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Connections prides itself on being an innovative and progressive leader in the family services sector. We are constantly looking at new ways in which we can improve the lives of the many people we help each year and this is reflected in our Christmas Food & Gift Appeal. Now in its 9th year, our appeal provides gifts and food hampers to families who are struggling during the Christmas season. With 2009 being a particularly tough year for many families, appeals such as this are becoming increasing more important. Keep reading to find out how you can donate to our appeal and support disadvantaged children, young people and families.
Our ongoing commitment to children, young people and families in need also extends further than just direct service provision but also into being an organisation that is on the front foot in campaigning against poverty. Recently, we celebrated this commitment and the legacy of WJ Craig, who spent his life campaigning for change and acknowledged the efforts of four fine young Victorians, who have also made a similar vow and are working toward eradicating poverty on both a local and international scale. In this edition you can find out more about the Annual WJ Craig Lecture & Presentation of Connections UnitingCare Anti-Poverty Awards.
This E-News also updates you on Connections stance with the release of the Victorian Ombudsman’s report into the state of Victoria’s Child Protection system.
On behalf of Connections UnitingCare, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!
Connections Food and Gift Appeal
Photo: Connections Christmas Card
With the festive season fast approaching, Connections UnitingCare is today encouraging people across Melbourne to donate now to their annual Christmas Food & Gift Appeal that directly supports marginalised and disadvantaged children, young people and families.
‘We’re calling on the local community to support us in this Appeal,’ says Connections Chief Executive Officer, Ms Angela Forbes. ‘This Appeal very effectively delivers important Christmas items directly to those most in need. Our Case Workers, sometimes hand-in-hand with their clients, will select items that have been generously donated by members of the community,’ said Ms Forbes.
The Connections Christmas Program is supported through the UnitingCare’s SHARE Christmas Appeal that has a long-standing partnership with Target stores across Australia, that sees Christmas Trees placed in the foyer of many Target stores. In 2008 UnitingCare was able to provide a total of 92,227 gifts throughout Australia and the Connections Christmas Food & Gift Appeal supplied nearly 1600 gifts and 339 hampers to 1500 individuals.
‘It’s true that Christmas for many people is a time of great celebration, but for others, it is a time of extra emotional and financial pressure. We hope that, with the generosity of members of the public we can make this time of year a little brighter for people in need. You can help us to provide that Christmas cheer, just by contributing to us at this special time of the year,’ said Ms Forbes.
Donations of non-perishable food items and gifts can be made at any one of the Connections offices. For your local Connections office click here
For the first time this year, Connections is selling Christmas Cards, with all the profits going straight back into our work supporting disadvantaged children, young people and families. This year’s signature card features in a series of four books entitled, ‘My Families’ designed for children in Permanent Care. The Connections UnitingCare Permanent Care program facilitates stable secure and caring family environments for children who cannot live with their own families due to risk or experience of abuse or neglect.
To order your Connections Christmas Cards click here to download this order form.
Photo: Left to Right Caitlin Grigbsy, Angela Forbes, Adrian Pyle, Moira Rayner and Sarah Elston
New Ideas of Children’s Rights and Work to Reduce Poverty Recognised
In a ceremony held in Anti-Poverty Week, Connections UnitingCare hosted The Annual WJ Craig Lecture and Presentation of Connections UnitingCare Anti-Poverty Awards.
Delivering the 23rd Annual WJ Craig Lecture was Moira Rayner, a senior and experienced lawyer and children’s rights advocate. In her speech entitled ‘Protecting Children’s Rights’, Ms Rayner stated that ‘our progress in protecting the fundamental rights of all children is disgracefully slow. Children are the most talked about, but silent and powerless, members of society.’
Ms Rayner’s Lecture outlined five ‘modest’ proposals, including outlining immediate steps that should be taken on child protection ‘while we develop a different approach with a sense of urgency’. Her Lecture asked for acceptance for the cost of ‘a generous, universal and whole-of-government program of supportive and early intervention services for all, rather than obviously ‘at risk’, children’ and a call to recognise the importance of family strengthening, community organisations.
The event also saw the announcement and presentation of the 2009 Connections UnitingCare Anti-Poverty Awards. Two Gippsland residents Sarah Elston and Caitlin Grigsby, were announced as the main recipients of the Award in recognition of their efforts in overcoming poverty and supporting local women through their organisation, the Blue Stockings Association Inc.
Encouragement Awards for their work on poverty alleviation were also presented to Elliot Costello co-founded YGAP (Y Generation Against Poverty) a volunteer based organisation that offers its members the opportunity to join in practical and global initiatives by volunteering their services. And, Daniel Perkins, co-founder of Mayibuye South Africa, working with disadvantaged young people in South Africa. Through dance and theatre, students are taught about the issues that affect them such as drugs, violence and racism and bring their new found knowledge back to their community.
Connections, this year for the first time, was involved in the global Stand Up Against Poverty campaign coordinated by the United Nations Millennium Campaign and the Make Poverty History coalition. More than 173 million people globally took part in this call to action, including 71 Connections employees and supporters who signed an online petition for this cause.
This campaign has been certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest mobilisation of a group of people ever recorded. Over 3000 events were held in 120 countries to show the world’s leaders the immense support for Millennium Development Goals and demand that they take immediate action on these issues.
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Ombudsman Report
Connections UnitingCare has joined with other child, youth and family support organisations calling for changes to provide the most effective support to Victoria’s most vulnerable children in the wake of the damning Victorian Ombudsman’s report.
We particularly welcome the response from the Government that it will follow the recommendation of the Ombudsman and ask the Victorian Law Reform Commission to review options for overhauling court processes in relation to child protection matters.
In response to issues raised in the Ombudsman’s report and from the grounded experience of Connections, we say that:
- Protecting children is much broader than just ‘a child protection system’,
- Expanding mandatory reporting is not a solution to correcting any flaws in the system,
- Child FIRST needs to be further strengthened to provide early intervention and family support services,
- A long term workforce strategy beyond recruitment is needed across our child youth and family services to ensure highly skilled responses for all families,
- It is the responsibility of the wider community to value and care about children wherever they are.
Ritchies’ Community Benefit Card
Support Connections by shopping at Ritchies. By nominating Connections as the recipient for the 1% donation from your total receipt you will be directly supporting our work. You can do this in two ways:
- Apply for a Ritchies’ Community Benefit Card at any of the Ritchies’ stores and nominate Connections. The Connections donor number is 92599.
- Call Nirasha in the Connections’ Communications and Fundraising Department on 03 9271 0800 or email fundraising@connections.org.au with your details and we will post you a card/key tag to start saving on your Ritchies’ shopping bills and making a valuable donation to Connections.
There are also around 4,000 weekly specials that have extra discounts for Ritchie’s' Community Benefit Cardholders. These “CB” specials are clearly marked with red shelf tickets bearing the Community Benefit logo and can save you anything from 5 cents to $5 per item
Keep Up-To-Date
Keep up-to-date with news from the sector – we provide a free service to all subscribers of this E-News by providing media monitoring of sector stories in the media. Click on the link below and choose either Sector Stories of Connections Stories from the left hand menu on the media section of our website to see recent media stories.
You can also stay informed by clicking on this link to follow Matt Clear, Connections UnitingCare Communications and Fundraising Manager on Twitter.
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