Connections News Summer 2014

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MESSAGE FROM ANGELA FORBES, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Who can believe it is already the end of the year? It seems like just last week I was writing to you, telling you what I was excited about for the year ahead and all that we were hoping to achieve. This year has been a challenging year – for Connections and the Community Services sector as a whole; for those most vulnerable in the community and for our staff, who work tirelessly to improve the life outcomes of those who access our services. As challenging a year as it was, it was also an incredibly rewarding one with the realisation of a number of our objectives. I am very proud of all that we have been able to achieve and in this newsletter you will see just some of the reasons why I feel like this. Thank you for your interest in the work of Connections and best wishes to you and your family for the festive season and beyond. Angela Forbes Chief Executive Officer Welcome to the Summer Edition of the Connections News! SUMMER 2014 connections.org.au CONNECTIONS NEWS Angela Forbes VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE FAMILIES CAN YOU FILL A BAG THIS CHRISTMAS? THE 28 TH ANNUAL WJ CRAIG LECTURE AND PRESENTATION OF ANTI-POVERTY AWARDS Connections is seeking volunteers to assist socially isolated families in the Yarra Ranges through its new program Home-Start. Home-Start is a community-based support program available to parents with children under the age of eight who live in the Yarra Ranges. It aims to connect families to support networks and help parents build stronger relationships with their children. Home-Start Coordinator, Freya Dugan believes a service such as this provides great support to families who might be facing issues at home or just need a friendly hand. Support is tailored to the family’s needs. All parents need support at some time with the challenging job of caring for their children,says Ms Dugan. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE FAMILIES » TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BECOMING A VOLUNTEER, VISIT CONNECTIONS.ORG.AU OR CALL 03 9724 2222. ‘The program is designed for parents who are stressed, isolated, anxious, have multiple children or have an illness or disability. It is about volunteers working alongside parents to help build their confidence and provide them with the support they need,’ continued Ms Dugan. Home-Start volunteers receive intensive training run over 10 weeks and ongoing support and supervision is provided from the Home-Start Coordinator.

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Transcript of Connections News Summer 2014

Page 1: Connections News Summer 2014

MESSAGE FROM ANGELA FORBES, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Who can believe it is already the end of the year? It seems like just last week I was writing to you, telling you what I was excited about for the year ahead and all that we were hoping to achieve.

This year has been a challenging year – for Connections and the Community Services sector as a whole; for those most vulnerable in the community and for our staff, who work tirelessly to improve the life outcomes of those who access our services.

As challenging a year as it was, it was also an incredibly rewarding one with the realisation of a number of our objectives. I am very proud of

all that we have been able to achieve and in this newsletter you will see just some of the reasons why I feel like this.

Thank you for your interest in the work of Connections and best wishes to you and your family for the festive season and beyond.

Angela ForbesChief Executive Officer

Welcome to the Summer Edition of the Connections News!

SUMMER 2014

connections.org.au

CONNECTIONS NEWS

Angela Forbes

› VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE FAMILIES

› CAN YOU FILL A BAG THIS CHRISTMAS?

› THE 28TH ANNUAL WJ CRAIG LECTURE AND PRESENTATION OF ANTI-POVERTY AWARDS

Connections is seeking volunteers to assist socially isolated families in the Yarra Ranges through its new program Home-Start.

Home-Start is a community-based support program available to parents with children under the age of eight who live in the Yarra Ranges. It aims to connect families to support networks and help parents build stronger relationships with their children.

Home-Start Coordinator, Freya Dugan believes a service such as this provides great support to families who might be facing issues at home or just need a friendly hand. Support is tailored to the family’s needs.

‘All parents need support at some time with the challenging job of caring for their children,’ says Ms Dugan.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE FAMILIES

» TO FIND OUT MORE

ABOUT BECOMING A VOLUNTEER, VISIT CONNECTIONS.ORG.AU OR CALL 03 9724 2222.

‘The program is designed for parents who are stressed, isolated, anxious, have multiple children or have an illness or disability. It is about volunteers working alongside parents to help build their confidence and provide them with the support they need,’ continued Ms Dugan.

Home-Start volunteers receive intensive training run over 10 weeks and ongoing support and supervision is provided from the Home-Start Coordinator.

Page 2: Connections News Summer 2014

CAN YOU FILL A BAG THIS CHRISTMAS?

Children everywhere are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Santa just as parents eagerly await their children’s reactions to what has been left for them.

However, for many, the joy of Christmas is overshadowed by feelings of stress and anxiety as they try to work out how they are going to afford presents for their children and avoid the disappointed looks on their faces.

This year, you can alleviate some of that pressure by supporting the Connections UnitingCare Christmas Food and Gift Appeal.

Last year, our annual appeal supplied over 6,000 gifts and 600 hampers to clients in need.

Can you a fill bag this Christmas and ensure that every child has a reason to smile this Christmas?

About how you can support the Connections Christmas Food & Gift Appeal, visit connections.org.au where you can also watch our little friends talk about what makes Christmas so special for them.

» TO FIND OUT MOREWith thanks to Dandenong Nissan, and Dealer Principal Craig Fyall, Connections will be driving a Nissan Navara for the duration of the appeal. The car will be used to help support the collection of food and gifts. Thank you!

On Friday 17 October, Connections recognised Anti-Poverty Week by hosting the 28th Annual WJ Craig Lecture and Presentation of Anti-Poverty Awards.

Delivering the lecture this year was Magistrate Lesley Fleming. Her Honour spoke about her experience working with perpetrators and about what the psychology of a violent offender is and how we can work together to stop people from slipping through the cracks. ‘Poverty and family violence have common indices but family violence is not confined to poor families; family violence, unlike poverty, has no boundaries, it’s a virus.’

The event also saw the presentation of the 2014 Anti-Poverty Awards. Receiving the Individual Award was Sarah Planken. With a long-held passion to improve outcomes for asylum seekers and refugees, Sarah developed The Village Harvest – a space for asylum seekers, refugees and the broader community to connect and share resources. The Village Harvest aims to encourage the volunteer participation of individuals from asylum seeker and refugee backgrounds, together with local community members to share and assist in the preparation and enjoyment of traditional recipes and cultural celebrations. Encouragement Awards were also presented to Adelle Laing, Georgie Debenham and Amber Jones.

Receiving the School Award was Parade College. Eddie’s Backpacks was started by a group of students who were looking to make a difference in their community. The students heard about the challenges of foster care and contacted the Foster Care Association of Victoria to find out how they could help. The boys provide backpacks to foster children as well as advocate for the rights of children and carers. To date, they have distributed 102 backpacks. Encouragement Awards were also presented to Kingswood College and Norwest Christian College.

Connections would like to acknowledge those who supported this event including: rrepp, UCA Funds Management, UnitingCare Victoria and Tasmania, Share Appeal, Commission for Mission and City of Melbourne.

THE 28TH ANNUAL WJ CRAIG LECTURE AND PRESENTATION OF ANTI-POVERTY AWARDS

From left: Dr Fiona Hanlon, Sarah Planken and Angela Forbes.

» FIND OUT MORE

ABOUT THE WJ CRAIG LECTURE OR THE ANTI-POVERTY AWARDS VISIT

CONNECTIONS.ORG.AU

Page 3: Connections News Summer 2014

Connections’ Chinese Family Services program was recently presented with a special Highly Commended award at the Victorian Government Early Years Awards. The Early Years Awards recognise outstanding achievements by those in the early childhood sector and celebrate exceptional programs, services and partnerships that improve the health, learning, development and wellbeing of Victorian children from 0 to 8 years of age and their families.

Connections was a finalist in the Improvement in parent’s capacity, confidence and enjoyment of family life category and were up against three other equally exceptional finalists.

We were delighted to officially open the Connections Family Centre on Friday 14 November.

Located in Doveton – an area that is recognised as one of significant disadvantage, this Centre has been specifically designed to replicate the family home in order to foster greater engagement with those accessing it.

Connections has made a significant commitment to the establishment of this Centre which has been custom-built to meet the needs of the programs it services, as well as the local Doveton community. Furthermore, we believe that the Family Centre complements our extensive suite of services and provides a holistic approach to our service delivery.

In partnership with the Pakenham Uniting Church, Connections has begun a Homework Club to support the emerging CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) community in Pakenham. The Homework Club has a community focus where parents are encouraged to stay with their other children and assist with tasks such as setting up for snack time and form supportive relationships with other parents.

The need for this project was identified by parents attending a supported playgroup facilitated by the Pakenham Uniting Church with the support of Connections, where parents felt at a disadvantage in helping their children with reading and homework due to the language barriers they were experiencing.

The Homework Club will be beneficial to the students who are receiving assistance with their homework, as they will be given the opportunity to improve their reading and numeracy skills.

Connections' Chinese Family Services program supports Chinese communities in developing their parenting capacity, reduce social isolation, increase access to main stream services and better connect Chinese residents to their local communities, while still retaining their traditional culture.

Presently, Connections runs two programs from this location. These include:

» Newpin (New Parent and Infant Network) is a centre-based, intensive approach to breaking the cycle of abuse and neglect.

» Enhanced Therapeutic Contact Service delivers contact services to children in Out of Home Care and their families when the Children’s Court has ordered supervised contact.

THE EARLY YEARS AWARDS

CONNECTIONS FAMILY CENTRE OPENING

PARTNERSHIPS WITH A PURPOSE

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL STAFF WHO WERE PART OF THIS WONDERFUL INITIATIVE.

From left: Graham Williams, Glyn Jones, Hon Wendy Lovell, Joseph Jin, Jenny Zhang, Jingjing Shen and Louise Phelan.

Above: Dr Fiona Hanlon

» FIND OUT MORE

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CONNECTIONS' SUITE OF PROGRAMS AND SERVICES, VISIT

CONNECTIONS.ORG.AU

Page 4: Connections News Summer 2014

Connections UnitingCare 51 Princes Highway Dandenong Victoria 3175 Australia T 03 8792 8999 F 03 8792 8900 [email protected] connections.org.au

ABN: 90 676 577 035

Edited by Christine Luk, Communications Officer and Kirrilee Torney, Acting Manager, Community Relations.

Designed by Studio Binocular.

Photos by Shane Bell.

Connections aims to reduce our impact on the environment. This Connections publication is printed carbon neutral on recycled paper using vegetable based inks, no isopropyl alcohol and world’s best practice Environmental and Quality Management Systems.

» We acknowledge that we work on land for which the peoples of the Kulin Nations are the traditional owners and custodians.

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CONNECTIONS HAS RELEASED ITS 2014 ANNUAL REPORTThe 2014 Annual Report highlights the important work that we do in supporting vulnerable members of the community. The report highlights our latest program the Enhanced Therapeutic Contact Service and also our decision to relinquish our Mount Waverley office. This year’s Annual Report also tells the story of one our clients Tina, who with Connections' help, was able to find permanent housing and get her and her young son’s life back on track.

The Report reflects on the many achievements for the organisation over the last 12 months that included Family Services assisting 1508 families and our Group Work program providing over 150 groups to 1903 clients.

» FIND OUT MOREIf you would like a copy of our Annual Report, call 03 8792 8999 and ask to speak to someone in Community Relations or read it online connections.org.au/publications