Professor Pat Dugeon (from the Bardi people of the Kimberley in WA and the first Aboriginal psychologist to graduate in Australia) and her team at the University of WA are leading the Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing (TIMHWB) project. The TIMHWB team have produced a fact sheet First Nations Youth and the Justice System, which organises information under three key headings: (1) historical and contemporary context (2) the Australian context, and (3) ways forward. Click here to download.

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that was released this week explains in detail how climate impacts – such as floods, bushfires and heatwaves – are coming faster, hitting harder, and will be felt more widely, especially in the world’s most vulnerable communities. Read the Climate Council's explainer to better understand the report findings.

The landmark mandate to include consent education in the Australian curriculum is a historic win for young people across Australia and the ‘Teach Us Consent’ campaign. Full Stop Australia welcomes the decision to include age-appropriate sexual consent education in all Australian schools from kindergarten to Year 10. Click here to learn more.

Australia Post, together with its partner Australian Red Cross, is helping to support communities in Queensland and northern New South Wales affected by intense flooding, by accepting donations for the Red Cross QLD and NSW Floods Appeal in participating Post Offices across the country. Learn more.

Key disability advocacy groups join to urge the Government to act on the DSP Senate Inquiry Report. Whilst there are some welcome recommendations in the Report, we urge the government to take responsibility for taking action on addressing the level of need and distress that people with disability experience while trying to survive on income support. Australia is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Article 28 stipulates clearly that people with disability have a right to an adequate standard of living and social protection. Click to learn more.

One year since the Royal Commission, the aged care sector calls on parties to take action on workforce. The Royal Commission final report, handed down one year ago, presented a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul aged care so that older Australians can get the care and respect they need and deserve. Click here to read and learn more.

The National Reconciliation Week 2022 theme, “Be Brave. Make Change.” is a challenge to all Australians— individuals, families, communities, organisations and government—to Be Brave and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation so we can Make Change for the benefit of all Australians.

National Reconciliation Week—27 May to 3 June—is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

Australia and the rest of the world have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hit the reset button on how we behave towards one another. The importance of human connections has been underscored by the pandemic and such lessons can help us in so many ways. Mainstream and refugee communities alike can draw upon shared hardship to heal wounds, to learn from each other and to move forward. Healing can occur through storytelling, through community and also through realisation of our intrinsic interconnectedness as individuals.  

In 2022, organisations and individuals are encouraged to participate in Refugee Week (Sunday 19 June – Saturday 25 June, 2022) by engaging with resources and events that will facilitate this healing and subsequent rejuvenation. 

In the lead up to the Federal Election, the Uluru Statement from the Heart campaign needs your support more than ever. Below are ways you can continue to engage with the campaign, and amplify the vital importance of a Constitutionally Enshrined Voice to Parliament:

• Go to https://ulurustatement.org/ to learn more.
• Use the letter generator on the site to write to your local Federal MP or the PM to express your support. There’s a pro-forma letter, but a personal letter, no matter how short, that talks about your connections with and support for First Nations self-determination is even better!
• Get on The Mailing List to keep up to date with new campaigns and social media collateral.
• Download the Social Media Images and Tiles available now and share and use them wherever you can, including to create a supporter zoom background.
• When acknowledging country, remind people in your actual and virtual rooms to sign on to the Uluru Statement to show their support and write to their MP. Post the links in your virtual meeting chats.
• Look out for a new part of the website coming soon called “Feet on Country”, which will accompany official yarning circles and invite people to take and post photos of their feet on country.
• Remember this is a time to take action, which goes beyond words.
  

• At both a national and state level, there is a growing awareness of the need to foster women’s economic security. After countless reviews and inquiries, the issues and drivers are well known – so, what’s needed now and in the future to tackle the persistent gender pay gap, unequal responsibility for paid and unpaid work, and an inadequate and punitive social security system? Join this Brotherhood of St Laurence webinar to learn more - 10 March 2022 - Click here to learn more

• As part of the sixty-sixth Commission for the Status of Women (CSW66), Settlement Services International will be hosting a virtual panel discussing economic empowerment of migrant and refugee women in a global context, and how critical SSI’s work is in supporting all women to achieve their entrepreneurship goals and improve the livelihoods of women and their families - 17 March 2022 - Click here to register and learn more

• Following on from the five years of successful and engaging annual Refugee Alternatives conferences, the Refugee Council of Australia will now host free regular webinars exploring important issues in refugee policy and practice - 15 March 2022 - Click here to learn more and to register

• Support National Reconciliation Week 2022 by downloading the #NRW2022 digital resources for your web, social, or desktop. Click here.

• The Australian Government is seeking to improve the Carer Gateway website. If you are registered with Carer Gateway, they want to know about your needs and experiences which will be invaluable as they develop ideas for the future of the Carer Gateway website. Click here for more information and to register interest.

• NPS MedicineWise has launched a hub containing information on recently approved antivirals and monoclonal antibody medicines that can be used to treat COVID-19. The hub will provide new clinical information, resources and links to help keep health professionals and consumers up to date with the latest approvals, evidence and guidance.

National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) chief executivePat Turner acknowledged Government would partner with it to co-design the delivery of these initiatives.

Doug Taylor, The Smith Family CEO, says that children in poverty in Australia can sometimes live in stressed households.

“The mental load of living in poverty is very real,” he says. “About one third of the students and parents that we support have a health or disability issue, which can make it hard or even impossible for the parents to work in paid employment. And more than half of the parents on our program are single parents, which can obviously make things even harder. Of the families we support, about 70 per cent may be experiencing unemployment for a period of time.

The federal government has refused to adopt a key recommendation from a parliamentary inquiry into the issue, to develop a national homelessness strategy.

Now there's anger from those working on the frontline who say the federal government is not doing enough.

Jenny Smith, Homelessness Australia, discusses.

Will the New Disability Employment Services Model repeat the mistakes of DES past, and the very real harm they have caused to #disabled people and our families? Read our position statement: https://t.co/wkHcV29mps pic.twitter.com/X26CqTkmCC

— PWD Australia (PWDA) (@PWDAustralia) February 28, 2022