Hello, and welcome to another edition of Just News. A slightly shorter edition today, to match our shorter weeks – we hope you've had a restful couple of long weekends. This week, we're checking in with Homework Club volunteer Tom, learning how to plant trees with the internet, and taking a look at our vision for a more just and compassionate Australia, as outlined in our new Federal Election platform. We hope you enjoy the edition.

A new CEO Communication hit our inboxes at the same time as Just News 133 – if you missed it, you can read Julie Edwards' message here. Highlights include:

• New opportunities for our adult justice programs, Standby Support After Suicide service, and The Men's Project's research and prevention work.
• Collaborative learning with the Aboriginal organisation Djirra under our Reconciliation Action Plan, and progress towards our organisational Rainbow Tick accreditation.
• Contributions to several inquiries and reviews, including a rapid response to the report of the Inquiry into Victoria's Criminal Justice System, which mentioned our submission 86 times.
• A successful webinar for our youth justice campaign Worth A Second Chance and media coverage for our refugee campaign CAPSA.
• Farewells to departing staff and a big hello to our new starters.

STORY — Why our Homework Club support is more than educational

Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after school, kids from the Flemington housing estate log on to Zoom for an hour of laughter, conversation, and homework help. Our Homework Club has helped kids from migrant and refugee families for a decade – providing one-on-one and group tutoring support to ensure kids keep up in class and feel happy and settled while learning.

Tutor Tom, pictured above, has volunteered for nearly four years, and attends as much as he can – spending six hours a week with young learners. For our autumn fundraising newsletter story, Tom told us it’s as much about providing kids with social and emotional support as it is helping them with school.

NEWS — Our 2022 Federal Election platform published

Elections are times for reflecting on what kind of society we want to live in. As we approach the Federal Election on 21 May, Jesuit Social Services has articulated our vision for a just society across a range of interconnected social policy areas, including climate change, Aboriginal self-determination, youth justice, mental health, and affordable housing, in a newly published election platform.

Learn more about our ideas for change in the full platform, or visit our blog to read forthcoming thematic deep-dives into specific platform topics.

Hello again to our regular Ecological Justice update, which appears in every second edition of Just News. Today, we respond to findings in the latest report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the leading global scientific authority on climate change – and share a tip on how to use your browser to plant trees.

Time for a just transition plan to reach net zero emissions

The IPCC’s latest report, released this month, focuses on strategies for reducing greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, to mitigate climate change. The report finds that countries must immediately and drastically cut emissions across all sectors of the global economy to avoid catastrophic effects on people and the planet. Jesuit Social Services’ Centre for Just Places says alongside strong greenhouse gas reduction targets, now is the time for a urgent, coordinated and just transition plan which puts affected workers and hardest hit communities first. Read our blog and media release to learn more.

How to plant trees via your browser

Planting new trees (and protecting existing forests) is an important tool in reducing climate change, because trees and forests draw carbon out of the atmosphere and store it. Ecosia is a not-for-profit search engine that uses the money it makes to plant trees (at the moment of writing, Ecosia users were responsible for more than 147 million trees planted!). Ecosia publishes its accounts and tree planting receipts every month. We encourage you to start using Ecosia as your default search engine at work – go to www.ecosia.org and click the “Add Ecosia to [your browser]” button. You will be prompted to add the Ecosia Extension. Please note: you won’t be able to set it as the default search engine in Remote Desktop, and you currently can’t set it as the default search engine in Internet Explorer because of some organisational restrictions around JeSS use. If you need more detailed instructions, you can find them in Gemba, under System Instructions.

Questions?

If you have questions about our ecological justice work contact Ecological Justice Project Officer, Jack Piper, on 0429 268 904 or at jack.piper@jss.org.au.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

The DE&I Staff Consultation Group has met on three occasions, to give feedback on the presentation and draft of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan. The next step is for the action framework to be reviewed, before the updated plan and action framework to be presented to Executive. We're on track to have the plan approved by 30 June 2022.

Incident, Hazard and Near-Miss Reporting Policy

The Incident, Hazard and Near-Miss Reporting Policy has recently been updated to include cultural safety and the reporting requirements for the Ignatius Learning Centre. Being culturally safe is about creating an environment that is safe from assault, and the challenge or denial of people’s identity, of who they are and what they need. A breach of a person's cultural safety is considered an incident under this policy. 

Works occurring at Central Offices

Sound-proofing of the music room of Ignatius Learning Centre is taking place this week. While hearing budding musicians is a privilege, it is probably better to be wowed by the final performance.

And preparation is taking place for works soon to occur in Northwing. 

• The area where Northwingers have lunch will be walled off, converting it into a space which can be used as a meeting room outside of lunch times.
• Reception and the Operations team will be moving downstairs in Northwing, joining the ICT team.
• Jesuit Communications, aka JesComs, is moving out of the room beside Business Support Services. This room will be converted into an office and desk space for the Centre for Just Places team. 

The Men's Project's Executive Director, Matt Tyler, was a guest on the Happy Families podcast this month. Matt spoke about our Man Box research, to complement the presentation he delivered on 6 April at Happy Family's Bringing Up Boys symposium. We posted a short summary of Matt's Bringing Up Boys presentation on Twitter here.

To support our election platform, we're publishing a series of blogs diving into key thematic areas from our submission. The first, on the need for a fair social safety net, is available to read on our website here. We also published a media release announcing the platform's publication, which you can check out here.

"In an economic downturn triggered by a public health crisis that has multiplied challenges for many, Governments must focus on how to best support people in need. Government responses to the pandemic, including temporary improvements to the social safety net, have proven that while issues of disadvantage are complex, they are not beyond resolution. We call for a fair system of social and employment support that empowers people to reach their full potential."

 — Jesuit Social Services, A fair social safety net Federal Election blog 

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