2019-Wesley-Mission-Annual-Report - Flipbook - Page 13
Our clients
Supporting
growth in times
of change
All our lives are marked by
significant change and transition.
Starting school, entering the
workforce, moving homes,
starting and ending relationships,
pregnancy, the loss of a loved one,
divorce, leaving a job. “Change
is inevitable,” as the old saying
goes, but “growth is optional”. And
Wesley Mission is privileged to
walk alongside people as they find
opportunities to grow through their
life transitions.
Supporting young people leaving foster care
to take charge of their lives
Every child who enters foster care experiences
many major transitions throughout their lives. The
journey to adulthood and independence is a
challenging transition for everyone, but even more
so for young adults leaving foster care.
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Thanks to the generosity of the Property Industry
Foundation (PIF) and Lendlease, two of Wesley
Mission’s properties in north-western Sydney have
been refurbished and renovated to provide safe
accommodation for young people aged 15 to 24,
who are transitioning out of the foster care system.
PIF and Lendlease committed more than $800,000
to the renovation and have committed a further
$300,000 per year for the next four to five years to
keep the houses running.
The houses will be home to 22 young people who
are exiting foster care, and the initiative, named
Wesley KickStart, forms part of the broader Wesley
Take Charge of Your Life program.
The young people living in the accommodation will
receive 24-hour support and ongoing case
management as they study or seek work and learn
life skills such as cooking and budgeting. We aim to
support these young people ultimately to move into
private accommodation and gain full independence.
Support continues in second year of NDIS
rollout
As we near the end of the second year of the
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) rollout
in NSW, Wesley Mission has supported 574 clients
through their transition into the scheme. We’ll
continue to assist our remaining clients to transition
over the next 12 months, which includes meeting
together with clients as they identify their goals and
the support they want to receive.
Wesley Mission staff can also provide assistance
during the NDIS planning process to make sure
clients receive the support they want, the way
they want.
Under the NDIS, disability services operate in a
consumer driven marketplace where people with
disability control their own funding and can select and
purchase their requirements. This new system can be
daunting, so we continue to work closely with new and
existing clients to help them navigate the NDIS.
Through a model designed to empower client
choices, Wesley Mission has delivered necessary
changes to our business functions and processes to
be ready for the NDIS, including changes to financial
and service delivery models.
New Wesley ParentsNext sites opened:
helping more parents achieve their goals
Two years ago, the NSW Government chose Wesley
Mission to deliver the pilot program, ParentsNext, in
Wyong and Bankstown areas. It’s a program that
helps parents with young children join the workforce
by connecting them with their local community to
build a support network by the time their youngest
child reaches school age.
Since 2016, our multicultural Bankstown Wesley
ParentsNext program has helped:
•188 parents complete Certificate III, Certificate IV,
diplomas and advanced diplomas with several
commencing a university degree. In addition there
are 57 parents in the process of achieving
statements of attainment
• 80 parents now enjoying stable employment.
The pilot was a success, and when the government
decided to roll it out nationally Wesley Mission was
chosen to provide the program in every NSW region
we tendered in.
As a result, we’ve expanded the locations where we
offer Wesley ParentsNext from four to 28 locations.
This includes 11 locations in the Sydney region and
17 locations stretching from Grafton and Ballina,
down through Bowraville and Coffs Harbour, and
through to the Hunter and Central Coast regions.
CatholicCare invites Wesley Mission to take
on their disability services
Supporting the difficult transition out of
homelessness
Helping people transition from unemployment
to financial wellbeing
In late 2017, we undertook the complicated task of
transferring a range of CatholicCare’s disability
services–including the employment of staff–to
Wesley Mission. And thanks to a truly whole of
organisation effort, we completed the transfer in just
one month.
The NSW Government has chosen Wesley Mission
to run the 12 month pilot program, Career Pathways
across NSW. We help public housing residents
access training, education and on-the-job
experience while supporting them through the
process so they can build their confidence and
independence in the workforce.
Gaining employment is a critical step towards a
stronger, more independent future. But it can be
difficult to enter the workforce for the first time, or to
break down barriers to employment like disability,
lack of training, housing instability and other
challenges. Wesley Mission’s employment services
and the Wesley Vocational Institute offer a range of
employment and education support.
On 1 November 2017, Wesley Mission officially
became responsible for a number of disability
services previously provided by CatholicCare. This
includes managing and maintaining four government
owned group homes housing up to 20 people with
intellectual and physical disabilities and providing in
home support to 80 clients.
Throughout the planning and implementation
process, we met regularly with CatholicCare staff,
clients and their families to minimise their anxiety
about the transition and incorporated their needs
and wants into our planning. Our highest priority
was ensuring clients experienced as little change to
their services as possible. That’s why it was so
important to retain the skilled CatholicCare staff
who clients already trusted to serve them.
Under the NDIS the management and maintenance
of group homes is separated as a service from the
delivery of the disability support services within the
homes. Residents are empowered to choose who
they want to deliver those services, so CatholicCare
couldn’t automatically transfer them to Wesley
Mission. It’s a testament to the trust we built in
such a short period of time and to the values we
share that the clients of all four homes chose
Wesley Mission to also provide their disability
support services.
Ultimately, we’ll support them to transition out of
public housing into their own long term affordable
accommodation.
The program represents a collaboration between
different Wesley Mission services, because we can
offer people professional, industry-recognised
training programs in horticulture, retail and
aged care community services through Wesley
Vocational Institute.
Walking alongside people in their grief
The death of a loved one leads people into an
important transition in their lives: learning how to
continue in life without that person.
The annual Wesley LifeForce Memorial Services in
Sydney, Lake Macquarie, Adelaide, Brisbane and
Darwin are an opportunity for those affected by
suicide to reflect and support each other together in
a spirit of comfort and hope.
Wesley Mission also hosts a special memorial
service every year to remember those who lost their
lives while experiencing homelessness. This
service provides for many who attend, the first
opportunity to formally acknowledge friends they’ve
met and lost, and to remember people society too
often forgets.
In 2017/18, 16 Wesley Mission gardening crews
serviced 770 sites. Their work included maintaining
Telstra towers, and fulfilling cleaning contracts with
the NSW Government Civil and Administrative
Tribunal courts. Each crew is guided by a team
leader and made up of people form diverse
backgrounds, which can include people with
disability, transitioning out of homelessness,
re-entering the workforce, or experiencing other
barriers to employment.
Similarly, the David Morgan Centre, an Australian
Disability Enterprise which employs people with a
disability to work in a warehouse environment
packaging goods for a variety of business,
continued to strengthen existing business
relationships and securing new clients.
In the Hunter region, we’ve restructured our Wesley
Retail service to partner with our employment
services in the region to provide more opportunities,
for volunteering, work experience and paid
opportunities for jobseekers in the Hunter.
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