Just News
Welcome back to Just News, and welcome back to work for those returning from extended breaks, school holidays, or both. In this edition: A good news story from our Victoria Police Diversity Recruitment Program, our youth justice podcast returns, Business Support Services reminds us of our upcoming audit (and is seeking participants to be interviewed!), plus more. Stay cool, and enjoy the edition.
Jesuit Social Services at Midsumma Festival
Staff and volunteers spent a sunny Sunday at Melbourne's iconic LGBTIQA+ community festival, sharing information about the support services we have available and ways to be involved with our work. Read on to hear our staff members' experiences of the day.
Souleymane's success in police diversity recruitment program
Souleymane Bakayoko was always interested in a career in policing, but found the application process too complex – but now, with the support of our Victoria Police Diversity Recruitment Program, he's a newly qualified officer finding his work "challenging and rewarding".
Worth A Second Chance podcast season 3 is here!
The Worth A Second Chance campaign has released the trailer for the third season of its podcast spotlighting true stories, challenges and solutions from the frontlines of Australia's youth justice systems. Subscribe to Worth A Second Chance to hear new episodes first.
Business Support Services
Important updates from our operations teams.
Re-accreditation is just around the corner
What is accreditation? Accreditation is independent recognition that Jesuit Social Services meets the requirements of governing industry standards and apply continuous quality improvement processes across all our programs and services. Jesuit Social Services has been accredited since 2010.
The PDCA (plan, do, check, act) cycle supports continuous quality improvement processes.
The Assessors, Kate, Celia, Wendy, Susan and John, will be with us for the week of 20-24 February, based in the Northwing Board room at Central Office in Richmond, and will also visit the following sites:
- 10 Dawson Street, Brunswick
- 16 Withers Street, Sunshine
- Dillon House
- and for the first time, Ignite Café Camberwell.
During this week they will also be conducting group interviews with Staff, Volunteers, Coordinators, the Rainbow Tick Staff Advisory Group, Managers, GMs, Executive, the Board and a solo interview with the CEO. NSW and NT staff will participate in these interviews via Zoom.
The Assessors will also conduct phone interviews with participants, and stakeholders so please think of who you could ask to potentially take part in this. Participants who are interviewed receive a $20 gift voucher to thank them for their time.
Media, news and events
Dates to add to your diary and Jesuit Social Services in the news.
Media
Jesuit Social Services was just announced as one of the providers of the Victorian Government's new Family and Carer-led Centres for the families and carers of people experiencing mental health challenges, which will be led by people with lived experiences, and connect families and carers with vital information, services and hardship funds.
The Productivity Commission's annual Report on Government Services has found that government spending on youth detention has increased exponentially in recent years – our media release responding to the report argued that the effectiveness of community-based restorative programs, like our Youth Justice Group Conferencing, makes it clear detention should only ever be used as a last resort.
Events
Two important internal events for your diary! First, our monthly morning reflections are back – join Claire Thomas and others on Zoom on the first Wednesday of each month at 8am AEDT for a gentle, contemplative reflection that will help you centre and connect.
And if you missed our December Lunchtime Learning session navigating us through our brand-new website, fear not: it'll run again on Thursday, 16 February, 12pm-12:30pm AEDT. The calendar invite and Zoom link came from Cath Neville on 12 December.
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