As we reach the middle of Summer, we hope your are enjoying time with family and friends as warm weather abounds.
Our Summer newsletter is here – where we share highlights from the last few months and update you on program and staff news, including updates on fiXit.
You’ll find a range of stories below that share the recent impact of our work and the significant partnerships emerging as we grow as an organisation.
Each season brings change and this Summer is no different. After over 30 years providing relational support to young people at Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre, the Chaplaincy program will no longer be offered at the Centre. Working closely with God’s Squad Christian Motorcycle Club over this entire period has been an honour and we will continue to look for opportunities to partner with them again in the future.
We want to take this opportunity to thank you personally for your generosity in response to our Christmas Appeal which raised over $20,000 to assist young people in our care experiencing homelessness.
Positive outcomes we’ve recently achieved are made possible through partner funding including new funding from the Department of Justice and Community Safety, Steven and Ian Gandel, The Gandel Foundation, The Flora and Frank Leith Trust and Together Financial. We could not achieve the impact we have without your support and that of our partners so a big thank you from all of us.
Despite the challenges faced in the lead up to Christmas, we continued to respond to the ever changing needs of our young people across our programs. This included delivering online automotive lessons to Hand Brake Turn students and ensuring Youth Workers and Live-in Mentors in our Inside Out homes were supported to manage their safety and wellbeing throughout the lockdowns. We were able to better support young people experiencing homelessness through our Steps Outreach Service which helped brighten the Christmas period. Accommodation was sorted, food care packs and Christmas hampers were delivered with a smile.
We are still calling for more Live-in Mentors who play a crucial role in integrating young people in the out-of-home-care system into the community. If you know of anyone who is interested please send them our way! This can be an incredibly rewarding role for the right person who wants to make a difference in a young person’s life, so do check out more details about the role in our update.
We feel incredibly optimistic about 2022 as opportunities emerge this year and look forward to sharing these seasonal updates with you throughout the year.
Enjoy the read, stay safe and every blessing for the year ahead.
Michelle Crawford
Chief Executive Officer
Concern Australia
Team Update
At our October Annual General Meeting Hand Brake Turn Coordinator Jonathan Sugumar was awarded the Concern Australia 2021 Pioneer Award, Jonathan has worked tirelessly since then to support HBT students, establishing trust quickly, and going on to build strong relationships with them. Read more…
You may have missed our communications following last year’s AGM (late October) which was another virtual event that was a great opportunity to report on our impact for the year. We celebrated 50 years of Impact supporting young people and children. Read more…
Marley is a young woman who participated as an RMIT student and has been such a great contributor to the team. She’s come on board as a fully fledged employee recently to further her experience and you can tell she really loves working with all the young people. Read more…
Our Partners Updates
As announced this week, our Chaplaincy contract at Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre has come to an end after 32 years. We continue to work with the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) to partner with young people across existing and new programs with a focus on preventing involvement with the justice system. Read more about our recent funding success here
It was great to catch up with father and son, Ian and Steven Gandel, who visited our Braybook workshop. They have provided funding to support several employee contracts at fiXit, and we were so touched they wanted to continue their support over the holiday break. Link to the article…
Together Financial provided funds to create beautiful, yummy Christmas hampers for the young people living in our Inside Out homes in the lead up to Christmas and also for young people supported by Steps.. Find out more.
Our Jobs Victoria Advocates David and Usman were delighted to join the final Christmas meal at Cornerstone Community Services that was hosted at Dandenong Baptist Church.
Activities Update
CREWY is back – Werribee Zoo was awesome!
After such a long spell being locked down in our homes it was wonderful to see our CREWY team (Creating Real Experiences With Youth) back in action with fun trips to local zoos.
Heading to Werribee Open Range Zoo and Collingwood Children’s Farm was a real treat for a few of our young people who had never had the chance to visit these places before.
A BIG shout out to the CREWY team for creating these engaging and shared activities for young people in our care. They do a stellar job of creating cool and exciting activities to participate in and we owe them a debt of gratitude for all their hard work!
Live-In-Mentor
Do you think you know someone who may be a great Live-in Mentor?
Volunteer Live-in-Mentors are the backbone of Inside Out, providing guidance and support to young people who have been part of the out-of-home care system and have often had traumatic experiences in their lives. Live-in-Mentors help build a safe sense of home in which the young people in their care can learn to tackle life independently.
One of our Inside Out mentors speaks to their own experience, “The young people I’ve been around are incredible people. They inspire me with their maturity and their humour. They’re amazing people. I feel very lucky to be living with them.”
