Discover what's happening around Jesuit Social Services. No images? Click here Welcome to another edition of Just News, and welcome to March, which is iuk season on the calendar of the Kulin nations, where our central office sits. Iuk season is the time of the eels, where the hot winds stop, the temperatures cool down and the days and nights are the same length. In today's Just News, we're learning about our website redevelopment, our ecological justice strategy, and in Victoria, returning to working in the office – rugged up for those slightly cooler iuk season mornings. A few important COVID-19 updates this edition, as staff in Victoria move back to working in offices, and staff elsewhere are encouraged to keep safe and well. In Victoria, we're this week returning gradually to our offices, and making sure we're fully vaccinated with three COVID-19 shots before 12 March. A reminder that if you've had COVID-19 symptoms or contact with a positive case, you must log into Gemba and complete our close contact form at this link. Staff in New South Wales and the Northern Territory are required to have received at least two vaccine doses to be able to work. And our email migration project is gaining speed, with our first 100 mailboxes officially transferred to Office 365! Trent reminded us to book our migration appointments, and don't forget to have your work phone updated to the latest operating system, for good security and ease of migration. Finally, if you missed it last edition, a warm welcome back to our CEO Julie Edwards, who has returned from extended leave. Julie sent a CEO Communication yesterday – find the update here. ![]() NEWS — We're redesigning our website!We’re pleased to share that after several months of pre-planning, we recently kicked off the process of redesigning the Jesuit Social Services website with digital agency August. Since the previous redesign of our website in 2015, Jesuit Social Services has undergone significant growth, and our website has at times struggled to meet the changing needs of the organisation. The website redesign aims to provide a web platform that can better represent the scope, breadth and impact of our work and evolve and adapt along with the organisation over coming years. We want to deliver a website that meets the needs of teams across the organisation, and we can only do that with your help! We are planning to offer a range of ways you can learn more or share your input, including lunchtime learning sessions, steering groups, as well as regular updates like this one in Just News. If you are interested in learning more about how you can be involved, we would love to hear from you. ![]() STORY — Kate's second chance at a new directionA participant on our employment programs who we'll call Kate has had a difficult life. She'd fallen out with her parents, and drifted towards a group of people who weren't good influences – which led to her arrest for shoplifting. When she came to us, she felt hopeless and purposeless. We listened, and as well as helping Kate find full-time work as a traffic controller, we supported her to realise her true passion involved guiding people straight in a different way: she wanted to be a youth worker, and help people like herself. Learn more in Kate's story, which is our featured participant story this edition. To protect her privacy, we've used a stock photo and a pseudonym – Kate isn't her real name. ![]() UPDATE — submissions on culture in prisons, safe and energy-efficient housing, Victoria's criminal justice systemOur policy team has made several important submissions since we last visited this part of our work. This advocacy forms a key part of our efforts towards building a just society, as we take our first-hand program experience and research to show decision-makers opportunities for fairer policies and systems. We recently made submissions to the Cultural Review of the Adult Custodial Corrections System, the Inquiry into the Protections within the Victorian Planning Framework, and the 2022-23 Federal Budget. Within these submissions we recommend practical ideas for reform across justice, housing, climate change, and mental health. And you might remember that last year we made a big submission to the Inquiry into Victoria's Criminal Justice System. We told the committee about the effective work of our justice programs, and our ideas – grounded in our research like Dropping off the Edge and our Justice Solutions reports – for a new, more compassionate approach to people in trouble. That inquiry will release its report on 10 March. To see what we told the inquiry, read a summary of our submission and a Q+A with its author, Máire Wade. ![]() Welcome back to our regular Ecological Justice update, which appears here in every second edition of Just News. This month, we share our ecological justice strategy, and invite you to support our effort to measure Jesuit Social Services’ carbon footprint. Ecological Justice StrategyCEO Julie Edwards last week shared our Ecological Justice Strategy 2021-2024. This document tells the story of 10 years of work to date to embed an ecological approach in all we do. It is an aspirational document that helps us to articulate ‘where to next’, and helps us guide our actions and track our progress. You're encouraged to familiarise yourself with the strategy and how it might apply to your work. Find the strategy here. A first step towards becoming carbon neutralWe're asking all staff to complete this 3-5 minute anonymous survey about how you get to work. Your answers will help Jesuit Social Services measure our carbon footprint – the first step towards becoming a carbon-neutral organisation! Carbon neutral means we don't produce greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. What we can’t reduce, we can offset, by planting trees, and by supporting renewable energy and other emissions-reduction projects. Please complete the travel survey as you would travel during normal working periods, not during mandated working from home periods. Measuring our carbon footprint is one of the ways Jesuit Social Services is taking action to further ecological justice through a framework called Our Ecological Way of Proceeding. Under the framework there are three domains: (1) Human Spirit, (2) Practice Framework, and (3) Business Processes. Measuring our carbon footprint sits under the Business Processes domain. Questions? Suggestions?If you have questions or suggestions, we’d love to hear from you. Contact Jack Piper, Ecological Justice Project Officer on 0429 268 904 or at jack.piper@jss.org.au. ![]() Some good news in Victoria, with the state government announcing the expansion of a program that provides free and subsidised training to refugees and people seeking asylum – we welcomed the news in a media release. Staying with employment, we were thrilled to see our Jobs Advocates program participant Johnny in this SmartCompany article on how the program helped him build confidence and find paid work. And if you missed it, CathNews has amplified our sector's call for free rapid antigen tests to help keep our communities safe and well through COVID-19. ![]() "Access to skills and training, and in turn employment, are critical for all people in order that they flourish – we can’t expect people to lead fulfilling and positive lives if they don’t have the support they need to learn, improve their skills and ultimately secure employment to support themselves and their families."— Julie Edwards, Jesuit Social Services CEO ![]() ![]() If you've got an update or story to tell, or want to share your feedback, we're happy to hear from you. Use the buttons below to share your thoughts. |