Just News
Step into this fortnight's edition of Just News, the internal newsletter for the vibrant community of Jesuit Social Services, highlighting current happenings and inspiring stories.
Welcome back to the new-look Just News.
In today's edition: our response to the Northern Territory raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12, how our Alice Springs music workshops encourage self-expression for marginalised young people, our Ecological Justice Hub is saving plastics from landfill, and an important update about the sale of two Melbourne properties (and our exciting plans for our future offices). Enjoy the edition.
Voice to Parliament resources
Find resources and information about the Voice to Parliament ahead of this year's referendum at our dedicated and regularly updated website page.
Music workshops for self-expression
Yipirinya School students have workshopped songs and laid down beats with Adrian Eagle as part of a new relationship that will provide opportunities for performance, self-expression, and new narratives for First Nations youth.
Property strategy update
Jesuit Social Services has been considering our property needs for some time – read Julie Edwards' update on the sale of two buildings as develop an accommodation strategy that will meet our organisational needs into the future.
Ecological Justice Hub recycles plastics
Our Ecological Justice Hub has been saving plastic bottle caps from landfill, repurposing them into upcycled pot plants, carabiners and boards that reduce rubbish and make fighting waste practical and purposeful.
Ecological Justice
How we're enacting our commitment to ecological justice across the organisation – acknowledging the intersection of social and environmental justice in everything we do.
Funding to strengthen disaster and climate resilience in Yarra Ranges and Campaspe
Community service and health organisations, local governments and other local organisations are key to building community resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Our Centre for Just Places – alongside partners Eastern Community Legal Centres (ECLC), ARC Justice and the Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria (FCLC) – was recently awarded $1.8 million in funding from the Federal Government’s Disaster Ready Fund (with $670,000 of this funding allocated to the Centre) for a new project, Reducing vulnerability and strengthening place-based resilience in Yarra Ranges and Campaspe communities.
Our CEO, Julie Edwards, says, “this project seeks to recognise where existing and future disaster and climate change risks exist, and will support a network of place-based organisations in the Yarra Ranges and Campaspe Shire to build resilience through collaborative action.”
Engaging up to 40 organisations in each region, including community service organisations, community legal services, health services, emergency management and local governments, the project will increase the capacity and capability of local organisations to prepare for and respond collaboratively to disaster risks and hazards. It scales up a collaborative action planning process the Centre first developed and tested in Melbourne’s west, and includes funding to support implementation of priorities identified through the planning process. Read our media release to learn more.
Northern Territory must cool Alice Springs Correctional Centre as part of a just transition
The Northern Territory Government is now assessing new cooling and heat mitigation strategies at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre – which can reach 42 degrees in summer – after allocating no funding for air-conditioning in its 2022-2023 budget. Jesuit Social Services supported the call to install air-conditioning in the Alice Springs Correctional Centre in a recent media release.
Our discussion paper, Prisons, climate and a just transition, argues prisons should provide adequate facilities to protect people from the impacts of climate change, but more fundamentally, Australia must reduce its reliance on prisons and address the root causes of offending to tackle the overlapping social and ecological harms of its criminal justice systems.
Media, news, and events
Jesuit Social Services in the news and events to add to your diary.
News
'Government urged to end offshore detention'
The CAPSA campaign we co-convene with Jesuit Refugee Service Australia marked the sombre tenth anniversary of the resumption of offshore processing for people seeking asylum with a media release that was picked up by CathNews.
More progress needed as NT raises the age to 12
We welcomed the NT's raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12, but said in our media release the job of supporting children to flourish is only half done until the age is raised to 14 with no carve-outs or exceptions.
Events
St Ignatius of Loyola Feast Day
St Ignatius’ Feast Day is an opportunity for us to remember the legacy of St Ignatius and acknowledge the Jesuit foundations of our work. We'll celebrate in Melbourne with mass and morning tea from 10:30am on 2 August.
Upcoming events
On the horizon: our Homelessness Week event in Melbourne's west on 10 August will ask what home means, and Support After Suicide will run four community events on 10 September for World Suicide Prevention Day.
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