Wednesday 14 September 2022 

Community Contributions

First and Second Peoples from across the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC), the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA), and the UnitingCare Network have gathered on Turrbal and Jagera Land to reaffirm and recommit to lasting justice for First Peoples. The First Peoples Gathering is a significant annual event in the life of the Uniting Church and brings to life its commitment to First Peoples. Click here to learn more.

Early Childhood Australia (ECA), the nation's peak advocacy organisation for young children and early childhood services, welcomes the release of the National Children's Education and Care Workforce Strategy Implementation and Evaluation Plan. The plan aims to chart a course towards building a sustainable, high-quality and professionally recognised workforce to ensure the best outcomes for children.

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 learn more about the campaign and the three essential reform areas MS Australia believes are needed to improve the NDIS for the MS community.

Relationships Australia is excited to announce a new PhD scholarship opportunity in partnership with the Australian National University and ask you to promote this to your networks. The successful PhD candidate will investigate how to better include the voices of children and young people in the design, delivery, and evaluation of community services. This scholarship is in partnership with ANU, with the PhD student embedded at Relationships Australia Canberra and Region in Deakin as they work to translate their research into real-world applications. Click here to learn more.

In support of Indigenous Literacy Day (7 September) read and share this article from Children's Ground's Amunda Gorey about First Language literacy and the link between Country, culture and language. 

FECCA urges all actors involved in the Jobs and Skills Summit and beyond to view migration and Australia’s existing multicultural workforce as a nation-building project that not only delivers benefits to the Australian economy, but must also deliver for individual workers and their families. Click here to learn more.

Community Conversations

Anglicare Australia calls for action to help renters age at home

Anglicare Australia is calling for action to help older renters age at home. The call is made as Anglicare Australia releases a landmark study on older renters. Aging in Place surveyed 500 older people across Australia and conducted in-depth interviews. It found that:

  • 87 percent of people want to remain at home as they get older.
  • 72 percent of renters said cost was the biggest barrier to ageing at home, compared to just 15 percent of owners.
  • 46 percent of renters said their home is suitable for an older person, compared to 70 percent of owners. 

"Everyone should be able to live life to the fullest as they get older. For most people, that means ageing in their own home," said Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers.

"But the housing crisis is locking more and more Australians out of that dream. Almost 70 percent of renters in our survey said that cost is the biggest barrier to a  geing at home."

Click here to learn more

New study reveals what young people need to succeed post-school

A new and ongoing study by The Smith Family is providing direct insights from hundreds of young people experiencing disadvantage on their post-school pathways. These include both the enablers and challenges they face to participating in work and further study, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pathways, Engagement and Transitions (PET) study is helping to build an understanding of how young people can be better supported with their future careers while they are at school, and during the important post-school transition period. The longitudinal three-year study is following two cohorts of young people across 2021, 2022 and 2023. The cohorts are students who were in Year 10 or Year 12 in late 2020 and participating in The Smith Family’s long-term educational scholarship program, Learning for Life.

Click here to learn more

Workforce shortages across the sector

Workforce shortages across the health sector is impacting access to culturally appropriate services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people nationally. To effectively support growing demand, there is the need to leverage the current ACCHO workforce and draw from local communities to build a multi-disciplinary care workforce that includes both cultural and clinical experts.

The Government’s commitment to the roll out of a NACCHO-led national traineeship program has been welcomed by the ACCHO sector as an ideal way to grow a suitably qualified and job ready Aboriginal Health Worker (AHW) and Health Practitioner (AHP) workforce. Aboriginal Health Workers and Health Practitioners are the heart of the ACCHO workforce. They are skilled, valued and trusted members of ACCHO teams and local communities.

NACCHO is working closely with our eleven community-controlled RTOs which will play a key role in delivering these traineeships. Their focus on the provision of culturally competent, holistic care, and accessibility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students is a critical difference in the training they offer.

Click here to learn more
 

Community Sector Events

  • Healthy Conversation is a monthly online forum about all things climate and health. This conversation will be led by Dr Summer May Finlay, a proud Yorta Yorta woman, and Dr Janine Mohamed, a proud Narrunga Kaurna woman. It will illustrate the effective community-led solutions that are being implemented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and will showcase the strength and importance of their political advocacy - 19 September 2022 - Click here to learn more and to register
  • Cyber security is on everyone’s minds, with widely publicised incidents regularly in the news. In this Connecting Up webinar, panel speakers will discuss the cyber security risks not-for-profit organisations small and large must face in the emerging threat landscape, and the challenges in tackling them - 12 October 2022 - Click here to learn more and to register

Community Sector Resources

  • Evidence for Learning, Social Ventures Australia's education evidence initiative, has launched a new Teaching & Learning Toolkit, alongside a new website, making it even easier to access the latest global evidence and insights. Click here to access.
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) has created a short film documentary that sheds light on the experiences of people living with noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions around the world. 'Nothing for Us, Without Us: listening and learning from people with lived experience' highlights six individuals with diverse health conditions, including rheumatic heart disease, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, cancer, bipolar affective disorder and auto-immune disease. Click here to learn more and to watch.

COSS Corner

The latest news from State and Territory Councils of Social Service

WACOSS is currently recruiting for a Training Specialist for the WA Digital Inclusion Project who will coordinate the development and delivery of the ‘train the trainer’ program to 1,500 frontline community service workers and provide ongoing support with ability-focused initiatives on the project. The project is a three-year Lotterywest-funded collaboration of 26 partners, including community service organisations and digital partner NBN Co.

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 sessions. Topics include housing affordability, privatisation, digital inclusion, and the Uluru Statement, as well as public attitudes about poverty, and busting myths about government support.

Joint VCOSS-ECCV research paper is drawn from the insights and experiences of the Multicultural Emergency Management Partnership (MEMP). It highlights the critical importance of strong connections and engagement between multicultural communities, government and the emergency management sector, and makes recommendations to enhance how this occurs. Click here to learn more.

This past fortnight, ACTCOSS provided a submission to the Inquiry into the Period Products and Facilities (Access) Bill 2022 – saying it is supportive of the introduction of this Bill as a means to address period poverty and the stigma associated with periods in the ACT. ACTCOSS also supported a proposal to introduce the Right to a Healthy Environment under the ACT’s suite of human rights protections but called on the ACT Government to enact all Economic, Social and Cultural Rights including a Right to Housing.

As NSW recovered from the 2019-20 Summer Bushfires and the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Australia in February 2020, there was no indication of the upheaval and sacrifices that lay ahead. This NCOSS report series, Aftershock: Addressing the Economic and Social Costs of the Pandemic and Natural Disasters, explores the impacts of the pandemic and natural disasters across four key domains of wellbeing – mental health, domestic violence, housing security and child welfare and development – drawing together research and latest data to highlight the devastating impacts of the past two and half years. 

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will host a roundtable this Friday, 16 September, ahead of a Housing Summit in October. This week's roundtable will bring together the Premier, Deputy Premier as well as the Public Works, Communities and Housing Ministers with the Brisbane Lord Mayor and the LGAQ. It will also involve key non-government stakeholders including QShelter, QCOSS, the REIQ, Property Council of Australia, Master Builders and the Planning Institute of Australia.

TasCOSS and Families and Children Tasmania have joined calls by Tasmania's Commissioner for Children and Young People, Leanne McLean, for a rapid response crisis team to immediately be established and sent into the Ashley Youth Detention Centre (AYDC) to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children and young people currently detained, as well as ensure the staff are supported to do their jobs.

NTCOSS CEO Deborah Di Natale has responded to the news of an increase in the JobSeeker payment by $1.80 to less than $48 a day by explaining, "It is completely inaccurate to be talking about this as a massive win and some ambitious policy position. We're talking about $1.80 a day, that's a drop in the ocean." Click here to listen to the full statement.

Members in the Media

Sector delivers verdict on government’s first 100 days

CEO of SNAICC Catherine Liddle featured

Read here

Working group to answer big questions leading up to Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum

CEO of NACCHO Pat Turner mentioned

Read here

Calls for reform, not platitudes, on youth justice system

Change the Record mentioned

Read here
 

Feature Tweet

As we saw the official cash rate rise again today, @briannacasey1 spoke with @abcnews about the pressure it will put on many people already doing it tough. #CostOfLivingCrises #ZeroHunger #Askforhelphttps://t.co/7Z72uzAuM6

— Foodbank Australia (@FoodbankAus) September 6, 2022
Click here for 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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