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2005

Page history last edited by Social Policy Library 2 months, 2 weeks ago

 

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Children & Families

The Cottage Early Intervention Program continued to receive no government funding and The Cottage - Centre for Families & Children (in Napier Street, Fitzroy) closed on 22 December, to re-open at the end of January 2006 with the focus of  providing some family support and child care services within the Atherton Gardens Estate. 

 

Interim report of the Brotherhood's Parents As Career Transition Supports (PACTS) project, a DEST funded pilot project being run in schools on the Mornington Peninsula was published in March.  The results so far strongly supported the program model and highlighted the crucial role that parents play in the transition of their children from school to work or further education.  Results showed that parents are the group that young people are most likely to have spoken to about career options, over friends, teachers, careers teachers and other family members, and they are also the group that young people most wanted to talk to about career options, other than careers teachers.  However, while 100% of parents thought it was important to be involved only 13% felt they knew enough to help their children with post-school decisions and most felt that information or support was not readily available.  The final report was to be completed at the start of 2006.

 

Following a BSL strategic review reaffirming the commitment to Advocacy for Social Justice as the Unifying Objective in pursuit of an Australia Free of Poverty, the BSL's Child and Family services conducted a minor strategy review (August-November) leading to the development of a strategic plan in March 2006. 

 

HIPPY (Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters) in Smithton (north-east Tasmania) featured in ABC radio's The World Today (September) 

 

The BSL held an Australian child poverty conference, with Kate Green (CEO, Child Poverty Action Group, London) as the keynote speaker.  The BSL also launched the ‘Social Barometer – Children’s Chances’, a new indicator of child poverty in Australia.  (December). 

 

Community issues

The Brotherhood of St Laurence was given the opportunity to lease a Uniting Church complex at High Street Frankston.  This led to the proposal for the development of a multi-purpose centre and the BSL explored ways to facilitate community participation with the help of The Torch Project.  This engagement with people in Frankston included the development of Anthroposalata Unlimited, a cultural celebration reflecting local understandings of identity, history and social issues, and consultation about visions for the use of the High Street site.  

 

The Frankston Partnership was announced by the Victorian Government as part of A Fairer Victoria in April 2005 as part of the Government's objective to build stronger communities and make it easier for them to work with the Government.  The initiative also was linked with the funding for the construction of the Brotherhood of St Laurence's new hub in High Street, Frankston.  The stated principles underpinning the Partnership's role were: Investment and innovation; Rigour and evidence; Prioritisation; Measuring change; Advocacy and influence; Development and design; and Collaboration and connection.  (The model, also implemented in the Western suburbs with MelbourneCityMission, arose as a response to informal discussion between the Brotherhood's Executive Director, Tony Nicholson, and Minister John Thwaites.) 

 

"The Frankston Partnership is comprised of the Department of Planning and Community Development, Department Human Services, Department Education & Early Childhood Development, Frankston City Council, Brotherhood St Laurence (and in 2009, Department of Justice).  Initially, a Heads of Agreement and Terms of Reference addressing membership, purpose and goals of the Partnership were established in December 2006 and under this the first focus on young people was established with a stated purpose of: 'The Partnership's first shared goal is to maximise the successful transition of young people in Frankston to further education, employment and full participation in their community' (Frankston City Council 2013)

 

A BSL Values Forum was held at the Darebin Arts Centre.  The context was that questions of values and religion had assumed a new importance in Australian social policy given that politicians were asserting loudly their religious credentials while the redefinition of social rights and obligations was an ongoing dimension of welfare reform.  The forum sought to scope these issues: How are we to understand this new emphasis on values? How might it influence public policy? What could be the implications for welfare organisations?  

 

Employment & Training

The Brotherhood's Greencorps and Transition to Work programs received awards for excellence at the JOBfutures National Conference in October.  The Brotherhood had been a member of JOBfutures, Australia's only national network of community based not-for-profit employment and related service providers, since its establishment in 1997.  The Greencorps award recognised excellence in achieving employment outcomes for participants at the Greencorps sites on the Mornington Peninsula and in Wangaratta.  The Transition to Work program based in Frankston was highly commended for its work with parents and carers returning to the workforce (Personal communication 2005).  

 

The YP4 project is a collaboration between Hanover Welfare Services, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne Citymission and Loddon Mallee Housing Services.  YP4, which will run as a three year trial, will assist extremely disadvantaged young people address their employment, housing and health needs.  Every year approximately 80,000 young Australians experience homelessness and unemployment (BSL Media Release 2005).

 

 

Fundraising & Resources

The Australian Centre for Retail Studies, Monash University, worked with the Brotherhood of St Laurence in November and December 2005 to evaluate the BSL's retail activities through customer survey, competitor analysis and financial analysis. The Centre completed this work on a pro bono basis (Letter from Ian McHutchison re Australian Centre for Retail Studies (Monash University).   

 

Material & Financial Support

The ANZ Bank announced that the Saver Plus pilot program (a matched saving program designed to help low-income earners with educational expenses while improving their knowledge of finance and launched in 2003) had been such a success that it would be expanded to include 3000 families and given further funding of $3 million over the next three years. (November)   (See the news item at http://tinyurl.com/2b6bulk )

 

The Brotherhood of St Laurence Business Breakfast was held in Refugee Week with the theme Different Paths, Shared Future, once again in support of the EMC's Given the Chance program.  (October)

 

Organisational aspects (BSL)

An Indigenous cultural awareness and policy workshop was proposed for the BSL Executive Team and the Indigenous Advisory Group

 

The BSL was unsuccessful in the tender bid to operate the Victorian Department of Human Services' new Social Housing Advocacy and Support Program (SHASP). This was a new program to replace the Public Housing Advocacy Program (PHAP) program that the BSL had provided in the previous 8 years, supporting public housing tenants in the Southern Metropolitan region.  The replacement program was designed to provide a more crisis case management support to individual tenants, with less focus on the community development and tenant participation that the BSL had been so successful in delivering.  Unfortunately this meant that all PHAP positions became redundant as of 31st December. 

 

The 70th Anniversary of the Brotherhood of St Laurence was celebrated on the Peninsula on 8 December 2005.  Thanksgiving Service Programme. The celebration began at 2 pm with a Thanksgiving Service with Dr Peter Hollingworth and Bishops John Wilson & Michael Challen, and then some brief presentations - the first on some aspects of BSL history (currently being prepared for publication) by Dr Richard Trembath and the second on the future direction of the Brotherhood by Tony Nicholson (Executive Director) (70th Anniversary of The Brotherhood of St Laurence on the Peninsula

 

4 Executive Directors

(L-R) Dr Peter Hollingworth, Dr David Scott, Tony Nicholson, Bishop Michael Challen

 

The BSL Strategy Plan for 2005-2008 was developed in a major planning consultation and based on the 4 transitions

 

Festival of Lights in Frankston was again held, with proceeds to the BSL as "official charity" (November)

 

Building on the work of a consultative committee in developing a contemporary model of chaplaincy, the position of Chaplain to the BSL was advertised in late 2005. 

 

Sarina Greco was appointed as the new Senior Manager for Community & Family Services in December.

 

People

Prue Myer, a Charter Member of the BSL from 1986 until November 1999, died on 17 June leaving a significant bequest to the Brotherhood (Society nonconformist strove for Whitlam and social justice, Australian 19th August 2005). 

 

Jessica Millott BEM died in December after a long illness.  Jess Millott, in her nineties, had been a legend in the Coolibah Centre, the BSL, in Fitzroy and beyond - her name is perpetuated in Millott House at the rear of 67 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. 

 

Margaret Greenaway, Bequests Officer in the BSL's Fundraising department for almost 14 years, died suddenly on 19 September

 

Presentations & Publications

The 24th Sambell Oration: Keeping governments on track to end child poverty: the role of advocacy and activism was given by Kate Green (December)  

 

Children's Chances - The Brotherhood's first Social Barometer was published    

 

ABC Television produced a documentary about the Brotherhood - A Voice For The Poor – which was screened on 27 November 2005 (but filmed in August 2004).  Introducing the transcript, the ABC website states:  "In the 1930’s a visionary Anglican Priest Fr. Gerard Tucker shamed the well heeled to help the needy.  He founded the Brotherhood of St Laurence, which today embraces the consumerist drive of the modern world to raise money to support Australia's poor."  For the transcript see https://web.archive.org/web/20071102220449/http://www.abc.net.au/compass/s1518156.htm

 

Publications included:

Videorecording:  


Young people

The "Dream Team" project was implemented by the BSL with the City of Frankston in which local employers volunteered time to talk with young people about their career path and the realities of work (City of Frankston Annual Report 2004-5).

Social exclusion in Boroondara: stage one: scoping published data on child poverty in Boroondara and recommendations for stage two. Janet Stanley, Cassandra Eadie, Carole Baker.  Brotherhood of St Laurence, 2005.  (BSL Library 362.509945 STA)

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