WOW's first action was to journey 250 km to Canberra to present the incoming Labor Government with a "Log of Claims" on behalf of the unemployed.
Back in Wollongong, WOW began its "Steal, Sleepout or Starve” campaign, to highlight the fact that young unemployed people had to survive on $40 per week.
In the middle of June, with icy westerly winds whipping down on the city, WOW members began a two-week day and night vigil outside the Social Security offices in Market Street.
The aim was to collect the signatures of all the unemployed in central Wollongong, on a petition demanding dole increases, and by sleeping out on the street, in the middle of winter, to highlight youth homelessness.
[3] With community support, including that of the South Coast Labour Council, who put pressure on the police and the owner, this house became WOW's offices for the next six years.
The centre helped school people in welfare regulations and self-advocacy and utilised a form of direct-action casework staging militant group actions when grievances remained unsolved.