1962
Children & Families
Morven Holiday Home provides "tired or convalescent mothers and their children with a restful holiday", as well as holidays for elderly people and camping holidays for children in the Morven grounds arranged by voluntary leaders.
Community Issues
Food for Peace changes name to Community Aid Abroad (CAA). David Scott appointed Associate Director of the Brotherhood and part-time (but primarily) CAA Director in May 1962 with salary funded by Brotherhood of St Laurence as a Brotherhood contribution to international social service.
BSL staff and residents of Carrum Downs & St Laurence Park, Lara constitute a CAA Group. Their contributions plus donations made to the BSL for overseas aid provide a welfare worker in a slum area in Poona and finance the visits to India of 3 young Australians to work in youth work camps organised by Service Civil International. One of these was a member of the Brotherhood’s Children’s Centre staff who spent time in a nursery for Tibetan refugee children.
BSL's social worker withdrawn from West Heidelberg to review the 18 months' experiment in a locally based service. "It is already clear that the lessons learned from the West Heidelberg project will have much more enduring value than the actual work performed there."
Fundraising & Resources
A resident couple in the Carrum Downs Settlement established the MET-L-WIK Industry, making metal wicks for kerosene appliances. Halfway through winter over 500 dozen had been sold to hardware stores, contributing to the income of the Settlement.
Voluntary helpers in the Salvage Division set up and run a Theatrical Hiring Section as a fundraising innovation in addition to the introduction of sales of second-hand furniture at nominal prices.
New Auxiliaries formed at Ringwood and Warrandyte
Material & Financial support
The second Christmas toy sales were attended by 170 families.
Older People
A gift "from a Melbourne friend" of £15,000 and a legacy of £9,000 enabled the purchase of a house in Box Hill (at 32 Kangerong Road) and the work of extending it to care for 15-20 frail aged. (Accommodation of this type did not attract a Commonwealth Government subsidy.) This property was named Carinya - an aboriginal word meaning "resting place".
Organisational aspects (BSL)
The gift of Avalon historic homestead and 80 acres of land facing Corio Bay officially handed over to the Brotherhood of St Laurence by Mr & Mrs Richard Austin in October. The BSL decided it would be used as "a conference and educational centre focusing attention on the economic and social problems that confront society and the Church in this era of rapid change".
The Australian Frontier organisation was formed following the 1961 National Conference of Churches, with concerns similar to those of the BSL in relation to society and the Church. The decision was made that the two organisations join together in a common program in Victoria and three members of Australian Frontier joined the Avalon committee to plan activities for 1963.
People
Jess Millott, after 11 years as a voluntary helper, took up the position of Coolibah Club manageress at the start of 1962 and Jess Sumner took up "full time welfare work amongst the aged".
Geoffrey Sambell consecrated as Bishop
Presentation & Publications
Publication of Leisure: A Study of a New Housing Estate (David Scott & Robert Uren) "This was a response to newspaper articles over a period of time characterising the new housing estates as social deserts; the study aimed to ascertain the real situation." Published by F.W. Cheshire, it was supported by a grant of £200 from the Myer Foundation that allowed the edition of 1,000 copies to be sold at a price permitting a wide circulation.
A survey of the economic circumstances of unemployed families was published with an analysis of unemployment benefits and suggestions of increased rates of benefits.
Refugees & Settlement
European Australian Christian Fellowship (EACF, later to become known as the Ecumenical Migration Centre) formally established as a commission of the Victorian Council of Churches, with Bishop Geoffrey Sambell, Director of the BSL, as Convenor. Its aim was to serve the needs of migrant communities in Melbourne's inner suburbs. The work depended on building friendship networks between the refugees and local residents within a Christian framework in order to overcome the sense of loneliness and isolation. Although this quickly developed into an outreach into the migrant community in general, the emphasis at the start was firmly upon youth, on community-based social and sporting activities, with some individual work.
EACF's first full-time worker appointed and BSL gives a weekly grant and an office at 67 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy (October)
Young People
The Youth Club "has a number of outside interests - once a month films are screened for members of the Coolibah Club, the young offenders group at Pentridge Gaol, and a Mental Hygiene Clinic".
With the closure of Fitzroy Police & Citizen's Club for Youth (1962-1963), the Brotherhood became the major provider of this service for teenagers in the district. Two program and activity leaders joined the staff - Margaret Woodhouse and Graham Bull. Youth leaders also supported members who appeared in court cases.
1963
Children & Families
A property adjoining the Brotherhood offices in Brunswick Street was purchased to give children an "adventure playground" as well as the Creative Leisure Centre.
For the first time and in conjunction with the Wangaratta Apex Club the BSL youth leaders organised a camp for boys from the inner suburbs at the Wangaratta Apex Club's camp at the Oxley Reserve, 10 miles from Wangaratta.
Increasing requests for the Brotherhood to provide holidays for children resulted in needing to supplement the Leisure Centre camps with a number of private placements. "The question of holiday care for children of working mothers has never really been faced by us or any other agency in Melbourne, as the camps and the day centres only offer limited help. … It is interesting that the Brotherhood is seen as providing this stop-gap service, and we have had requests from many of the public hospitals and from clinics of the Mental Hygiene Department."
Community Issues
BSL staff who formed a CAA Group supported two CAA projects with their contributions plus donations made to the BSL for CAA. They contributed towards a tractor for the farm of a leprosy rehabilitation colony and financed two travel grants for young Australians to live and work in youth work in India.
In October 1963, the BSL was part of an interim committee that produced a draft proposal for "An Agency For Homeless Men". The document was written up by Connie Benn of the Citizens Welfare Service of Victoria. The objective was to humanize and improve the effectiveness of services to the homeless with a real sense of specialization. The proposal was accepted and the interim committee swiftly became a committee of management. Hanover Street in Fitzroy provided a name for the fledgling agency along with a venue. A building at number 85 was kindly provided by the Methodist Combined Mission. In December 1963, money was found to employ Alan Jordan as the centre’s social worker (a wage of £1,400 per annum). Financial support came from the Brotherhood of St Laurence, North Melbourne Mission, Central Mission, Collins Street Independent Church and the Methodist Combined Mission – a total of £4,000. The Hanover Centre would be operational from 1 January 1964.
Fundraising & Resources
Formation of the 23rd Brotherhood Auxiliary, a country group at Harrietville.
Material & Financial support
A record amount of financial aid and grocery orders was given out through the Social Service Bureau (£4,597), in part because "Victoria remains the only State that does not accept responsibility for helping people immediately their earnings cease and the Voluntary Agencies are expected to carry this burden. Of 896 cases seen in the Bureau during the year, 213 were waiting Social Service benefits".
Christmas toy sale idea "is gladly accepted by our families and will be a regular part of Christmas, completely replacing toy parcels except for country people". Seven sales held in 1963 were attended by 250 families compared with 170 families in 1962.
The Victorian Government introduced Emergency Relief, administered by the Social Welfare Department. Until November 1963, Victoria had been the only State failing to recognise a family’s right to official help in an emergency. However, the amount of relief per family per year was limited to £10 (where rent could be £7/10/- per week). Consequently, agencies still had a major burden to carry.
Older People
Carinya "hospital for frail aged" at Box Hill opened
Organisational aspects (BSL)
Elaine Martin joined the BSL as the first social worker appointed in a research capacity and begins work on a major study of the housing problem of low income families. The aim of the study was "to give a qualitative picture of the kinds of accommodation which some families are obliged to occupy, the choice available to them, the effect of living in overcrowded, obsolete housing, and the impact of high rents".
Social Worker Vivienne McCutcheon, in a part-time position, undertook "a brief survey of Fitzroy, the nature of its population and its welfare services … to provide some factual guidance" to the Brotherhood in planning for the development of its own services (since the planning needs to be closely related to what goes on in the immediate environment).
Figures collected by the Social Service Bureau from March-August 1963 show that Fitzroy is the single suburb from which the largest group of clients come, but the BSL is also reaching many in the outer Eastern suburbs (eg Canterbury, Blackburn, Jordanville etc) and in the new northern housing areas (eg Preston, Reservoir)
An occupational therapist, Margaret Woodhouse, appointed to the Coolibah staff in February, worked on a report dealing with all aspects of need in the Coolibah and the local community
People
Miss Rawlins, the Auxiliary Organiser for seven years (and broadcaster), retired
Young People
Work parties from the Youth Centre assisted in cleaning up a property at Bunyip to be used for weekend camps.
Community Service Groups helped with maintenance and developmental work. Teams came from Melbourne, Caulfield and Brighton Grammar Schools, Wesley College, Haileybury College, the Young Anglican Fellowship of St Oswald's, Glen Iris, and the Powerhouse auxiliary.
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