes belonging.

We are also proud that Toc H continues to evolve. The needs of communities change, and Toc H has always had the courage to respond. That might look like new forms of membership, new partnerships, or new ways of opening doors to people who have felt unseen. The form adapts, but the purpose remains steady.

Being Toc H is not about nostalgia. It is about continuity. It is about taking a century-old idea, hospitality without hierarchy, service without fanfare, and letting it live fully in the present. It is about choosing connection over isolation, contribution over commentary, and hope over indifference.

That is why we are proud to be Toc H. Not because of a name or a history alone, but because every day, in small and meaningful ways, that open door still stands.