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Children & Families

HIPPY developed a partnership with Readings Books & Music stores in October with an initial donation of $300 worth of books.  This soon expanded to include promotion of the HIPPY program in all Readings stores, on their website and in the monthly Readings newsletter.  In the November newsletter, Readings asked its customers to donate books for HIPPY families, with the slogan 'Books in 100 Homes for Christmas'.  The results exceeded all expectations with more than 200 books, games and $1,000 in cash donations ("Bonding with Books", Building Better Lives No.12, Summer 2003 p.3). 

The Federal Government agreed to fund its first HIPPY program.  In the Aboriginal community in the Sydney suburb of La Perouse, this first indigenous HIPPY program, employing 3 indigenous home tutors who were also parents in the program, began in early 2002 and supported about 30 families ("HIPPY goes national", Building Better Lives No.9, Summer 2002 p.7; BSL Annual Report 2000 p.9.

The Breakfast Club for youngsters started in 2002 at Fitzroy's Atherton Gardens public housing estate following a successful three-week trial in December 2001.   As well as some children eating breakfast they, along with others and their families, also took the opportunity to socialise in a supervised space before school. ("The Breakfast Club", Building Better Lives No.9, Summer 2002 p.4). 

The Christmas Toyshop was an exercise in community and sector development.  The toyshop ran in the Cottage Annexe on 16 and 17 December and catered for 115 families and 230 children from the local area - from BSL services, the Cottage, HIPPY and EMC and families referred by City of Yarra Family Services and Kildonan Strengthening Families. "There was no doubt that the families referred by these external agencies were in the highest need category." (The Cottage Centre for Families & Children, Monthly Report - December 2002).

Community Issues

The concept of The Torch play was re-developed into Re-Igniting Community (RIC) with Regional communities in the South West of Victoria (Gunditjmara country) and East Gippsland (Gunai/Kurnai country), auspiced by the Gunditjmara and Gippsland & East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-operatives and the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

The BSL's Promotion & Communication Unit produced a nationally distributed postcard ("Jesus was a Refugee") to promote World Refugee Day on 17 July 2002 (Building Better Lives 2002)  

The BSL's Ethical Business Project

• further investigated the labour rights of Chinese optical workers who provide frames for the Brotherhood's Mod-Style optical frames operation, aiming to identify the most appropriate mechanisms to help improve working conditions and to ensure efforts to pursue corporate responsibility were influential;
• contributed to the commencement of triple bottom line financial reporting in Victoria;
• supported the establishment of a Framework for Social Responsibility;
• evaluated major Australian businesses for the Good Reputation Index in the category of Ethics & Governance (published in The Age);
• made presentations at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Roundtable on Corporate Responsibility in Paris (June) on corporate responsibility and supply chain management in China, and at the OECD Global Forum on International Investment in Shanghai in December ("Going international on corporate responsibility", Building Better Lives No.11, Spring 2002 p.2; BSL Annual Report 2002 p.9; BSL Annual Report 2003 p.12).    

Community 1st, a project to interest and involve younger professional & corporate people in the Brotherhood of St Laurence was launched in April ("Community 1st: a place to be and do", Building Better Lives No.11, Spring 2002 p.5). 

Employment & Training

The BSL launched its own youth fashion label - Hunter Gatherer - at the Melbourne Fashion Festival with No SweatShop label accreditation guaranteeing the clothing is produced in accord with the Homeworkers Code of Practice through the Textile, Clothing & Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA) and industry bodies (Hunter Gatherer was the first retailer in Australia to become an accredited ‘no sweat shop’ manufacturer)  (March) ("Brotherhood launches fashion label", Building Better Lives No.10, Winter 2002 p.5; BSL Annual Report 2002 p.9: BSL Media Release 2002)   

The Hunter Gatherer initiative supported a social enterprise called ‘"BSL.ORG.AU", a wholesale uniform manufacturing business  (?date)

Education videos Hunter Gatherer: A case study in apparel design & manufacture and No Sweatshop Label at Hunter Gatherer were produced for TAFE students based on the BSL’s retail social enterprise 

Under the Community Jobs Program, the BSL began the Atherton Gardens Housing Management Project.  This gave 12 long-term unemployed residents of the Atherton Gardens Housing Estate the opportunity to take up an accredited training program through Holmesglen TAFE..  The Victorian Government’s Office of Housing committed to employing them as concierges, maintenance workers and office administrators on successful completion of the program.  

The Atherton Gardens pilot training program (through the State Government's Community Jobs Program) was replicated on the housing estate at Collingwood where the flow-on from the pilot encouraged more than 70 people to apply for 12 trainee positions for jobs in concierge work, maintenance and business administration ("Committed to advocacy and innovation", Building Better Lives, Summer 2003 p.2; "Day in the Life_George Housakos", Building Better Lives, Summer 2003 pp.3-4).  

The BSL, in relation to the cleaning contract at Atherton Gardens, successfully lobbied the Victorian Government to stipulate that local people be employed in at least 35% of the jobs.  

Material & Financial support

The BSL's Frankston Income Support Services closed its clothing and furniture service in order to concentrate on community cultural development and capacity building projects under its new name of Community Capacity Building.   

A Bargain Hunter store was opened in Moonee Ponds and a joint venture began with All Saints parish, Northcote 

Older People

Millott Rooming House in Fitzroy was replaced by the development of nine fully self-contained independent living units with funding from the Victorian Department of Human Services.  

Lanier Australia sponsored the Coolibah Centre's annual handball competition with former AFL player Tony Liberatore as the star attraction and host. Other sponsors provided pies (and a colour TV as a door prize) for over fifty competitors and one hundred supporters. 

Once again just before Christmas the investment company Merrill Lynch invited members of the Coolibah Centre and residents of Sambell Lodge (Clifton Hill) to use their telephone facilities free of charge for up to two hours so that they people could contact friends and family overseas.The 'Gone Fishin' men's fishing group, sponsored by VicHealth for members of the Coolibah, began in February.  The weekly itinerary included Port Melbourne, Docklands, Williamstown, Queenscliff, Geelong, Mornington Peninsula and Elphinstone Trout Farm.  The project finished with an overnight camp in Dromana and an eight-hour charter on Westernport Bay (and a 5.5kg snapper) ("Highlights from Coolibah", Building Better Lives No.11, Summer 2003 p.4).  

Organisational aspects

Two acronyms became part of the Brotherhood's vocabulary: AIS (Advocacy, Innovation & Sustainability) and ECE (Empowering Community Enterprise) ("Committed to advocacy and innovation", Building Better Lives No.12, Summer 2003 p.5).   

The Frontline Management Development Program, a BSL joint staff development initiative with Chisholm Institute and the Community Services & Health Industry Training Board, concluded with a Graduation ceremony for 29 BSL staff being awarded the Diploma and one receiving the Certificate IV.  The major focus was the recognition of current competence in acknowledgment of the skills of staff, the majority of whom had no formal qualification in management. 

The appointment of Dr Paul Smyth as the BSL's General Manager - Social Action & Research (SAR) was announced on 9 December.  The position involved managing policy development and research at the BSL (including the Library & Information Service) and reporting to the Executive Director as a member of the Executive Team.  From 2003, as a joint appointment with the University of Melbourne's Centre for Public Policy (time allocation and funding was 80% BSL and 20% University of Melbourne), the position also involved teaching and research at the University's Centre for Public Policy (University of Melbourne Media Release 2003).  

People with disabilities

Koorie Aged Care Packages program expanded to include the state-funded Making a Difference service for indigenous people up to the age of 64 living in Northern Melbourne who have severe and/or multiple disabilities that require complex care management.  (July)  

Presentations & Publications

The Executive Director, Father Nic Frances, was invited to and took part in the World Economic Forum in January-February 2002 ("The World Economic Forum", Building Better Lives No.9, Summer 2002 p.2).  

The 21st Sambell Oration: Making Australia a poverty-free zone was delivered by the Executive Director, Father Nic Frances on 17 October at the Public Policy Lecture Theatre, University of Melbourne ("Good work!", Building Better Lives No.11, Spring 2002 p.1). 

A profile of the Executive Director, Father Nic Frances, featured in The Age's Good Weekend magazine on 21 December, and resulted in donations of food just before Christmas ("Highlights from Coolibah", Building Better Lives No.11, Summer 2003 p.4).  . 

Publications included:
Who will care?, a research report released by the BSL and the Victorian Association for Health and Extended Care (VAHEC) and funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services as part of a project looking at innovative ways to recruit and retain workers in Victorian aged and disability services in the face of industry turnover rates of up to 20 percent. 

Doing business responsibly, perceptions of ethical practice and governance of Australasia's top 100 companies, by Sonya Holm and Serena Lillywhite

Values and civic behaviour in Australia project report, the National Engagement Project Trial, by Charne Flowers, July 2002, and Values and civic behaviour: in-depth interview report; Focus group discussions report; research method report.
The community expects... Public opinion about breach penalties for unemployed people , by Stephen Ziguras and Charne Flowers, June 2002
Changing faces in Craigieburn and Roxburgh Park, Brotherhood of St Laurence community consultation, by Linda Kelly, Meredith Levi and Helen Denney, June 2002
Poverty in Australia: Developing community dialogue, Report of a qualitative research study, The understanding Poverty project, by Jeannette Johnson, February 2002, and Key findings.

Refugees & Settlement

EMC co-convened A Just Australia program for reform of Australia's policy of mandatory detention for refugees.

The innovative Given the Chance pilot project was established to help young adult refugees aged 18 to 28, particularly young women, with education, employment and advocacy skills.  Funding came from the Victorian Department of Human Services, the Victorian Women's Trust and the Invergowrie Foundation.