March 2014 Newsletter - Sacred Heart Mission
Transcription
March 2014 Newsletter - Sacred Heart Mission
heartbeat newsletter March 2014 inTroducing our new logo Last year, we were fortunate to be given the opportunity to undertake a brand identity review with our pro bono design agency Canyon. This involved pausing to think about our brand. To fully represent and capture our brand values and attributes, reflecting who we are today and where we want to be in the future, a new logo was created. It highlights our uniqueness, communicates our values whilst retaining our origins with the cross and the heart. The rollout of the new logo has commenced and will take place over the coming months. We have prioritised the high visibility areas where the logo appears, including the main Mission buildings, op shops, vehicle signage, our website and social media plus our internal documents and templates. So as not to waste resources, we will only update printed materials when doing new print runs on brochures and other paper based materials. The joys of cooking (and eaTing) 3 1 2 1&2. Queens Road residents Eleanor and Sean attend the weekly Hot Dish cooking class where everyone sits together to enjoy a meal at the end. 3. The flourishing veggie garden at our Queens Road rooming house is harvested each Friday for the BBQ. Thanks to a City of Port Phillip grant, an extra special new BBQ now lives in the back garden of our Queens Road rooming house which residents are welcome to use. The idea behind applying for the grant was to promote independent eating. The BBQ is also being used for the Friday night community dinners. The residents harvest the veggie garden during the day so that the fresh veggies and herbs can be used to make salads. Some residents have been attending weekly cooking classes, aimed at promoting interaction and cooking skills in the rooming house community, that are offered by the Hot Dish catering company in Parkville. 1 You probably noticed that at the end of last year, you received a lot more mail from us than usual. This was due to a service provider error. We wish to apologise and reassure you that we’ve taken steps to rectify this problem, and the service provider picked up the cost of the extra mailouts. regular giving – help secure The Mission’s fuTure As the Mission looks forward we need to look for opportunities to increase our financial sustainability. Workplace giving is one of the most effective ways to support the Mission’s work now and in the future. This program enables employees to make regular contributions from pre-tax salary, avoiding the need to find receipts at tax time. By encouraging workplace giving in your organisation, you make a direct impact on the lives of people in your community while also building a strong sense of community in the workplace. To learn more you can contact the Sacred Heart Mission Fundraising and Communications Team on 1800 443 278 or email [email protected]. ediTorial deTails: If you have any feedback about this newsletter or story ideas, please contact: Marika Fengler Communications Coordinator 03 9536 8498 [email protected] The True Magic of a coMMuniTy organisaTion Over the summer, things have been busy at Sacred Heart Mission as the issues of homelessness, disadvantage and social exclusion are forever present in our community. We have spent much of the last few months working on our strategic plan for the next 10 years and thinking about how our services come together to address the underlying causes of deep, persistent disadvantage and social exclusion. We have been helped by business, the community sector, major donors, staff and volunteers to understand how our service is unique and to receive feedback on going forward with the plan. We have also examined the impact of the government’s social policy reform agenda to understand how that may affect our service delivery. It is clear that we need to be able to articulate how the Mission’s services come together to help the community and we are progressing well with this. We have also been focused on fundraising for the services we have that are run through the generosity of the community rather than being funded by government. Our Meals Program, Hands on Health Clinic, Women’s House and Sports and Recreation are all essential in delivering outcomes for people who come to the Mission seeking a more stable existence. Our Gift that Counts Christmas appeal raised more than $243,000 which is a truly tremendous effort and we thank everyone who contributed. It is during Christmas that we see the true magic of a community organisation like Sacred Heart Mission come to life. We provided almost 300 lunches on Christmas Day, using food that was 100 per cent donated and was served by 38 people who volunteered their time. Two-thirds of this was through Cabrini’s generous purchase of raw ingredients on our behalf. The remainder of the meal was donated by manufacturers, corporate groups, individuals and local businesses. Everyone who came to lunch received a gift, also donated by Cabrini. You can read about the highlights on pages 3 and 4. During the recent heatwaves, our Home Care team went over and above to ensure the safety of those who are most vulnerable during the heat. Of the 75 people who they support to remain in their own homes, 17 were assessed as being very high risk in heatwaves. This assessment is based on their lack of support networks, living conditions and health. Many live in little bedsits or small apartments without air conditioning that can reach the same temperature of the inside of a car. While some escape the heat by going to the casino or other air conditioned public places, they have to go home at some stage. On the extreme weather days, Home Care staff transported some of their most vulnerable clients to our aged care facility so they could spend the day in a cool environment. Extra staff members were put on to do ring arounds to check on people’s safety, that they were drinking sufficient fluids and were looking after themselves. Following the creative idea of one staff member, hotels were contacted to see if they could donate vacant rooms for an emergency relocation. Six clients stayed at the St Kilda Novotel and one at the Pullman in Albert Park. The following weekend, the Novotel and Ibis hotels in Glen Waverly (while St Kilda Festival was on) generously accommodated four Home Care clients between them. There is something special here – we have all parts of our community coming together to address the issues of disadvantage and social exclusion. Call it Mission Magic, grass roots movement or social justice, whatever it is, may it continue throughout 2014. Catherine Harris Acting CEO young enTrepreneur is a budding philanThropisT This is maybe one of the cutest things we’ve seen in awhile. Six year old Sam, who lives in the area, came up with the initiative of selling some spare cards that he’d collected from the supermarket. While he was staying down the coast with his family on summer holiday he put together a pop up stall in the street. Sam’s cousin helped on one of the days when he was selling the cards, raising a total of $16.73. Our fundraising manager Fiona gave Sam and his mum a personal tour of the dining hall and told them that his fundraising has paid for four and a bit meals. What a champ! 2 chrisTMas is noT as Much abouT opening our presenTs as opening our hearTs 1. Preparation for Christmas at the Mission began as early as July when the phone calls started to trickle in from people enquiring about volunteering. Months of organising, communication, goodwill and spirit went into making the day a special one for the 300 people who came to enjoy the beautiful Christmas lunch. Thanks To everyone who gave a ‘gifT ThaT counTs’ This chrisTMas 1 2. Restaurateur members of the Victorian Thai Community Association cooked up a storm in our kitchen to give our chefs a break on Boxing Day. They made delicious fried rice and noodles in honour of the birthday of the Thai King. 2 3. Every year the Cabrini community of nurses, doctors, other staff, patients and their families donates hundreds of presents for our Santa to hand out after lunch: 450 were supplied last year. Cabrini also provided meat, veg, dessert and accompaniments for the Christmas meal. Their support extends throughout the year to include buying other food for our Meals Program, staff volunteering in the dining hall and a linen service is provided to our facilities which results in huge savings for us. 3 We are delighted to report that our Christmas appeal ‘A Gift That Counts’ achieved our best ever results for that period, raising a whopping $243,302.30 (which included donations for baubles at our op shops). To give you an idea, the funds raised can cover all of the following; • weekend breakfasts in our dining hall for the year • meat or fish for six months • everyone’s lunch for a week • the dining hall chefs for 328 days • and this year’s Christmas lunch Pictured here are Kate Barker who manages Cabrini’s social outreach program and Graduate Year Coordinator Yvette Gomez, together with Marika Fengler from our fundraising team. Many of you will be aware that we took a broader approach for this Christmas appeal. It was the first year we created a theme, and as well as doing our traditional letter to people on our database, there was a whole bunch of other activities designed to attract new donors and raise the Mission’s profile in the community. 4. Sasha Taranto and Demi Brereton from Star of the Sea delivered a massage chair to our Hands on Health Clinic on behalf of their fellow students. The chair was purchased with funds raised by running a cake stall and Demi’s effort selling a magical ‘reindeer mix’ to entice Santa over the holiday season. The chair will be of great use for people who are ageing or have mobility issues. The year 10s and 11s also did a massive collection of individualised gifts for women at the Women’s House and made personalised cards for each gift. We must say a big thanks to the following: our volunteers who helped with these activities including letterbox drops, gift wrapping and tin rattling; everyone who donated food to our Meals Program, Star of the Sea, Aquinas, Chisholm and Gamon, South Melbourne Market, NAB, T2, Ikea Richmond, Acland Court, Cabrini, NAOT footwear, Pacific Brands, and Roadhouse, Veg Out and Elwood Farmer’s Market, Creative Sign Design, and Ausign. BTW – reindeer food is made up of sparkles and oats. Sparkles attract the reindeers and the oats are for them to eat. In particular, we would like to acknowledge our pro bono creative agency Canyon who has done an outstanding job and loads of work in supporting us with this campaign. 4 For making Christmas special, we must also thank... Everyone who contributed to the Christmas lunch and gift collection, Acland Court, Aquinas College, Canyon, Chisholm & Gamon, Ikea Richmond, NAB, NAOT footwear, Pacific Brands, Roadhouse Digital, South Melbourne Market, Sylvia Paglia from Diabetes Australia, T2, Veg Out market, and all the marvellous volunteers who either rattled tins, or letterbox dropped on our behalf. 3 welcoMing The spiriT of digniTy The lives of so many people coming to our Mission are marked by many overwhelming losses that have led them into homelessness; the loss of early security in life, the loss of mental wellbeing, the loss of employment, and many other losses that can traumatise and severely limit our lives. The story of life being taken from you can easily begin to be played out over and over again in a person’s heart with one loss compounding another. You are a victim and powerless. Early in the New Year, I was sitting sharing lunch with one of our regular visitors to the Mission. He had just come from a job interview which didn’t go as well as he had expected. As I listened to him, he shared not only his disappointment but also his gratitude for some pointers he received to help him in the future. He went on to share with me how, given he wasn’t working, he couldn’t meet the repayments for an old car he was hoping to use to get to work. Too often, in his past, he had felt the pain of having important things at the time taken from him and feeling a victim of his circumstances. This time, he thought to himself, “I don’t want to live waiting for someone to come and repossess the car”. So he decided to go and surrender the car. As he peacefully summed up the experience for me: “Doing it, yes it was hard but I felt so free I had retained my dignity.” “... I was choosing and not having life chosen for me.” i wanT To supporT sacred hearT Mission March 2014 Title: First Name: Surname: Address: Suburb: As staff, volunteers and all the specialist support that comes to the Mission, we work together to help people to make the decisions, no matter how small, that help them to receive that freeing spirit of their dignity being restored. It may be in the choosing to trust and talk a little bit more with a worker, or beginning to take steps to address an addiction. We want to help people to discover that in the very losses and vulnerabilities of their lives the freeing spirit of their dignity is waiting to be received. Postcode: Tel (Home/Work): Mobile: Email: All donations of $2 and over are tax deductible Monthly Giving Thank you once again for all your support and resources given to sustain our Mission in its work (for the long haul) of helping people act for the restoration of their dignity. And maybe, it is in all our efforts to support, that we all have our own dignity of being fellow members of the human family restored. Fr John Petrulis Parish Priest I would like to donate: $ ($10 min) • Please charge my credit card as per details below • Gift processed on 15th of each month. Or One off Gift I would like to give a donation of $35 $55 $100 $500 $ Please find enclosed my cheque (made payable to Sacred Heart Mission) Please charge my credit card I simply affirmed his deeply insightful action and we parted both all the richer for the sharing of his wisdom. Visa Mastercard AMEX Cardholder’s Name: our op shop cusToMers buy fesTive lunches Sacred Heart Mission op shop customers were encouraged to think about all the meals that are dished up over the festive period to people who are homeless. Customers were asked to donate $3.80 - the cost of a three course lunch served in our dining hall - to put a bauble on the Christmas trees displayed in each of our seven op shops. Expiry Date: Cardholder’s Signature: Please send me information on: Remembering the Mission in my Will 1. Karen from our South Melbourne op shop hangs wire Christmas trees from the ceiling. South Melbourne customers hung a total of 1,263 baubles (or meals), filling 28 trees and raising $4,799.40. Together with the regular customers, employees from local businesses and companies including Boeing, Channel 9’s The Block and The Essential Ingredient got behind the initiative by making significant donations and some “buying” whole trees. Volunteering at the Mission Monthly Giving Sacred Heart Mission follows the National Privacy Principles. Be assured your details remain confidential and are not supplied to other organisations. Please tick here if you do not want further mail from the Mission. Please send to: Sacred Heart Mission, 87 Grey Street, St Kilda VIC 3182 1 4 Donation Hotline: 1800 44 32 78 www.sacredheartmission.org ABN 62 843 874 179 The Mission sTarTs The journey To reconciliaTion In the past, we’ve used our highly visible balcony space on National Sorry Day to show our commitment towards reconciliation. Last year the Mission formed a project group to work on a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) acknowledging the need for the organisation to build stronger relationships and trust with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Data gathered by our client service areas show that up to 10 per cent of people accessing our services identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. The organisation felt that it was important to be culturally responsive to these people and that to be as welcoming as possible, we needed to take practical actions. To echo the ethos of the RAP program: we needed to turn our good intentions into real actions. wiTh your supporT, we can conTinue To assisT over 600 people every day… Overseeing the RAP journey, Manager of Women’s Services, Leanne Lewis said posters were displayed around the Mission inviting participation from staff, volunteers and people using our services, particularly those who identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. “Together we worked on a business plan focusing on the areas of relationships, respect, and opportunities. We made a decision that if an action could be done during the planning process, we’d do it!” Highlights throughout the year included: the donation of a piece of Aboriginal artwork ‘Women’s Work’ to our Women’s House; introductions to members of the local Aboriginal community; staff attending two fully-booked out cultural awareness training sessions at Aboriginal rehabilitation and support centre Ngwala Willumbong; a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony performed at our dining hall reopening; and recently we were fortunate in welcoming the participation of an Aboriginal woman from our Client Representative Group to the RAP working group. In December 2013, our RAP was signed by our CEO Cathy Humphrey and endorsed by Reconciliation Australia. Our name is now proudly listed on Reconciliation Australia’s website amongst the hundreds of organisations that have a RAP in place which means we are publicly accountable to carry out the actions we’ve promised. Leanne said that while it is early days for the Mission, it feels like a real groundswell is taking place. “The more organisations that are thinking about being culturally responsive and are setting targets and goals, the better for the greater cause. And it’s very exciting to be a part of this journey to reconciliation.” To find out more visit www.reconciliation.org.au. You can view Sacred Heart Mission’s RAP on the Reconciliation Australia website. Go to the ‘Who has a RAP?’ page and look under ‘community organisations.’ 5 lighT up a life cockTail parTy Thursday 20 March at Encore, St Kilda Sea Baths This year we are giving a new lease of life to our annual cocktail party. We’re moving venue to Encore at the St Kilda Sea Baths, Phil Ceberano will be entertaining and treats will be served from Betsy the caravan. As usual there will be loads of great auction and raffle items. So pop on your dancing shoes, round up your girlfriends and bring a man if you’re so inclined. This is a great event for women, by women - but it is definitely not a women’s only event! Tickets are $120 and can be purchased either through www.sacredheartmission.org or by contacting Peter Mercer from our fundraising team on 9534 7496 or email [email protected]. RSVP by 14 March. Tickets are limited. inTroducing a new evenT To our calendar… dining wiTh hearT Wednesday 28 May at the Palais Theatre, St Kilda We’re really excited to be presenting our new event, Dining with Heart, which is inspired by the important role food plays in bringing together and nourishing people around the Mission. With ingredients that our kitchen crew use daily, local celebrity chefs will cook for two hundred guests on the stage of the iconic Palais Theatre. There will be lots of entertainment, a chance to chat with the chefs, food related auction items and experiences, and a mini cook book to take home. On the same night a selection of local restaurants will join in, with a percentage of their bills going to the Mission. And at the end of the night everyone can meet up at the after party at the Vineyard! 1 1. Karen Martini is one of the celebrity chefs who will cook for two hundred guests using ingredients found daily in our dining hall kitchen. For more information about either of these events, please call our Events Coordinator Sarah Green on: 0411 401 094 or email [email protected]. 6