2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009
Children & Families
Roll-out of HIPPY to communities following the Commonwealth Government's allocation of resources sees 22 programs running at the start of 2009
The new 2010 HIPPY (Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters) programs and the partner organisations responsible for them were announced in October. This expansion was the result of Federal Government funding.
The programs were: (Location) Bidwill, New South Wales, (Successful Partner Organisation) Uniting Care Burnside; Bowenfels (Lithgow) New South Wales - Centacare Bathurst; Cabramatta, New South Wales - Learning Links; North Dubbo, New South Wales - Centacare Wilcannia-Forbes; Warrawong (Port Kembla), New South Wales - Barnardos Australia; Braybrook, Victoria - Western Region Health Centre; Long Gully / California Gully (Bendigo), Victoria - St Luke's Anglicare Ltd; Logan Central (Logan City), Queensland - Kingston Eastern Neighbourhood Group; Mount Morgan, Queensland - Australian Red Cross Society; Pioneer (Mount Isa City), Queensland - Centacare Townsville; Mansfield Park, South Australia - Novita Children's Services; Whyalla Stuart, South Australia - Uniting Care Wesley Port Pirie; Katherine (SLA), Northern Territory - Anglicare NT.
The BSL made a submission to the Commonwealth Government in relation to the Government's proposed energy efficiency program for low-income households. This submission was based on the BSL and KPMG 2008 report A National Energy Efficiency Program for low income households. BSL_re_Energy_&_Low-income_Households_2009-9-7.pdf
Community Issues
One-off funding was provided by the Federal Government’s DEEWR to support the promotion of the inaugural Social Inclusion Week which was held from 23-29 November 2009 and auspiced by the Brotherhood of St Laurence (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations - Grants and Announcements 2010).
The GoodStart syndicate (including Mission Australia, the Benevolent Society, Social Ventures Australia and the Brotherhood of St Laurence) was named as the preferred purchaser of 678 childcare centres after a bidding process for the ABC Learning Centres following the de-listing of the ABC company (Pro Bono Australia 2009).
Following a mini-pilot in 2008, the Good Food Matters Meal Preparation Project was expanded to encompass both Northern and Southern Regions with Donna Coombs as the project officer.
Employment & Training
The BSL and VECCI (Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce & Industry) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in relation to matters of mutual interest, e.g. employment of disadvantaged job seekers (February) (Personal communication, Nicholson, T 2009).
In April 2009 the Brotherhood co-convened Victoria the Green Jobs State Summit, sponsored by Sustainability Victoria, which highlighted the potential for green jobs growth which includes long term unemployed and disadvantaged job seekers
BSL's Yarra Centre for Work and Learning (YCWL) established at 121 Brunswick St., Fitzroy - The YCWL is a demonstration project promoting work and learning opportunities in public housing neighbourhoods with high concentrations of worklessness. It coordinates the efforts of Job Services Australia providers, employers, enterprises and industry groups, training organisations and community and government support services. The Centre does this by aggregating employer demand and job seeker supply, working closely with public housing residents’ groups, offering access to accredited and non-accredited pre-vocational training, developing community projects that create supported paid and unpaid work experience opportunities and increasing access to life skills education such as English and financial literacy training. The program primarily is delivered in Fitzroy. Beginning August 2009 the Federal Government is to contribute $1.6 m over 3 years towards the project (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations - Grants and Announcements 2010).
The Community Contact Service (employment and training program which operates on the Fitzroy and Collingwood Housing estates providing a concierge role for the tenants including information, assistance and support functions) successfully re-contracted to deliver the service at Collingwood and Fitzroy Housing estates for the next 3 years. The new contract also expanded the service to the Richmond public housing estate. (October)
BSL developed a partnership with the Church of All Nations in the Carlton Employment Project (More Jobs for Locals in Carlton Redevelopment - Media Release 2009).
Under the Federal Government’s DEEWR Jobs Fund the BSL received
- almost $2 million to retrofit energy efficient devices to disadvantaged households located in Melbourne's North West corridor to reduce individual household utility bills and environmental impacts (the 15-month program was to take effect from January 2010;. and
- $398,000 towards a 17-month program for the employment and training of teams of unemployed residents in Melbourne to remove highly visible graffiti scrawl along agreed metropolitan rail and road corridors (this program was to begin in February 2010) (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations - Grants and Announcements 2010).
Brotherhood Enterprises
Brotherhood Books online bookstore set up (BSL Annual Report 2010 p.22).
Material & Financial support
The Saver Plus 10-month matched saving and financial education program developed by the BSL and ANZ in 2002 was taken up by Jewish Care (Victoria) in May. Initially this serviced families within the Jewish Community. (Increased Federal Government funding enabled Jewish Care to also service families in the Port Phillip, Glen Eira and Kingston local council areas.) ("Saver Plus Expands" in Jewish Care's "My Connection" Summer 2010 p.7).
The Federal Government announced funding of $13.5 million to expand the Saver Plus program, a matched savings and financial literacy program for people on low incomes. Saver Plus is currently delivered from 20 locations across Australia. The funding will more than double the program's reach by making it available from more than 50 sites, assisting an additional 7,600 people by 2011. As part of the Federal Government funding, an additional $1 million would be provided to pilot different delivery models of the small loans program Progress Loans, to improve the sustainability of the program, designed to meet the needs of people who don’t qualify for loans with mainstream lenders. (October)
The BSL Christmas Toy Program received 19,597 toys from donations left at the Kmart wishing trees. The toys were distributed by the BSL's Community Resource Bank to community groups and organisations covering more than 60 areas in Victoria, who then distributed them to 8,938 individual children ranging from new born to 12 years of age. There were also 4,000 education packs distributed. This year’' demand was up by 1,351 on last year, with 7,587 toys distributed in 2008 (Personal Communication 2010).
Older People
The Brotherhood's Social Barometer: Living the second fifty years (Kimberley & Simons 2009), was published. The fourth report in the Brotherhood's Social Barometer series, its predecessors were The working years (Allen Consulting Group 2007), Challenges facing Australian youth, (Boese & Scutella 2006) and Monitoring children’s chances (Scutella & Smyth 2005).
Organisational aspects (BSL)
Sandra Hills (General Manager - Aged & Community Care) left the Brotherhood in February to become CEO of Benetas and was succeeded by Christine Morka, formerly BSL's Senior Manager of Community Aged Care Services.
The Sustainable Business Unit (previously the Ethical Business Unit) was closed in June following the completion of the Brotherhood's strategic planning for 2009 - 2011 and the decision to focus on core business and to reduce the diversity of the organisation's work. Following the purchase of Mod-Style, the BSL Board established the Unit to guide the practices of the Brotherhood's social and community enterprises and ensure they are not only commercially viable but operate within an ethical framework. (See http://tinyurl.com/284lbpo )
Cox/Collins Court, the residential low-care (hostel) aged care facility at the G.K. Tucker Settlement, Carrum Downs, closed on 21 August 2009. A partnership with Loddon-Mallee Housing Services was announced, which will result in the future in a mixed community of rented affordable housing for people on low incomes and privately owned homes at the Tucker Settlement. In this way the Brotherhood’s legacy of affordable housing would continue at Carrum Downs, under the management of Loddon-Mallee Housing Services (Personal communication, Nicholson, T 2009).
The Reverend Chaplain Soma Jackson was commissioned as Associate Chaplain at the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Assistant Curate in the Parish of Footscray on 2 September 2009 at St John's Footscray.
On 10 September the University of Melbourne signed a memorandum of understanding with the Brotherhood of St Laurence. This formalised a long and productive collaboration between the Brotherhood and the University. Through the partnership, the partners will work together for an Australia free from poverty by creating evidence for policy and improving decision-makers' understanding of social inclusion (Media Release 2009).
The 29th Sambell Oration was given by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria on 15 October
The 38th Annual General Meeting of the Brotherhood of St Laurence was held in the Reading Room of the Fitzroy Town Hall on 3 December 2009
People
BSL Staff members with more than 20 years service were recognised at an afternoon tea function on 26 June. These were Robyn Pendlebury (34 years) Cox Collins; Valerie Mallison (32 years) Metro Catering; Jennifer Ates (32 Years) Cox Collins; Sue Papst (25 Years) Moonee Ponds Retail; Paul Lovell (26 years) Maintenance Services; Hernan Vinco (23 years) Finance; Michelle Stretton (21 years) Organisational Services; Janet Taylor (21 Years) Research & Policy; Michael Wilson (20 years) Library & Knowledge Management; Ann Pierce (20 years) Retail Administration.
|
 Staff members with Bishop Philip Huggins (BSL Chair)
& Tony Nicholson (Executive Director)
|
Catherine Smith OAM, Life Member of the Brotherhood, former member of the Poverty Watch group and writer of Icons including that of St Laurence, died on 15 December.
|
 Icon of St Laurence written by Catherine Smith OAM ©
|
Presentations & Publications
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.