In this weeks update, in addition to sharing a recent video and email update from our CEO Julie Edwards and an all staff email from Acting CEO Sally Parnell, we continue to showcase how our programs are adapting their services. 

Victoria Police Diversity Recruitment Program
The Victoria Police Diversity Recruitment Program, an initiative of Jesuit Social Services, Victoria Police and partners from the education and employment sector, is continuing to provide participants from the African-Australian community with a pathway into employment with Victoria Police. 

Participants have now started at the Victoria Police Academy, with one Participant starting his training to become a Police Officer and the other as a Police Custody Officer. They are both learning about the new role Victoria Police is playing in supporting our community in responding to COVID-19. One Participant has also been accepted in the role of a PSO and will commence his training later this year.

The Victoria Police recruitment process continues to operate throughout COVID-19, with various components such as the Entrance Exam and fitness testing operating in new and creative ways, taking into consideration social distancing requirements. 30 Participants are currently at various stages of recruitment, with 8 Participants from the last Round due to sit the Entrance Exam over the next two weeks.

Victoria University is working hard on developing flexible, online components of the Course in Policing Recruitment Pathways which will ideally enable Round 4 to begin late in June 2020.  

We will continue to profile our other program areas in coming issues. As always, if you have a story to share, you can do this by using the submit button at the bottom of this email, or by sending an email to andrew.gillett@jss.org.au

Adapting to unprecedented change due to COVID-19, Jesuit Social Services’ Just Voices Speakers Program is now delivering online social justice presentations by it’s multi-talented list of presenters.

Recently Agum (pictured above) delivered her moving story via Zoom with 181 students from Mazenod College. Find out more about Just Voices' roster of speakers, and how the program is adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mental wellbeing during a pandemic – a chat with Support After Suicide

The social distancing, isolation and separation from regular routines and social connections that are now part of our daily lives as a result of COVID-19 have impacted us all in different ways. Dr Louise Flynn, Manager of Jesuit Social Services’ Support After Suicide program, discusses mental wellbeing during the pandemic and how the work of Support After Suicide has adapted during this time.

#WorthASecondChance community check-in

Our #WorthASecondChance campaign has recently posted two more community check-ins on its YouTube channel.

In the first video, our Media Relations Manager Kathryn Kernohan shares her thoughts on the importance of participant voice in our advocacy work.

In the second video, Fleur Souverein speaks about the success of small scale community based juvenile justice facilities ​in the Netherlands, where she is completing a PhD on the feasibility and efficacy of small scale community based juvenile justice facilities and the conceptualisation of relational security in a youth justice setting.

Reflecting on the impact of the virus on family

In a post for the International Day of Families, ANDY HAMILTON SJ writes that the manner in which families cope with the pressures of COVID-19 will, in turn, shape the broader contours of the society that emerges from the pandemic.

The valuable work performed by community legal centres prevents vulnerable people from cycling through the criminal justice system. We welcome the Victorian Government’s $17.5 million funding boost to community legal centres to ensure vulnerable people have access to vital support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more at CathNews.

Our Lady of the Way in North Sydney recently made a generous contribution to our Ignite Food Store in Western Sydney, to ensure we can continue to keep our shelves stocked with healthy, low-cost groceries available to the local community. Read more at Australian Jesuit News.

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