Children have a rich spiritual life, significant spiritual capacities and genuine spiritual experiences that are built on when they move into adolescence, an important time of spiritual awakening. Positive spirituality and spiritual support can be particularly significant for the healthy development of identity, connections with others and other vital developmental outcomes. School chaplains have a distinct and explicit role to provide spiritual support for children, young people and families associated with Education Queensland schools.

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Like everyone, we were keeping a keen eye on the Federal budget release in May, and were pleased to see the announcement of a new National School Chaplaincy Program (NSCP).  This means that Federal funding for Chaplaincy services will continue to be available for up to 2900 schools nationally from 2015-2018.  Details are still scant at this stage, but there are a number of things we know:

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St George Calamvale Branch Manager, Darren Weekes, first became aware of SU QLD’s chaplaincy program about four years ago.

“I’ve heard so many stories of how the chaplain has intervened and helped children and their families considerably. The work of chaplains is phenomenal to me,” Darren says.

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Please help SU QLD in our quest for continuous improvement, and win some great resources for your chaplain at the same time!

You can complete the online survey here – it should take you about 10 minutes.

Complete the online survey before 6th June (this Friday), and you will go into the draw to win one of 2, A2B Kits for your Chaplain (A2B is a fantastic program for small groups, based on ‘Adventure Based Learning’ principles), or one of 3 x SU QLD camp sponsorships, for a student from your school.

NB. Any information you provide will only be used to improve the support SU QLD offers to LCCs and chaplains. Please be aware that if you are on the EQ network you may need to speak to your network administrator for access to this site.

Here are some fundraising and promotion ideas that LCCs might find helpful. 

While on the Back our Chappies bus tour, we observed that many of the LCCs which have fundraising success have members who work at building community.  They participate in, build, support, communicate and inspire their community. They then have a community behind them in their fundraising efforts.

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Informing local media about chaplaincy events and telling journalists about ‘good news’ stories are great ways of building awareness about chaplaincy in the community. The ‘Back Our Chappies’ Bus Tour generated 79 media stories in the 27 towns visited. The stories reached at least 600,000 people and most of the stories were specifically about chaplains in local areas.

Below is some useful information when assessing if media coverage could help your LCC

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Finally, more than 10 months of hard work has culminated in our High Court hearing from the 6th-8th May.
Not only has the court has heard Mr Williams' opposing views, but they have heard the government's views about how school chaplaincy helps achieve National Education Goals by developing students in social, emotional and spiritual dimensions, as well as intellectually.

Our lawyers explained to the court about how school chaplains not only provide pastoral care and support, but also deliver vital programs to support children in their education - things like breakfast clubs, grief and loss programs, self esteem programs and activities to help children cope with family breakdown and stress.

Throughout the High Court case, I have had a sense of profound gratitude that I can work in an organisation like Scripture Union Queensland - where we journey with kids on our camping and at-risk programs as well as in schools through our chaplains.

This month, Chaplaincy Matters is profiling one area of the SU QLD chaplaincy model of care, and Steve’s article on positive spirituality highlights the unique contribution school chaplains make to the wellbeing outcomes in schools through their spiritual support role. Positive spirituality in the lives of children and young people has been shown to contribute to good health, mental health and development, as well as a range of other positive life outcomes. When school chaplains help people to explore meaning, purpose and connections in their lives and respond to their spiritual, religious and ethical questions, they make an important contribution not easily replicated by other services in schools.

And just last week we heard that the Federal Government has renewed federal seed funding for chaplaincy for another four years, at $20,000 per school per annum. The federal grant is a great start for chaplains, and, along with the generous gifts and support of friends like you, means more children will continue to have access to a caring, compassionate chaplain. In the midst of a very tight budget, I’m encouraged and very gratified to see this fantastic program will continue at full strength.

Thank you for journeying through the High Court hearing and Federal budget with us: for signing the statements of support; for joining us on the bus tour; for your special gifts to SU QLD to ensure chaplaincy continues long into the future despite the High Court Challenge; and for supporting our chaplains.
And as always, thank you for the great work you do for our children and young people. You are truly a blessing! 

God bless you,

Peter James
CEO, SU QLD