Thursday 4 August 2022 - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day

Community Contributions


The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (NATSILS) says the Productivity Commission Closing the Gap data show that justice policy should be led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's solutions. Click here to learn more.

Early Childhood Australia (ECA), the nation's peak advocacy organisation for young children and early childhood services is joined by Thrive By Five and a broad coalition of unions, educator groups, experts, and advocates for children and parents, to launch the Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Action Plan. Click here to learn more.

Save the Children launched the rebrand of its Australian services division this week after a two-year consultation and development process with children and young people who access its services, as well as parents, teachers, school principals and government agencies. Check out the rebrand ‘54 Reasons’ here.

MS Australia is campaigning for improvements to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to better meet the needs of people living with multiple sclerosis (MS). Click here to get involved and learn more.

Analysis by Anti-Poverty Week found that a third of single-parent families (300,000) are headed by women caring for around 600,000 children who are living near or below the poverty line. Distressingly, women can expect to fall further into poverty as their children get older. Learn more here.

People With Disability Australia commemorated its 40th anniversary with the launch of a new website. The interface has been refreshed to improve how clients and supporters can access key information and engage with activities and events. Click here to learn more.

Nominations are now open for Australian Human Rights Commission's annual Human Rights Awards. These celebrate outstanding achievements to advance human rights in Australia, and recognise the important work of individuals, communities and organisations from across the country. Click here to learn more and nominate.

Mission Australia’s Without a home: First-time youth homelessness in the COVID-19 period report reveals almost one in 20 young people aged 15 to 19 who responded to Mission Australia’s Youth Survey 2021 were homeless for the first time during the pandemic. Worryingly, this is a significant increase since 2017, when almost one in 25 young people had recently been pushed into homelessness for the first time.

Community Conversations

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day (4 August)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are born into stories of their family, culture, and Country. They carry with them the songlines of their ancestors and culture, passed down by generations. Their Dreaming is part of our history, while their futures are their own to shape. This Children’s Day, SNAICC are asking children what Dreaming means to them, learning how they interpret this in their lives and identity, and hearing what their aspirations are for the future. 

On 4 August, all Australians have the opportunity to show their support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, as well as learn about the crucial impact that culture, family and community play in the life of every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child.

Click here to learn more and get involved

Homelessness Week (1-7 August)

Homelessness Australia launched its major report ‘A Plan To End Homelessness’ to coincide with Homelessness Week, which runs from August 1 – 7. The theme for Homelessness Week 2022 is 'To end homelessness, we need a plan'.

A Plan To End Homelessness sets out clear actions to:

  • Halve the number of households experiencing rental stress by 2027 and end rental stress by 2032;
  • End homelessness for women, children and young people;
  • End homelessness for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;
  • Halve the numbers of people returning to homeless services by 2027, and halve the numbers again by 2032.

New analysis by the Everybody’s Home campaign reveals the regions in each state where renters are hardest hit by the toxic combination of surging rent increases, stagnant wages, and inadequate income support. Click here to read the data.

Click here to learn more and get involved
 

Community Sector Events

  • Funders, from governments to philanthropic organisations to individual donors are keenly interested in your inputs, outputs, outcomes and impact. How should you collect and report on that information? Attend this Connecting Up webinar to find out - 18 August 2022 - Click here to learn more and to register
  • In preparation for the upcoming Federal Government Jobs and Skills Summit, Australian Youth Affairs Coalition is hosting a briefing to hear about priorities and how they can ensure young people are a focus at the Summit - 24 August 2022 - Click here to register and to learn more

Community Sector Resources

  • Today is National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day. Click here to access resources developed by SNAICC to help celebrate. 
  • To get involved in Homelessness Week (1-7 August) click here to access a resources available in the Homelessness Week Supporter Pack, including social media tiles, web banners, email signatures, posters and messaging to support your advocacy.

COSS Corner

The latest news from State and Territory Councils of Social Service

ACTCOSS's Gulanga Program said that today’s ACT Budget responded to some of the calls from the ACT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, but much more is needed to be done to improve outcomes for First Nations peoples in the ACT. Click to learn more.

Do you want to enhance the services you provide to Tasmanians on low incomes? Are you leading a project that would benefit from including lived experience? The TasCOSS Community Voices Program supports your organisation to learn from and partner with Tasmanians with lived experience of living on a low income. Community Voice Partners are trained, mentored, supported and paid to share their lived experiences to help enhance your work. For more information, click here or contact Dr Lucy Mercer-Mapstone, Stakeholder Engagement & Policy Officer, via email. 

WACOSS is currently hiring a Program Support Officer in the Social Policy team, who will provide support to the Deputy CEO, assist with meetings and events, liaise and maintain communications with sector stakeholders and members. The successful candidate will have some experience in the community services sector, excellent interpersonal and writing skills, and the capacity to work in a fast-paced and changing environment. Apply now.

SACOSS’ upcoming conference Alternative Futures: Ending Poverty will address the big topic of what we can do to achieve a future without poverty. To be held at the Adelaide Convention centre on 18 November, it will bring together a range of speakers for informative and inspiring panel sessions. Sign up for updates here.

QCOSS welcomes important social reforms and investment announced in Queensland's state budget, but says it is extremely disappointed there was no additional funding for one of the state’s biggest issues – the housing crisis. Click here to read the full response.

65 NT women killed in DV – how do we change the story? Click here to read the transcript of NTCOSS's Senior Policy Officer, Tessa Snowden, discuss this topic on ABC Radio.

VCOSS hosted the virtual VCOSS-DFFH COVID briefing for the Victorian community sector. If you weren't able to make it, complete transcript and fully captioned video of the forum is now available here. 

NCOSS has released its annual Cost of Living in NSW research investigating cost-of-living pressures for people living below the poverty line and low-income households in NSW. This research engaged 1,025 NSW residents through an online survey and 22 of these respondents through additional focus groups and interviews. 

Members in the Media

Education as important as Voice to parliament, says Aboriginal leader

NACCHO CEO, Pat Turner, featured

Read here

Calls for welfare penalty ban to extend

Australian Unemployed Workers Union spokesperson Jeremy Poxon featured

Read here

Visa push leaves refugee community on hold

Jana Favero, director of Advocacy and Campaigns at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre featured

Read here
 

Feature Tweet

Wonderful to meet with Minister @LindaBurneyMP and the Attorney General to hand over the signatures of 200 THOUSAND PEOPLE calling to #RaiseTheAge to at least 14 years old! pic.twitter.com/Xm27ciuMww

— Change the Record (@Change_Record) August 3, 2022
Click here to see full tweet
 

We respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the country on which we work, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.

We recognise the right of all First Peoples around the country to self-determination.

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