This week, CEO Julie Edwards sent her latest CEO Communication, which begins with a powerful reflection. The document continues onto important organisational updates, including who we've recently welcomed to the organisation (all 41 one of you!). CEO Communications to all staff follow recent Board meetings, which are held every six weeks. 

Executive Director Business Support Phil Hodgson emailed all staff with an update regarding public holidays. Read more here.

Growing new partnerships in the Top End

On 2 September, our team in the NT was privileged to join the Banatjarl Strongbala Wimun Grup in Katherine for the launch of the Growing StrongBala Way Community Bush Garden Project.

The community-led project is a 10-week pilot funded through an NT Government suicide prevention grant and provides a space for women from the region to come together with young people to share knowledge and culture. The project has a focus on traditional healing strategies and trauma informed practices.

Young people working with Jesuit Social Services in the Back on Track youth diversion program will help establish the bush tucker and bush medicine garden, and spend time with their elders in culturally immersive activity.

We look forward to sharing more stories and photos as the garden progresses!

Upcoming training opportunities through the Learning & Practice Development Unit

Sessions will be held on Zoom, meaning that interstate colleagues are welcome to join if they have not had the opportunity to attend these workshops before! Please ask your supervisor for approval and then email staff.training@jss.org.au (cc your supervisor) to register.

Aboriginal Cultural Relations Workshop with Djirra (Wednesday 28 October, 10:00am-3:00pm)
This workshop provides an authentic and engaging cultural awareness experience, with a strong focus on Victoria and the Victorian Aboriginal community. The session looks at Traditional Aboriginal Culture; the impact of white contact and the the impact of racism. 

Our Way of Working - Orientation to the Jesuit Social Services Practice Framework (Tuesday 13 October and Wednesday 14 October OR Monday 26 October and Tuesday 27 October)
Explore and understand how Jesuit Social Services’ vision, mission & values can be implemented in practice and gain an understanding of our approaches to working with participants. Staff are also introduced to our key policies and procedures and the staff supervision framework. These sessions are for new practice staff or any practice staff that have not attended the session previously. 

Chef Johnny is back!

Following a sold-out zero-waste cooking webinar, we are excited to return with a second event to share more tips and tricks on how to make the most of your fresh produce, and money, by using the parts of the veggies we normally throw away.

In this interactive webinar you'll be invited to cook along and prepare delicious zero-waste recipes with limited ingredients. The Ecological Justice Hub’s resident chef Johnny Hassan, will demonstrate how to make:

- Zucchini pasta with homemade pesto

- Vegan sweet potato cheese

It'll be family friendly, so chefs of all ages are invited to cook along.

Sign up to receive a list of ingredients prior to the event so you can follow along from home. All recipes will be vegan, halal, nut and gluten free.

Volunteer profile: Moses El-Fahkri

In this series, we are profiling some of our amazing volunteers from across the organisation to learn more about what they do and what drives them. This week, we hear from Moses El-Fahkri, a volunteer of almost three years with our African Visitation and Mentoring Program (AVAMP).

I'm currently a school teacher and have been happily married for 34 years. I've got five children and four grandchildren. I had some problems for a while with lymphoma and numerous relapses but a bone marrow transplant got me right out of mischief. 

I've always been impressed by the Jesuit community, their initiatives and their reach. They live the gospel of looking after people experiencing disadvantage. My boys were taught by the Jesuits and my youngest son now works for Ozanam House of VincentCare. I found out about Jesuit Social Services' African Visitation and Mentoring Program (AVAMP) through my friend Michael who was volunteering there and because it was advertised in our parish bulletin. 

AVAMP aims to reduce recidivism and as a volunteer, I mentor young men who are currently in prison. Whether its education, employment, finding a decent home, finding solid networks - I try to help ensure that they never return to the position of incarceration.

I have found my mentoring role extremely rewarding. It's positive to see a young man become more confident, more measured, more mature and to have no doubt that he is ready to be a positive part of the community. This experience has helped me learn that we were all young once. We were irrational and impulsive. You look back at your own younger years and say, I wish I had someone guiding me in those moments. Our mentoring is all about giving those young men a second chance and empowering them to make better decisions.

By volunteering, you've got a chance to help turn someone's life around. Thinking about Jesuit Social Services, there's a parable Jesus gave about how a shepherd left his flock of 99 sheep to find the one lost sheep. This is the Jesuit way. The strong can look after themselves so we must look after the vulnerable. 

Maggie Miles joins Just Voices

Award winning filmmaker Maggie Miles is the latest recruit to the ‘Just Voices’ speakers program run by Jesuit Social Services.

Maggie will talk about her film ‘Guilty,’ which highlights the final 72-hours in the life of Myuran Sukumaran, the ‘Bali Nine’ convicted criminal who was executed by Indonesian firing squad on 29 April 2015 alongside fellow Australian Andrew Chan and six others.

Andy Hamilton SJ wrote of the recent World Suicide Prevention Day that “the suicide of people whom we love is so confronting and distressing, we can be tempted to deny it or to shut it out. Yet the more we avoid it the greater the power it can have over us.” Read here.

Jesuit Social Services is proud to be involved in an innovative and evidence-based pilot program, recently announced by the Victorian Government, which will promote respectful relationships and create safer environments for young people and staff in youth justice centres. Read here.

Like what you've read?