News
Australian Social Inclusion Board and the Minister for Social Inclusion revisit Broadmeadows
The Australian Social Inclusion Board is meeting in Broadmeadows on 6 and 7 June 2013 to mark five years of the social inclusion agenda.
The Minister for Social Inclusion will join with the Board in a celebration lunch and community roundtable on 7 June.
As part of the Board's ongoing commitment to engaging with the community, the Board will also visit three local community organisations who are working to help disadvantaged people:
- Lentara Uniting Care delivers the Family Support Program as a Communities for Children, facilitating partner at Broadmeadows and support for young parents and jobless families activities under the Building Australia’s Future Workforce initiative. They also deliver early childhood, emergency relief and other financial management programs such as Commonwealth Financial Counselling.
- Wintringham is a specialised welfare company that provides housing and care to elderly, frail men and women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Wintringham believe strongly in the principles of social justice and the rights of homeless people and won the 2013 Homelessness Award - “Excellence in Ending Homelessness in Older People”. The company is quite different from most other aged care providers in that we see ourselves as essentially being housing providers into which we provide quality and appropriate aged care services.
- Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre Inc. delivers the Future Pathways Project under the Local Solutions Fund program.The Future Pathways project supports young people, parents and mature age and retrenched workers. It focuses on people from a range of diverse cultural backgrounds, with low literacy and little work experience to gain or return to work. Using a strengths-based approach, it provides a supported pathway to long-term employment and/or further study for 40 participants through the delivery of accredited training, access to work placements, and post work/training placement assistance in areas of jobs growth including aged care and children’s services.
Overview of 2013-14 social inclusion Budget measures
A listing of the 2013-14 Budget measures relating to social inclusion is now available:
2013-14 Budget measures relating to social inclusion PDF 70 KB | RTF 25 KB
Link to the Budget.gov.au website for a full description of the 2013-14 Budget measures.
National Volunteer Week 13-19 May
An annual celebration of the role and value of volunteers. Volunteering Australia coordinates the promotion of events and hosts a launch. Organisations which engage volunteers typically host some sort of 'thank you' event for the volunteers in this week.
More information at the notforprofit.gov.au/volunteer website
Beyond Hard Knocks
The world premiere screening of Beyond Hard Knocks will open the inaugural Melbourne International Singers Festival on Friday 7 June 2013. The documentary will be introduced by Dr Jonathon Welch AM, founder of Social Inclusion Week and original members of the Choir of Hard Knocks. All proceeds from the Singers Festival will fund the School of Hard Knocks Institute’s arts, cultural and wellbeing programs for disadvantaged Australians.
For more information, go to www.singersfestival.org
Social inclusion the winner in Homelessness Services Awards
The Australian Government National Homelessness Services Achievement Awards recognise the outstanding achievements and contributions that community organisations and services around Australia make to supporting people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The Awards also celebrate the quality, innovation and dedication of homelessness services.
The winners of the 2013 National Homelessness Services Achievement Awards were announced on 7 May:
- Journey to Social Inclusion (J2SI) through Sacred Heart Mission, VIC - Excellence or innovation in addressing homelessness by an organisation
- Samaritans Brokerage Support Service through the Samaritans Foundation, NSW - Excellence in the prevention of, or early intervention in, homelessness
- Making Ends Meet through Anglicare WA, WA - Outstanding business or philanthropic commitment to addressing homelessness
- Homeless to Home Healthcare Program, through partners Micah Projects Inc, Mater Health Services, St Vincent’s Health Care, Greater Metro South Brisbane Medicare Local and Metro North Medicare Local, QLD - Excellence or innovation in partnerships in delivering services
- The Watch House – Pick Up and Case Management project, NT - Excellence in addressing Indigenous homelessness
- WorkNext Services - Education and Employment Program, through Catherine House Inc, SA - Excellence in supporting pathways to employment or education
- Community Accommodation & Support Agency (CASA) Inc, QLD - Excellence in addressing homelessness in a regional, rural or remote location
Award categories were:
- Excellence or innovation in addressing homelessness by an organisation
- Excellence in the prevention of, or early intervention in, homelessness
- Outstanding business or philanthropic commitment to addressing homelessness
- Excellence or innovation in partnerships in delivering services
- Excellence in addressing Indigenous homelessness
- Excellence in supporting pathways to employment or education
- Excellence in addressing homelessness in a regional, rural or remote location.
For more information link to the FaHCSIA website.
Local Solutions Funding Announced
Funding for 61 projects was announced on 1 May 2013, through the second round of the Australian Government's Local Solutions Fund. This fund is part of the Government's Better Futures, Local Solutions initiative, which identified ten regions around Australia where help is needed to improve employment, education and social participation.
For more details, see the Department of Human Services website.
Dr Tom Calma AO appointed Chancellor of the University of Canberra
Australian Social Inclusion Board member, Dr Tom Calma AO, has been appointed as the new University of Canberra Chancellor.
Dr Calma, Deputy Chancellor and 2013 ACT Australian of the Year, will take over from current Chancellor John Mackay, when his term ends at the end of 2013. Read the full article on the University of Canberra website.
Social Inclusion and Complex Needs Conference
On 15-16 April, the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) held its inaugural National Social Inclusion and Complex Needs Conference in Canberra.
The two-day event showcased successful approaches in addressing complex needs and the social determinants of health. Minister for Social Inclusion, the Hon Mark Butler MP, and John Falzon, member of the Australian Social Inclusion Board spoke at the event, highlighting the achievements of the Australian social inclusion agenda and the importance of collaborative, joined up services.
Dr Tom Calma, also member of the Board, presented in his capacity as ACT Australian of the Year 2013. Dr Calma’s presentation, “The nexus between smoking and social inclusion in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities”, touched on the Government’s Social Inclusion Agenda and used statistics from the Board’s publication, How Australia is faring 2nd edition.
Australia leading the world in addressing dementia
MEDIA RELEASE
THE HON MARK BUTLER MP
Minister for Mental Health and Ageing
Minister for Housing and Homelessness
Minister for Social Inclusion
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Mental Health Reform
Australia leading the world in addressing dementia
Australia has been recognised on the world stage as the global leader in addressing dementia.
The 2013 Alzheimer’s Disease International Award recognised Minister for Ageing Mark Butler for Australia’s “efforts in improving the lives of people with dementia and their carers.”
The 2013 Alzheimer’s Disease International Award recognised Minister for Ageing Mark Butler for Australia’s “efforts in improving the lives of people with dementia and their carers.”
Those efforts include the Fight Dementia campaign, making dementia a ‘national priority area’ through COAG and the Federal Government’s $3.7 billion Living Longer Living Better aged care reforms, which provide a big boost to dementia funding and the broader aged care system.
Accepting the award from Ita Buttrose today, Mr Butler said it recognises Australia as leading the world and it was thanks to the whole community’s efforts to draw attention to the issue and demand better resourcing and support.
“Dementia has really achieved national prominence this decade - we’ve made it a national priority area with new funding and support, we’ve had Ita Buttrose recognised as Australian of the Year for her great work in this area and this award recognises the work of the whole Australian community to bring dementia out of the shadows.”
“Australia is a nation with a proud history of leading the world in medical and health breakthroughs, but also in the way we support people through Medicare and the broader health system.”
“The Government’s aged care reforms build on that tradition with $268 million to improve hospital and community care services for people with dementia, reduce the time between symptoms and diagnosis and provide more help to people with younger onset dementia.”
“Dementia is likely to affect 900,000 Australians by 2050 and I’m proud that Australia is acting now in whole range of areas like research, awareness and better services.”
Mr Butler thanked Alzheimer’s Australia National President Ita Buttrose who made the nomination to Alzheimer’s Disease International, saying the organisation’s work was only matched by Ita’s personal commitment to the issue.
“It’s with the tireless work of great Australians like Ita Buttrose, working with government and the broader community that we have come this far, but there is so much more we need to do.”
Previous winners of the award include former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy (2012).
Key Stats
- There are over 321,600 Australians living with dementia
- This number is expected to increase by one third to 400,000 in less than ten years
- Without a medical breakthrough, the number of people with dementia is expected to be almost 900,000 by 2050
- Each week, there are 1,700 new cases of dementia in Australia; approx. one person every 6 minutes. This is expected to grow to 7,400 new cases each week by 2050
- There are approximately 24,400 people in Australia with Younger Onset Dementia (a diagnosis of dementia under the age of 65; including people as young as 30)
- One in four people over the age of 85 have dementia
- An estimated 1.2 million Australians are caring for someone with dementia
- Dementia is the third leading cause of death in Australia and there is no cure
- On average symptoms of dementia are noticed by families three years before a firm diagnosis is made.
Twitter.com/Mark_Butler_MP
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Media Contact: Tim O’Halloran - 0409 059 617
Report launched on investment for social and economic benefit
On 4 April 2013, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, the Hon Bill Shorten MP launched a report on impact investment in Australia and its potential to achieve positive social, cultural or environmental benefit and some measure of financial return.
Mr Shorten said the report, IMPACT—Australia: Investment for social and economic benefit showed that Australia was well-placed to leverage the global trends.
“Impact investments are demonstrating ways to achieve substantial benefit for society that would not otherwise occur,” Mr Shorten said.
“Australia hasn’t yet seen a concerted focus on developing the field, but this report shows that the foundations for increasing the scale and scope of impact investing are in place,” he said.
“The insights and lessons contained in the report will help us all to meet the challenge of innovation and collaboration to deliver greater social, cultural and environmental benefits than either traditional grant-making or capital markets can achieve.”
“Examples range from small scale investment in community enterprise and local businesses that create jobs and economic health for communities, to large scale delivery of vaccines to children in developing countries.”
Mr Shorten said Australia’s experience mirrored widespread international developments in this fast-emerging field.
“The report highlights both the need and the possibility in Australia to drive more investment into communities to address the issues we care about as a society,” Mr Shorten said.
“It captures the leadership, passion and creativity of ‘first movers’ across a range of sectors and organisations in Australia whose pioneering efforts provide examples others can follow.
“It also underlines the great potential of cross-sector collaboration in harnessing capital markets to address long-standing social issues and create new opportunities.”
IMPACT—Australia: Investment for social and economic benefit was commissioned by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in collaboration with JBWere.
Some success stories of impact investing include:
• The Social Enterprise Development and Investment Funds (SEDIF) extend the impact and reach of social enterprises in their communities. For example, loans from these funds to enterprises could finance the expansion of a disability employment service to provide more quality jobs, provide capital for an Indigenous-run enterprise to operate in their local community and enable an arts cooperative to buy its premises;
• Hepburn Community Wind is Australia’s first cooperatively owned wind farm and has renewable generating capacity for more than 2,000 homes;
• Goodstart Early Learning centres provide quality early learning and care services for over 73,000 children nationwide as a result of an innovative financing structure that combines bank, government and private capital.
Over the next two weeks the report will be discussed at a number of public forums featuring global impact investment pioneer Jed Emerson, who collaborated on the research, and co-author, social innovation strategist, Rosemary Addis.
The report is available at www.deewr.gov.au/impactaustralia
Mr Shorten’s Media Contact: Jessica Lindell 0408 642 804