December 2013 Edition

Welcome to our December Newsletter

Let’s celebrate the successes we achieved together throughout 2013

Billboard

Our new billboard featuring Paddington

local, Joan, is happily

in residence at Green Corner which is at

the intersection of

Waterworks Rd and Jubilee Tce. We’re

pretty excited about

having this great spot to promote our

services to the

community and we’re thinking about where we might be able to locate another one. This

billboard has been

designed so that we can update it with fresh

messages every few months. Keep an eye on

Green Corner as we have

a fun, new year’s message coming in early

January.

Staff & Volunteer Newsletter

highlights from RESPECCT

As a result of Uniting Care community development worker’s admiration of work of Paola Caballero's sensitive compassionate work with Persian asylum seekers she has met (at Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation and scattered people music group) Uniting Care has offered to transfer of funds ( $10,000) to Communify asylum

seeker support project which will link volunteers with isolated asylum seekers unable to access education or work ( due to visa conditions). Communify will be receiving funds January 2014 and will employ Paola Caballero 2 days a week to coordinate volunteer asylum seeker links and to facilitate monthly gatherings of scattered people music group.

The RESPECCT program joined with CYMHS and University Qld in planning to establish speech therapy student clinic so refugee and asylum seeker students on north-side of Brisbane can access free speech therapy . Communify refugee support account will provide first year of funding for the clinic.

In October local artists and musician held a performance and film night raising over $2,000 for allied health services for refugee children account.

Shaharia Ahsan in her bicultural worker role has opened pathways to access Under One Roof, 139 Club, Pine RIVERS Community Centre, RAI, CRSS, ABIOS, AMPARO Advocacy for 2 Bengali speaking Rohingya families. This is the first time these agencies have worked with families in this community. Agency workers and Shaharia have shared and learnt a lot about working cross culturally with Rohingya families.

Art therapy student Kristy Thorburn provided art therapy sessions and assessments at Kedron Park State High School that enabled the school to get extra funding for students from asylum seeker backgrounds. As a result of the high standard of her work the school is offering her some sessional hours in 2014.

PhaMs has been at capacity and unfortunately had to cease taking referrals which does not

sound like good news, but we can celebrate that we are being recognised for the great support work

we are providing as demand is so high. Hopefully we can meet the demand in the new year.

We can celebrate the members of the Job Club who have since found employment or study

placements, as well as those who continue to work hard to improve their lives.

We celebrate the members of the Music group for their amazing passion for the arts and the

incredible friendships and support they have developed over the past year. We thank them for all of

their giving back and sharing their passion with others in the community, especially at Communify functions.

The Ladies Leisure group, Crafting My Way group and Men’s Group members who have continued to run in parallels and thrive through the power of peer support and good company.

We celebrate those brave people who came to The Anxiety Groups, Well Ways Group, and the

Acceptance & Change group for learning more about themselves and taking the risk to embrace

change.

We celebrate the Fit for Life group for bringing peace of mind to community members AND Communify

staff.

We celebrate all our community’s members who have participated in the PHaMs program and

allowed us to their some of their recovery journey. We are truly humbled, grateful and inspired!

Daniel completed his Advanced Diploma of Community Sector Management

Aged Care and the Paddington Centre celebrate 2013 Bathrooms finished – look great

Georgina – Registered Nurse (Division 1) with

non-practising Registration

Zumba Exercise and Yoga programs going really well with all our clients getting used to being more active and enjoying it

Tim and his partner, Louise had a beautiful baby girl baby

The service underwent a restructure which saw the recruitment of a Facilitator for activity and program development, Sarah.

Sylvie joined Paula in the kitchen assisting with food

preparation.

Zoe and Kath keeping busy in social support and have very happy clients

The ceiling that caved in at beginning of year as a

result of storm over

Australia Day long

weekend has finally been restored!

Volunteer Training In partnership with BlueCare, TADQ and Nundah Activity Centre we will be offering regular training for volunteers and people who are thinking about becoming volunteers at any community organisation. Topics covered will include professional boundaries, driver safety, confidentiality and other topics relevant to all volunteers of our organisation. People who complete this free, basic training who aren’t registered volunteers won’t be under any obligation to volunteer and will be presented with a certificate of attendance. Register

your spot at our next training session now!

Celebrating 2013 with Children’s Services This year has been busier than most with a very dynamic and diverse group of little people keeping us on our toes!

Assessment under the National Quality Standard rated our childcare service as Exceeding the National Quality Standard across all seven areas of assessment.

This year we started a parent resource book library that our parents are accessing quite often and enjoying.

And Frances started and has almost finished her Diploma of Early Education and Care.

Partners in Recovery (PIR) are successfully Fully staffed (Belinda, Anita and Trevor)

Engaging with clients and kicking some housing goals

Developing a really good partnership with RBH MH, and integrating

services for clients

Working on systems change for clients relationships with GPs and how to integrate and make more assessable. Been working at GP

partnerships though Medicare local and our scintillating personalities.

Creating MOUs within the AOD sector, and their connections with GPs

Just loving life at Love Street

Celebrat ing our I . T . team’s ach ievements

Implementation of Procura system in preparation for Go Live – January to July 2013.

Successful Go-Live of Procura - August 2013

First Procura HACC MDS Reporting export successful for third quarter July – September 2013

Successful migration of Home Assist and new PIR site into the Communify QLD Domain allowing network access to the Bardon office - July and November 2013.

Delivery of training to all supervisors covering client management, scheduling, billing and reporting August – November 2013.

Complete setup and technical scoping of new PIR office at Spring Hill – June/July 2013.

Configuration and setup of 20 new computers across various branches throughout the year.

Configuration and setup of all computers at the Exchange at Kelvin Grove – July 2013.

Home Assist and Over 65 Domestic Procura – surviving and slowly getting it to

do what we want it to do…..

Home Assist – said goodbye to Alan

fondly known as Twinkle Toes, and he is now doing the big trip around NZ before returning to run Brisbane’s next Dancing with the stars workshops!

Earlier on in the year, Mick and Chris left and we welcomed the FOF – Field Officer Facilitator– Nick who comes with great building skills and can go out and assess client complaints instead of me not knowing the difference between a well-built ramp and a not so well built ramp! Very happy face:). We have also replaced Alan with John who is a mega welder and has had 3 months training with Alan – his more recent life has been spent building trains in China…nothing like a bit of a variety in a lifetime.

Domestic – welcomed Libby and more recently Wendy to Facilitate and coordinate the 331 clients with 16

domestic workers – no mean feat.

The Accounts team has had a terrific year:

We are still here, smiling and functional after the growth in CQ and its

resultant changes

Servanda has taken on the oversight Housing Maintenance and continues to do

a terrific job in that & also tracking Domestic billing to convert to MDS (prior to Procura)

Janet has passed her Cert IV Financial Services (Bookkeeping)

Phoebe went to New York for a friend’s wedding and the M & M shop

Phoebe gave up Uni after Nov exams to work more hours at CQ because she loves it so much here ( apart from every second Wednesday when she has to

chase time sheets ( next time we might name names on a shame list!))

Alison completed all her acquittals for year end, only having to apply for two

extensions due to the excitement of learning Procura and expanding the General Ledger for the new divisions

Developing our community This year we collaborated with PCYC and were successful in receiving a $10k grant from the QLD Police

for a crime prevention project.

We chose to focus on the Spring hill area and specifically Bedford Park. A group of committed participants from QLD Police, BCC, Red Cross, PCYC, Arethusa College, Pindari Men's Hostel & Reclink

joined Communify to create a steering committee.

Phase one of the project proved to be a great success and really

set us up for continuing development in the area. We employed

Helen Wallis from 99 Consulting who conducted neighbourhood research on the use of the park, identified key areas of concern,

located interested residents and finalised her involvement by

providing the committee with a detailed report.

Phase two of the project again employed a CD worker, Maribel Marquez to begin work on bringing

together a local residents group to facilitate activation of some of the key points from the 99 consulting

report. Remarkably we have seen the beginning of a committed local residents group who are currently working on a mission statement and development of visions for the future of the FRIENDS OF BEDFORD

GROUP.

It is very pleasing to note that the hard work of the steering committee group through out the year has

been in turn taken up by this group. Stay tuned.

success stories from the eXchange in 2013. This year we partnered with Brisbane Grammar School to run a homework club for the children of

Kelvin Grove. This program was nominated by a father of some of the children who attend, for a CANS Award for Outstanding Educational Environment.

Every Thursday after school hours, a group of boys from BGS, walk to the Exchange where they met

the children from the Kelvin Grove Village. Initially, the program centred on assistance with home-

work, assignments and improving the children’s general understanding of English, but has now ex-

tended far beyond this. Whilst these interactions help to break down cultural and social barriers, other opportunities were created for the children to share their stories with the rest of the group.

Each week, the children volunteer to share stories about their families and cultural backgrounds.

This has enabled them to gain a sense of pride and autonomy. The atmosphere of trust that has been created amongst the children allows them to safely share their stories. In addition to the tra-

ditional setting of the Homework Club, the children partake in sports afternoons where they en-

gage in a variety of games. The Homework Club won the Award for 2013. Here is an extract from

the nomination:

I am Dr. Ataullah Shinwarie the father of six of the children who attend the Home Work club at the eXchange each week. My children range in ages from 6-14 years. We are Afghani and follow Islamic beliefs. My three daughters wear hijabs when they go outside of our home. My eldest daughter has her own prayer mat and slips away each week during the class to pray. These religious activities are completely accepted by the broader group of children. As a result, this experience has increased my family’s confidence that Muslims are allowed to practice their faith in Australia without any prejudice. This is a wonderful experience for my children. The program provides an environment based on mutual respect and autonomy, where children feel safe to learn about cultural values and differences meanwhile improving their language and academic results.

As a parent I am grateful to the eXchange and Brisbane Grammar School for providing the Homework Club and for helping all the children with their schoolwork and giving them a better understanding of the Australian School curriculum and allowing them to share their learning experiences, while at the same time having fun and making new friends. In addition, in this respectful environment they can proudly share their cultural values and stories about their home countries.

In my professional opinion as a Paediatrician, I believe that this program changes these children’s perceptions and creates a positive example that they can follow, helping and respecting other people from diverse backgrounds and ultimately preparing them to contribute to peace, tolerance and, to some extent, resolve conflict.

Dr Shinwarie, Mrs Shinwarie with Mena and Rian Ms Philippa Douglas and Alistair Edmonds representing BGS

The eXchange won the National Award in 2012 for our suite of programs that promote

understanding between Muslims and Non Muslims. Two of these programs were featured in U

on Sunday magazine of the Sunday Mail this year.

In August, Let’s Get Talking Kelvin Grove had a full page spread. This program has close to one hundred volunteers from all over Brisbane. They meet weekly for one-on- one English

conversation and fellowship with people from non English speaking backgrounds. The volunteers

come from all walks of life and are buddied-up with international students, migrants and

refugees.

When Sahel Tangestani from Iran was partnered with Adrienne Hollamby from Ashgrove, she hoped for a friend and she found a family. Adrienne says; our friendship is really important to

me. I get really excited when something new happens in her life, like the new baby which

arrived in October.

Knitting English or English for knitters of the World was showcased in the Sunday Mail in

November. This group was formed three years ago with the aim of knitting blankets for Save the Children. Each Thursday morning, women from all over the world come together to learn how

to knit, for friendship, English conversation, and social interaction and to ward off homesickness.

The women come from Iran, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Kurdistan, Scotland, Mongolia, Papua

New Guinea, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand. So far, sixty blankets have lovingly been created and given to Save the Children. We love the end result, seeing something from all our

hands.

Sahel and Adrienne. Raheleh, Antoinette, Maryam and Mitra.

Feedback and reflections from all of staff team building day Rating scale 1—extremely unsatisfied to 5—extremely satisfied

“Great day and opportunity to meet other Communify staff Thanks you for the great day. Keep on trying fun activities that encourage participation and inclusiveness. “

“It was great to be able to meet with so many new people (it was incredible how many I had never seen before) and catch up with old ones. “

“Great to mix up all the staff and get to know so many new people. I enjoyed the small group time with new people loads of fun “

“got to know other team members in a relaxed way Good fun and enjoyed the company of new members of the staff Great fun and everyone was able to participate original & fun What a fantastic idea! The best team building activity I have ever

heard of :) “

Volunteers Christmas Lunch Over 60 of our volunteers attended our recent annual volunteers’ Christmas lunch and were treated to a delicious lunch of glazed ham, stuffed roast chicken and salads prepared by our wonderful gourmet cook Paula. Helping to organise the event were a team of students from The University of Queensland’s School of Tourism who whipped up delicious cocktails, created decorations and screened a short video that they had made featuring some of our volunteers’ thoughts about their community work. We were fortunate to receive sponsorship of the event from Meat at Billy ’s – our local butcher, and Fruity Capers at Toowong. If you shop at these stores please say thanks! The Christmas celebration event is a chance for our volunteers to come together, relax and enjoy a social lunch and gives us a chance to say a heart-felt thank-you to our volunteers for the amazing work they do to help build a diverse and inclusive community.

The involvement of volunteers from the University of Queensland in assisting us with planning and running an event like this brings a whole new layer of volunteer work to our organisation. We’ve been thrilled with the youthful energy that the students have brought to our centre. We hope that the experience they have had with us was be meaningful and rewarding. We especially hope that the community engagement activities that university students are increasingly involved in as a component of their course work will contribute to a lifelong commitment to volunteering as they experience the rewards that come with giving time and expertise.

The short video made by the students is on our website www.communify.org.au