Dear Families

Compass Farm. They were all a little

shell shocked to see the types of

activities that the trainees are involved

in as well as the infrastructure.

Several of the staff members were

even lured into feeding the sheep and

goats. We appreciate their support

and look forward to hosting them

again in the near future.

Compass was again fortunate to be

invited to host a stall at the 2015

Disability and Lifestyle Expo, held at

the TAFE. Thirty-two services

attended the event, with over 500

visitors to the event in the hope of

securing information that could help

them with their future. I was lucky

enough to have a large amount of

visitors to our stall, with many making

appointments to have a walk through

the Farm. It is always a proud moment

when other services make their way

over to buy some of the jams and

handmade crafts, or even just to hear

what Compass has on their horizon.

Looking forward to rolling some of

them out to surprise everyone with the

opportunities presented to Compass

trainees.

I want to wish you all a very happy

and safe Christmas and look forward

to speaking with you all again in the

New Year. Once again I appreciate all

your support and look forward to

speaking with you all soon.

Kind regards DJ

Farm and will start popping up around

the centres to show our Partners that

their support is truly appreciated.

Compass will strive to do everything in

their power to promote their Partners

wherever possible. If this is something

that your business could benefit from,

please don’t hesitate to give me a

call.

I was fortunate enough to be invited

along to the Caboolture Special

School graduation night. I always love

this function and it just goes to show

that it isn’t all about the glitz and

glamour, but more about what the

night stands for; 10 budding young

people graduating and heading out

into the unknown. Everybody looked

amazing in their formal attire and

again there wasn’t a dry eye in the

house when they stood proudly on

stage to receive their awards. Massive

congratulations, and Compass looks

forward to seeing some of you next

year.

Compass continues to strengthen their

relationship with Cricks Nambour with

over 20 of their staff members having

morning tea and a walk through of the

Well this is my last newsletter for the year. I hope everyone has thoroughly enjoyed the constant feedback to families, friends, supporters and trainees. 2015 has seen plenty of events, festivals, activities and programs that had Compass attached, and it will be only the tip of the iceberg for what we have in store for 2016. Well as you know, Compass was

nominated in the Not For Profit

Category and the Social Responsibility

Category, whilst David was nominated

for the Business Person of the Year. I

am very proud to announce that

Compass took out both awards in

stunning fashion making it 3 from 3 in

the past two years. This has now

catapulted Compass into the Sunshine

Coast Business Hall of Fame. David

was also successful, by walking away

with the Leadership Award under the

Business Person of the Year Category.

Massive congratulations mate, all your

hard work

deserves

way more

recognition.

David and I have been working

extremely hard to tie up our Corporate

Partners program for 2016. As our

Partners and Supporters lists are

continually growing, we were looking at

alternative ways in which to promote

them. Over the coming months, you

will see them proudly displayed on the

new and improved website. It has been

placed at the entrance to the Compass

Newsletter December

2015

DJ’s 2 cents

Advocacy

Remember that you are able to bring along an

advocate or support person to any meeting that you

have with Compass.

An advocate is someone who is there to support

you or represent you and your interests in

circumstances where you feel that this additional

support is required.

Please ask us if you need more information or

assistance with organising for an advocate.

COMPASS CALENDAR

Need to check dates for the holidays or a special event?

Our Annual Planner Calendar

is available 24/7 at www.compassinc.org.au

Continuous Improvement Plan

At Compass we are committed to

ongoing service improvement.

If you have a suggestion about how we

can improve our service, please write

your suggestion on one of our

Service Improvement Suggestion

Forms

available from the office, our centres or

our website: www.compassinc.org.au

and we will consider every idea.

December

2015 Newsletter

Exploring the

Art of Life

Service Manager

Wow! What a fantastic year 2015 has been! Here we are three weeks away from Christmas, how the year has flown! Next week is the final week of Compass for all of the centre staff and trainees. We officially break up on Friday 11

th December and for existing trainees, return on Monday 11

th January 2016. New trainees

to Compass will commence on the week of the 1st of February, 2016.

Compass recently participated in the external audit of the organisation held on the 17

th, 18

th and 19

th of November. The

audit is held once every eighteen months and is a requirement of the Department of Communities. The audit process ensures Compass is meeting the Human Services Quality Standards and provides an opportunity for an external person to verify the quality of the services currently provided. I am proud to announce that we again passed with flying colours, with just three Observations recorded. The Observations are statements made by the Auditor identifying small areas of improvement for us to consider. I would like to thank all of the families who spoke with the Auditor, or who expresses their willingness to be involved in the audit, the staff at the Caloundra and Caboolture Centres and the Auditor Jenny, who provided such positive feedback on the innovative practices in place at Compass and our commitment to continuous quality improvement. Well done everyone! On Saturday 28

th November we celebrated the end of the year with the annual Compass Gala Ball. The theme this year

was ‘Black and White’ and we saw an array of elegantly dressed ladies and men decked out in all of their finery. Alongside of these guests, were the intrepid individuals who chose to ‘vamp’ it up for the evening and come in fancy dress. We had mime artists, Sylvester the cat, skeletons, band members from KISS, nuns, gangsters from the 1920’s, Cruella de Ville, court jesters and other amazing costumes. Congratulations to all of the trainees who received their awards and a big thank you to our dedicated and committed staff for all of their hard work this year. I would also personally like to thank the Compass families and supporters for their friendship, generosity of spirit and continued belief in the Compass ‘vision.’ The many achievements of 2015 would not have occurred without your support. 2016 promises to be even better, with many new projects and programs currently under development and a number of new trainees and their families joining the larger Compass family.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, joy and

happiness in the New Year. Best wishes,

Helen

December

2015 Newsletter

Exploring the

Art of Life

Caloundra comes to Gympie! One of the days in November was the day to remember as the team from Caloundra Compass flew in to Gympie Centre to learn the fine art of micro bat box construction, First they had a bite of morning with famous banana pancakes, then they were put to work in the factory. Finally they were given the royal tour of the Rattler Station and after lunch they winged their way off home. It was great to have a visit from Rob and the crew and many thanks for their donation of wood for the bat boxes. Look forward to their next visit, same bat time, same bat station.

Gympie Team

Russell’s Rave Wow what a year! I have now been at Compass for 9 months! what a busy and productive year it’s been and now leading into 2016, with lots on the move in Training & development. The New Year will see Compass Staff graduating by March 2016 in Certificate IV Disability. Hats off to the following Trainers …

Lyn Bracks (Caloundra), Shannon Cook & Jesse Mannix (Palmwoods), James Shaw & Kylie Southon (Palmwoods), Christie-Lee Horvat and Derek Little (Caloundra). 2016 will see our new Ipswich Centre opening, and accredited training for trainees in Hospitality, Retail & Horticulture commencing!

Thankyou for your ongoing interest & support

Russell

Gladstone WOW HOW FAST HAS THIS YEAR GONE.

It’s hard to Believe Compass Gladstone will be 1 on the 3rd

of February 2016. The Trainees were intrigued by the visit from the Rual Fire Brigade. They conducted safety training for around the house, within a workplace, preventing a fire, what to do in case of a fire and the most exciting part how to use a fire extinguisher and fire blanket and basic first aid. Compass Gladstone held their Christmas party and their Awards presentation on the 3

rd of December and were delighted

that our AMAZING Volunteers for 2015, Families , Employees and our Service Manager Helen were there to share their special day. A Big THANK YOU to Dicey’s Irish Pub for providing the function room and the AMAZING PLATTERS.

I would like to say a big Thank You to Anna and the trainees for my amazing birthday gift and cake

Have a Safe Christmas and New Year

Gladstone Team

December

2015 Newsletter

Exploring the

Art of Life

Palmwoods

P2 went for an end of

year visit to Gympie

centre and checked

out the old train

station.

Caloundra We have recently had some changes to our centre, the kitchen floor has been retiled and the WW group, Derek and his crew have been painting around the centre adding a splash of colour. Our new colourful furniture looks great also!! WW group have been doing a great job maintaining our gardens; we have had some yummy fresh produce including tomatoes, fresh herbs chillies lettuce and beans. Families are more than welcome to pop in at pick up time to see if there is anything in our fresh produce basket, remember only a gold coin donation. CRU went to Maleny Dairies yesterday for a tour; we saw cows,

chickens, pigs, goats and two calves, one of the goats got out, it

was very funny!

“The tour guide fed the pigs some chocolate milk; we gave the cows

some feed and the chickens ate some grain from our hands.

We went to the factory where they make the yoghurt and custard

and watched them bottle chocolate milk. We tasted samples of

flavoured milk, yoghurt and custard. I loved the chocolate milk. At

the end we watched a movie about the farm. We enjoyed the day.”

Written by Nicki Thompson

CTU have been making lots of tie-dye ready for Christmas! We

have made a great range of tie dyed and dip dyed baby clothes and

Manchester and a range of men’s t-shirts. We also have

established a wonderful relationship with the Coles staff and have

now been asked to pick a cage of new groceries and place them on

the shelves as well as our usual job of facing up the shelves.

Caloundra Team

Caboolture Team

Palmwoods Team

December

2015 Newsletter

Exploring the

Art of Life

Awards Night

December

2015 Newsletter

Exploring the

Art of Life

December

2015 Newsletter

Exploring the

Art of Life

Newsletter Exploring

the

Art of Life

year when we hopefully will be able to

unveil these early on. Watch this space!

Thank you once more for your support

and kind words throughout the past

year. I know we don’t always get things

perfect, but I think you know it’s never

for lack of trying. I commend the

wonderful staff for their dedication,

passion and professionalism… and

each of you – for the same qualities. I

admire you all so much for the way you

carry your responsibilities and I hope

we are in some way able to help you

along the way.

My very best wishes for a safe and

happy Christmas and a New Year of

peace and promise…

David

Dear Parents and Friends

I hope you really enjoyed the Gala Awards Night on Saturday at the Sebel Pelican Waters Resort. It was a full house with 22 tables maxing it out. A huge thanks to Wendy for all the organising, Heritage Community Branch Palmwoods for their sponsorship of $5,000 and Sharon & Peter for the absolutely amazing musical entertainment on the night… Awesome!! I was disappointed in the management of the resort for understaffing the function on the night, making our meals late and the General Manager received an email from me the next day seeking an explanation. While I’m grateful for their donation of the venue, we still pay very handsomely for the meals and drinks and I badly want you all to have the best experience possible on the night. Thank you for your patience also – the staff were very apologetic but I reinforced that we all knew they were doing their best under difficult circumstances. For those of you unable to attend, the Norm Armstrong Medal for Staff Member of the Year went to the Team Manager at Compass Caboolture, Robyn Coates. Robyn has been amazing this year and was a very worthy winner. John Tornabene was awarded his 5 years of service pin and Amber Betts received her 3 year pin. The Compass Spirit Award went to Russel and Jane Kay of Coast Life Homes for their ongoing generosity in sponsoring our annual Race Night, attending our many events and generally helping out at every opportunity. While all the trainees received an award, Special Awards for Outstanding Effort went to Alex Riding of Caboolture and Jasmine Elliott at the Farm and Jonathan Hutchison of Palmwoods won the Trainee Achievement Award. If we’d had to choose a winner for best costume or best dancing on the night I think we’d have really had our hands full! Great participation – quite simply the Awards night is one of the very best nights of the year for me. We have enjoyed another great year

watching the trainees set new

standards of personal achievement

and launching a variety of new

projects. In 2015 we have again

provided approximately 10,000 hours of

unfunded support to the trainees as a

result of our corporate and community

partners, fundraising, donations and

efficiencies. This equates (depending on

the staff ratios applied) to somewhere

between $300,000 and $500,000 of

support – an amazing effort for a small

organisation. It’s this type of innovation

and financial responsibility that led to

the extraordinary recognition from the

Sunshine Coast Business Awards with

Compass stealing the show taking

home three awards on the night

including the prestigious Not for Profit

Organisation of the Year.

In November we also once more passed

our Quality Audit while retaining our

perfect record of no non-conformities.

This is a tribute to the wonderful work

done by Helen Smith since coming into

her role as Service Manager in

September 2014 as well of course as

the Compass Board and the members

of the Leadership Team. Other

milestones for Compass have been our

growing involvement in the Sunshine

Coast Marathon, the Run Series, the

Sunshine Coast Agricultural Show, and

the opening of Compass Gladstone

along with the hosting of a Sunshine

Coast Council Meeting at the Farm.

2016 will see the ramping up of the new

Farm Art Project with a move to more

days per week and access for more

trainees with an interest in any and all

things artistic! This includes

photography, mosaics, painting,

sculpture, welding, woodwork and much

more! Love this one!

We will also see the opening of another

Compass Centre, this time in Ipswich.

We have received an extremely warm

reception in this community and look

forward to providing a full range of

services in coming years. Finally there

are two other SECRET projects under

way for 2016 but I will have to hold off

on disclosing the details until early next