Month: October 2016

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News & Announcements

Juniper wins top safety accolade

Glenda McMurtrie, occupational safety and health manager at Juniper, accepts the finalist certificate and winner's trophy from Tony Krsticevic, parliamentary secretary to the minister for Commerce.

Juniper has received Western Australia’s premier award for occupational health and safety in the workplace. Juniper is a Uniting Church WA agency providing residential and community aged care.

Receiving Worksafe WA’s award for Best Workplace Safety and Health Management System, Vaughan Harding, Juniper’s chief executive, said a strong culture of safety backed by comprehensive training and management systems ensured employees are equipped to do their jobs safely.

“Juniper prides its self on having an excellent safety culture and actively encourages continuous improvement and safety awareness,” he said.

Since 2010 the Juniper workforce has increased by 20 per cent to more than 1,600 employees, and significantly, workers compensation claims and serious injury reports had steadily decreased each year.

Vaughan said as Juniper responded to growing community demand for aged care and support services, the organisation has established new services and facilities across the State while maintaining and improving systems that support the safety and wellbeing of employees, residents and clients.

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UnitingCare redoubles efforts to address housing and homelessness

A national forum of 40 frontline UnitingCare service providers held in Sydney recently has committed to developing a national action plan to work with government to address housing and homelessness in Australia.

“Every day our frontline community services across the country despair at the number of people living in Australia without the fundamental human need of housing,” UnitingCare Australia’s acting national director, Martin Cowling said.

“Our services have told us that the issue is getting worse, not better. In fact, we believe it now represents a national crisis.

“As such, we believe the issue requires strong national leadership and a national response strategy.

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Greenwood Girls’ Brigade celebrates 40th anniversary

This year is the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Greenwood Girls’ Brigade, formerly known as 3rd Perth.

Captain of Greenwood Girls’ Brigade, Sarah Menaglio said, “Over many years, Greenwood Girls’ Brigade has contributed to the community by developing responsible young members of the community, providing a  safe environment for girls to develop a range of life skills and build lasting friendships, and building confidence in girls.

“There were no activities for children in the Greenwood area in 1976. Elizabeth Stokes had a background in Girls’ Brigade and was keen to establish a group in Greenwood.”

Beyond learning life skills, Sarah explained that the aim of Girls’ Brigade is, “To help girls become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through self-control, reverence and a sense of responsibility find true  enrichment of life. This has remained the same over time, though the way in which this is delivered to the girls has been adapted to changing times.”

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English immersion for global communication

Two female ministers from the Gereja Kristen Protestant Bali, the Protestant Church of Bali (GKPB), are visiting Perth from 30 July to 8 October as they take part in a ten-week English immersion experience.

Rev Ayu Wandira and Rev Betha Meidywati had quite a large English vocabulary when they arrived in Australia, but needed assistance to put those words into full sentences. With support from the WA Uniting  Church Adult Fellowship (UCAF) and the GKPB Women’s Fellowship, Ayu and Betha have grown immensely in their English language skills while staying in Perth.

Rev Janelle McGregor, chairperson of the WA UCAF, has been teaching the pair English using work sheets, exams, Bible reading and other methods. Janelle has a teaching background with experience in teaching  English as a second language (ESL). She said that the recent Bishop of GKPB has been keen to support women in ministry. Bishop Suama has taken on the role in September, and is equally as supportive.

“He’s particularly conscious of the fact that women, female clergy, don’t have the professional development opportunities that men have because women have all those sorts of social issues in a very patriarchal  society, even as professional women. So he is very keen to have an ongoing program,” Janelle said.

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UnitingCare West releases its RAP

In September, UnitingCare West released their innovative Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

The RAP recognises the “special and unique spiritual connection to lands, waters and country” of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. UnitingCare West also acknowledges that policies and exclusionary experiences of the past have had negative impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This plan is a tool for addressing areas to improve and invest in, in order for UnitingCare West to deliver services  in a culturally appropriate way and to ensure that it is a place where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel welcome as clients, volunteers and staff.

The current RAP Working Group will continue meeting until the end of 2018. The goal actions in the RAP are diverse,serving different, specific purposes from developing mutually beneficial relationships with  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to investigating opportunities to improve and increase their employment outcomes within the UnitingCare West workplace.

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Hall restoration makes space for growing congregation

This year GKI Perth Uniting Church (Indonesian) has been undergoing a restoration of their church hall; the Mosman Park building had previously become dilapidated and had largely fallen out of use.

Leo Thamron, GKI Church Council secretary, said the church has seen such growth that the restoration was necessary to increase the space to accommodate the growth.

“GKI has been growing significantly over the last fifteen years or so and what happened was that we renovated the basement of the other building but that was still not enough,” he said.

“The short-term plan is to use the hall to accommodate the Sunday School children. Medium to longer term, the plans are for the building to host cultural events… not just for the Indonesian community but for the  Mosman Park community as well.”

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Anti-Poverty Week 2016: Interrupting the poverty of family violence

It is currently Anti-Poverty Week across Australia. Running from Sunday 16 October to Saturday 22 October events will be held all over the country to raise awareness of poverty and its causes in our nation.

In Western Australia an Ecumenical Anti-Poverty Week Worship Service was held this afternoon, Wednesday 19 October, at St George’s Cathedral in the Perth CBD. The service focussed on domestic violence as a contributing factor to poverty in Australia.

The service was hosted by the Anglican Social Responsibilities Commission and supported by a number of ecumenical organisations including the Uniting Church WA. After a welcome to country from Indigenous Elder Ben Taylor there were two talks on domestic violence and its causational relationship with poverty.

Basil Hannah, chief executive of Parkerville Children and Youth Care, spoke about the effects of domestic violence on children that oftentimes result in living in poverty. He expressed that children affected by trauma have long term consequences. The physical, mental and emotional damage done can result in serious health issues, often misdiagnosed.

“Children affected by trauma are often misunderstood” and this often exacerbates the issues the children face. More than 600,000 children in Australia live below the poverty line. Basil asked “Where is the ongoing outrage?” Basil said.

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Call to let faith communities help resettle asylum seekers

“Let Australia’s Faith Communities help settle and care for those asylum seekers still on Nauru and Manus Island.”

That is the request to the Government from the Board of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), meeting today in Sydney.

“Hospitality and compassion are shared core values of the major world religions, notwithstanding our many mistakes and failures,” said Bishop Philip Huggins, president of the NCCA, and Sister Elizabeth Delaney, general secretary, today.

“We are writing to the Prime Minister and Minister of Immigration and Border Protection, asking that they meet us so we can clarify how together we can co- operate to settle and care for these people.”

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UnitingCare announces new national director

Claerwen Little has been appointed as the new National Director of UnitingCare Australia.

The announcement was made yesterday by Colleen Geyer, general secretary of the Uniting Church in Australia, Peter Bicknell, UnitingCare Australia National Committee Chair.

Claerwen has worked in the community sector for over 35 years and comes to UnitingCare Australia from Uniting in NSW/ACT where she has held senior executive roles in service delivery, advocacy and innovation across 25 years. She has been responsible for establishing the research and advocacy capability of Uniting as well as leading a large and complex suite of programs for children, families, young people,  communities and people with disability across NSW and the ACT.

Claerwen Little holds a Masters of Policy (Social Policy), is a Stanford Graduate of the Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She has sat on numerous high level Boards and is a current member of the UnitingCare Australia National Committee, a role she has filled for various periods since the 1990s. She is also the current chair of the UnitingCare Australia Children, Young People and Families Network.

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Uniting Church Campsite almost ready for campers

Community members are invited to the Uniting Church Campsite Commissioning Service, followed by a light lunch on Saturday 10 December from 12.30pm at 140 Caves Road Busselton to celebrate the  refurbishment of the site.

For the past four years, the Uniting Church Campsite in Busselton has not been used for its original purpose, having fallen out of compliance. This year, the site has been overhauled.

Rev Hollis Wilson, chair of the First Third Working Group and chaplain at Methodist Ladies’ College (MLC), said “Our Outdoor Ed person here at MLC, Gary Howlett came to me and said ‘What about that camp   site down there?’ and I looked at him and said ‘I don’t know.’

“But the beauty of being the convener of First Third [Working Group] is that it gave me an opening to find out what was going on.”

The conversation between Gary and Hollis led to the Uniting Church WA Resources Board requesting the establishment of the Camp Site Redevelopment Committee, operating under the auspices of the First Third  Working Group. First Third Ministry resources ministry for people in the first third of life. Works on the site began early this year and included refurbishing the meeting facility, building new ablutions buildings and bringing the water, electricity and fire services up to compliance. Work is expected to be completed in October.

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