Hello, and welcome to another edition of Just News. In this edition, we're celebrating Refugee Week, learning about our popular bilingual course that helps Vietnamese people sit and pass the Australian citizenship test, and listening to some great media coverage of our work across gender and youth justice. Business Support Services is here as usual with updates about timesheets, office supplies, and central office wifi, and our monthly ecological justice update returns with good news about our successful action forum in Melbourne's west. Stay warm, and enjoy the edition.

You would have seen a couple of emails from ICT Manager Trent McDonald recently, warning us about email and phone scams. If you've received an email that looks like it's from Susie Moloney or Julie Edwards, carefully check the sender's email address using the details in our Outlook directory – it's likely fake – and delete the email. If you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from our payroll team, don't give out any of your details, and let Trent know.

And construction at our central office in Richmond marches on: our new North Wing reception and meeting room are now complete! The meeting room, which can fit 12 people in-person and many more on-screen, is on the first floor. Reception is located in the old boardroom space on the ground level, and entry is via The Vaucluse.

NEWS | Refugee Week 2022

Yesterday was World Refugee Day and the start of Refugee Week, where we honour the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their homelands. World Refugee Day is an occasion to build empathy and understanding and recognise resilience, and the week that follows raises awareness and understanding between different communities. You would have seen Julie Edwards' email inviting staff at central office to a morning tea today, where we'll watch two videos and reflect on empathy and healing.

Those videos are:

• Refugee experiences upon arriving in Australia (ABC)
• Changing lives: refugee stories (SBS The Feed)

Staff at every site are encouraged to take time this week to watch these videos and reflect on this occasion. Learn more about World Refugee Day, Refugee Week, and the Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum - the campaign we co-convene with Jesuit Refugee Services Australia, to advocate for fair and humane treatment for people seeking asylum in Australia.

STORY | How Kim supports Vietnamese migrants on their citizenship journey

A decade ago, Kim from our settlement program noticed a gap in the support available to Vietnamese people seeking Australian citizenship. While they could find help filling out their forms, no one was supporting them to study for the citizenship test itself.

Kim brought the idea to her manager, and the Bilingual Vietnamese Australian Citizenship Test Preparation Course was born. Demand – and the pass rate – for the course is high. Six sessions, delivered in both English and Vietnamese, teach students about the application process, available settlement support services, and citizenship test content.

For our autumn fundraising newsletter, Kim told us how the course breaks down social isolation for migrants like herself as it equips people with the practical knowledge needed to pass the citizenship test – read about it in this edition's story.

PHOTO | Brunswick rooftop bees

Mick from the Ecological Justice Hub delivers a beehive shade house to the rooftop garden at the apartment building six storeys above the Hub in Melbourne's inner north. We'll manage the hive, teach residents apiary skills, and share honey – and in return, the bees will pollinate the building's garden and our own.

Socially responsible office supplies purchasing

A reminder that Complete Office Supplies (COS) is our preferred supplier of office supplies and should be your first port of call when purchasing for the office. 

COS is a wholly Australian-owned business with strong social responsibility credentials. Buying through COS underpins our commitment to social and ecological justice in a practical way. 

All sites and programs have access to COS and their Supply Nation-certified Indigenous partner, Muru Office Supplies. Other stationary suppliers, such as Officeworks, can be used by exception, but only if the item you're looking for can't be sourced through COS. 

To order office supplies through COS, contact your site admin with the detail of what you want to order and the cost centre to charge it to – COS invoices us at the end of each month. Please try to purchase eco-friendly products when they're available. 

New timesheet templates

Timesheet templates for 2022-23 are now available on Gemba, for any staff who fill in timesheets. We have three templates available: Master timesheet (used by most staff), After Hours Timesheet, and Perry House After Hours Timesheet. 

A change has been made to the Master timesheet from previous years: we've added a field to identify when you've worked additional hours, which are to be paid, instead of banked as TIL. Please note that working additional paid hours must be approved in advance by your manager. If you have any questions, please contact Payroll.

Perils of saving files to a laptop hard drive

Saving files to the hard drive (usually c drive or ‘This PC’) can be perilous, and we encourage you to avoid it if possible. Firstly, the files on a hard drive aren’t backed up to the network or servers, so if they’re lost, they’re lost for good. Secondly, if the laptop goes missing or is stolen, we can potentially have a privacy issue – there are security mechanisms in place, but they're not effective in all circumstances. Please ensure that all work files are saved to the network drives and are removed from the hard drive. 

Central office wifi

You would have seen Trent's email last week explaining a change to how staff at central office in Richmond connect to our wifi network. The old networks, JSS and JSS_NorthWing are causing issues and will soon be turned off. We connect to the new network, JSS_Staff, in a slightly different way – using your individual computer username and password, rather than a generic password that everyone shares.

To connect to the new network from a work computer:

• Click on the wifi icon and select the JSS_Staff network
• Tick the option to connect using your Windows login credentials (there's no need to type in a username or password, because you already did that when you logged into your computer!)
• Hit connect.

If you're connecting to the wifi from another device, find the JSS_Staff network and enter:

• Username: central\<your computer login name> (this will take the form central\just.news or central\jnews)
• Password: the password you use to log into your computer with.

A reminder that the wifi is for work purposes, so please minimise personal use and only connect personal devices if you're using them for work purposes. And remember you're responsible for keeping your password secure – please don't give your username or password to anyone else trying to connect to the wifi.

Welcome back to our regular Ecological Justice update, which appears in every second edition of Just News. Today, there's news of the Centre for Just Places' recent Action Forum on climate justice and community resilience in Melbourne’s west.

Mobilising climate just and resilient communities in the west

Extreme weather caused by climate change often affects people already experiencing disadvantage first and hardest, exacerbating existing inequalities. And community services organisations themselves are vulnerable to the effects of climate change through disruption to their services. How we respond to climate change – both its impacts and our approach to reducing emissions – has the potential to create opportunities for people or to cause further marginalisation and harm.

The Centre for Just Places’ recent Action Forum brought together more than 30 representatives from state health, environment and utility agencies, local governments, health and community service organisations in Melbourne’s west to identify shared priorities to mobilise climate justice. The forum was an opportunity for participants to make connections across organisations, talk about what’s already happening, where the gaps are, and how we might collaborate.

Susie Moloney, Executive Director of our Centre for Just Places said, “community service and health organisations are on the frontline dealing with the everyday impacts of climate change on communities, such as heat stress. There are important voices in this room, and these voices can speak up to government and others on what needs to happen in the west to address a range of inequities and also build on the regions strengths.”

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.

We've seen some really positive and welcome media coverage of our new confidential phone line program to help prevent child sexual abuse, Stop It Now! – which we heard about in last month's Lunchtime Learning session. Listen to Matt Tyler, from The Men's Project, discuss the program with ABC Radio, or read this piece on MSN. Matt was also interviewed by the ABC's radio program Hack, for a piece on risk-taking, trauma, and ideas of masculinity. Find it at the 14-minute mark of this episode.

Julie Edwards was also on-air on the ABC recently, calling in at minute 13 to the Conversation Hour program with our evidence-based ideas for reducing youth crime. Listen here. And staying with youth justice, we last week welcomed Tasmania's decision to raise the minimum age of detention, to keep very young children out of prison, but argue there's more for every state and territory to do. You can learn more about our advocacy for a more effective and compassionate youth justice system at Worth A Second Chance.

And to commemorate World Refugee Day and Refugee Week, which we read about at the top of the letter, Andy Hamilton SJ has written a thoughtful reflection on the week's theme of 'healing'. Find the blog, and our Refugee Week media release, at our website.

“What we’re creating is an archaic response to young people in trouble. Locking them up has been shown again and again to not work. What does work is keeping people connected to education, training, a pathway to a job, keeping them connected with family, in local community and if you must lock up some young people, if that’s the situation, then they must be in small, home-like facilities close to where they live.”

 — Julie Edwards, Jesuit Social Services CEO, Conversation Hour

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.