Hello, and welcome to another edition of Just News. In this edition, we're returning to kitchen tables and spare rooms with staff recommended to work from home, learning about our mighty team of Jobs Advocates and the new StandBy program, and welcoming midsummer with the honey harvest at the Ecological Justice Hub. 

Acting CEO Sally Parnell has written to staff asking us to maximise working from home to keep staff and participants protected against COVID-19. Victorian staff should follow the state government's advice — work from home if you can — and for any staff who does attend the office, masks must be worn. If you feel sick, please speak with your manager and take a commonsense approach to taking sick leave — more information about leave and COVID-19 test availability is in this email from Sally.

And this holiday period means warm weather and slower days, and for the Ecological Justice Hub, it also means the Just Honey harvest! In early December, Mick extracted more than 10kg of honey from five frames in the Hub's beehives in Brunswick. Our famous local Just Honey has flavours of sweet rosemary, eucalypt and lime.

24/7 support after a loved one's suicide

Jesuit Social Services is excited to announce we've been selected to launch a long-running 24/7 national bereavement program for the first time in Melbourne.

StandBy Support After Suicide provides free, practical support to anyone bereaved or impacted by suicide, at any stage in their life. It's a similarly named but distinct program from our Support After Suicide counselling service — providing individual support, community workshops, and useful resources to help people navigate life after losing a loved one to suicide. We're proud to be delivering this program in metropolitan Melbourne and Gippsland, with Wellways delivering the program in Victoria's west.

A safe place to be vulnerable gives Lucy job confidence 

Lucy* is smart, capable, and qualified, but due to COVID-19 and her mental health challenges, has been unemployed for several years. She came to our Jobs Victoria Advocates program with low confidence, and no clear idea of how to select and apply for jobs she'd be suited to. Our team was there to help.

Lucy's Advocate, Candice Zavattiero, helped her engage with mental health and career counselling support, included advice with resume-writing and job applications. Now, Lucy's confidence has grown, and she's not only applying for jobs — she's getting interviews.

“Having someone who is both non-judgmental and professional to talk to and share ideas with has really made a difference for me. Unemployment is still not where I would choose to be in life, but having Candice to guide and support me has made it easier to deal with.”

Welcome back to our regular Business Support Services update, which alternates with our Ecological Justice update in this section of Just News. In this edition, we've got new additions to the team, and a bit of a restructure.

Role changes

Business Support Services has recently undergone a restructure to reflect the strengthening links between Human Resources, Payroll and Finance. Three managers now report to Kate Brewster, the General Manager of Business Support Services:

• Manager, Human Resources – Kirsten Hill
• Manager, Payroll – May Tan
• Manager, Finance - ‘Layo Adebayo

All Finance staff, including the accounts team and all management accountants, now report to ‘Layo. Congratulations to these managers on their role changes.

Staff changes

We're sad to inform you that Sandy is leaving us to manage a larger team in another organisation. Sandy has been a mainstay of Payroll for the past three years, with incredible commitment and work ethic, and will be sorely missed. A warm welcome to our new Payroll Manager, May Tan, who commenced on 10 January.

Another new starter is Bec Randich, our new receptionist. Bec started with us in early December, and is extremely organised, helpful and a pleasure to have in the office. You can contact Bec via reception@jss.org.au.

The Men's Project's research is helping men in Western Australia protect themselves against COVID-19 — with broadcaster Adrian Barich citing our work in this PerthNow opinion piece encouraging men to set aside strict masculine ego and get vaccinated, to protect their community. 

And if you missed Andy Hamilton SJ's thoughtful Christmas reflection in Just News 126, it's republished at Catholic Outlook here. He muses on past Christmases and how COVID-19 asks us to live more simply and purposefully.

"We all have our memories of past Christmases – some of joy, of conviviality, of generous excess, and others of sadness, disappointment and rancour. They reflect the joys and sorrows, the generosity and the meanness. the simplicity and the complexity of our lives. The original Christmas stories, too, are marked by human simplicity in the face of imposed complexity."

— Andy Hamilton SJ

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