St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria Inc. Newsletter 266 | September-October 2013A

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Compeer - 10 years of fr iendshipOn Monday 23 September a large group of friends and supporters of the Compeer program came together to celebrate 10 years of providing intentional friendships for people living with the effects of mental illness in the eastern region of Melbourne and in Bendigo. The program supports the friendships that are created between a volunteer and a companion with the added support of the mental health worker involved with the companion’s care.At the celebration, volunteer Margaret spoke of the way she and her companion developed the realis-ation that they share quite a few interests: theatre, film and music. They have such fun exploring those interests together; from attending performances at the local theatre to listening to their favourite songs, each with very different musical tastes. Companion Mark spoke of the many topics they explored together as well as the way trust grew over the three years they have been catching up. Mark impressed on the guests that it is the trust and sharing that is the outstanding element of the relationship that he values. Kate, a worker from Mental Illness Fellowship, spoke of the commitment to recovery that is shared by Compeer and her service, that enables the two to work so well together. Compeer provides support to the volunteer and the mental health service supports the companion. The guests at the celebration also heard from our CEO Cam Battaglia about the important work done by Society members in their conferences and the difference they make to their local community. The keynote speaker was St Vincent de Paul Society National Council CEO, Dr John Falzon, who linked humility and personal action to benefits given and received by all involved in the Compeer program.Compeer is fortunate to recruit volunteers who selflessly give their time and personal interest to their companion. Volunteers come to this program for many reasons but we often hear from them about the personal benefits they gain from their friendship.The companions have responded to the offer of friendship and given of themselves to relationships that may have challenged them. Many have found acceptance and renewed trust with others. They have also gained access to their local community that they may have previously found inaccessible or daunting. The Compeer program is in need of volunteers in the east of Melbourne and Bendigo. To find out more contact compeer@svdp-vic.org.au or phone 03 9895 5886.

The St Vincent de Paul Society’s 2012-2013 Annual and Financial Reports are now available. We hope you are pleased with the reports and, once you have read it, we recommend you share copies with others.Conference copies will be sent shortly or you can access the reports online at vinnies.org.au and ourhandsatwork.org.auIf you require more copies please contact 03 9895 5800.

State President ’s message Dear Vincentians, volunteers & staff

State Council has engaged KPMG to assist it to better identify how to meet the needs of the people we assist.

The aim of the project is to:

• Identify the most appropriate response from the Society to meet the needs of adults and children experiencing disadvantage, considering emerging issues around the changing nature of poverty and

• Identify the resources (including human and financial), capacity and infrastructure that are required to deliver this response.

At present we have completed the current state analysis and are moving into the opportunity identification phase to be followed by the strategic option development phase. As the project progresses we will keep everyone informed.

I encourage all members to sign up to the ‘extranet’, a dedicated online resource for members where you will find a wealth of information regarding the Society in Victoria as well as a lot of resources to help you in your conference work.

Just go to www.ourhandsatwork.org.au and sign up. This is the members site, please use it. If you have any feedback or suggestions for improvements please let us know.

Our next staff/volunteer mass takes place on Friday 29 November and Fr Jude D’Rozario, Donvale Parish Priest will be the celebrant. Mass is held in the chapel at head office in Box Hill from 12-12.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Our next Social Justice in the City (SJIC) will be held on Wednesday 27 November and the guest speaker is Dr Cassandra Goldie, CEO, Australian Council of Social Services.

SJIC presentations run from February to November and are held on the last Wednesday of the month, from 12-1pm, at St Francis Pastoral Centre, corner Lonsdale and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne. Please join us for our SJIC presentation and complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits. Feel free to bring along your friends and colleagues; everyone is most welcome.

With best wishes

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Tony TomeState President

Prayers are requested for...Deceased members, volunteers, family and friendsFrank Ashton Ex-member, Balwyn North ConferenceJohn Bolte Associate member, Golden Square/Kangaroo Flat ConferenceGarry Bowden Ex-member, Wendouree ConferenceRobert (Bob) Connolly Ex-member, Geelong East ConferenceLindy Dorton Associate member, Rowville ConferenceJo-Ann Fletcher Member, Moreland ConferenceBill Flynn Ex-member, Wendouree ConferenceCharles (Dick) Hames Member, Mansfield Conference and Wangaratta Regional PresidentTony Hennessy Member, Clayton South ConferencePat Higgins Mother of Kathleen Morrison, Oak Park ConferenceMichael Hoy Ex-volunteer, Ozanam HouseNoel Hussey Ex-member, Pascoe Vale ConferenceFr Frank Monaghan Member, Red Cliffs ConferenceKlara Morys Associate member, Fitzroy Mobile ConferenceClem Naughton Ex-member, Upper Yarra ConferenceJohn (Jack) Oman Associate member, Echuca ConferenceMaureen Parker Wife of Noel and member, Ballarat Conference Mavis Pomroy Volunteer, Vinnies YarrawongaErnest Trenton Member, Doncaster East ConferenceJoe Vella Ex-member, Mitcham ConferenceJohn Walker Ex-member, Burwood Conference

To ensure correct acknowledgement please forward any requests for prayers to Philip Mackey by phone on 03 9895 5837 or email philipm@svdp-vic.org.au.

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Vinnies Youth• Op Shop Ball •

Catherine Watson | Membership & Development Officer - Youth

The annual Vinnies Youth ball was again a big success in 2013!

After visiting the polling booths on Saturday 7 September, 230 young adult members and their friends, dressed up in their finest from Vinnies shops (the theme for this year’s ball was ‘op shop glamour) and headed to Aurora Receptions in East Brunswick.

Aside from being a fantastic social occasion, each year the evening raises money for a special work of the Society. This year, all money raised is going to the Dandenong Homework Tutoring Program. Michelle Pereira, program coordinator, and some of the tutors came along on the night. They were able to speak about the valuable work of the program which was just wonderful.

The night never fails to get everyone up on the dance floor but other highlights included the big raffle and ‘fashions on the field’ where attendees could show off their best Vinnies shop outfits. Most appropriately, the prizes for best dressed, worst dressed and most

creative outfit were Vinnies shop gift vouchers! Our thanks to Vinnies shops for those prizes.

The total amount raised on the night was just over $3500. Well done and thank you to the State Youth Team for their work in organising this event.

Mini VinniesAssist A Student

At a recent meeting of Springvale North Conference, two Mini Vinnies members from St John Vianney’s (SJV) Primary School presented Rohan Smith, Membership and Development Officer, with a cheque for $500 towards the Society’s Assist A Student program.Funds were raised at a mini fair at SJV School, organised by the 30 Mini Vinnies under the strong and dedicated leadership of Liam Doherty, Religious Education Coordinator at the school.The Mini Vinnies meet on Fridays at lunch time, which is their offering to Jesus. Over four weeks after a St Vincent de Paul Society prayer and a short reflection, the Mini Vinnies conceived the idea of the mini fair, planned, orchestrated and finally delivered the project on Friday 16 August.Principal Simon Fitzpatrick allowed classes to be released in turn to enjoy some free time and the products of the 10 stalls such as face painting, a popcorn machine, shoot the target, knock off the cans etc.Amazing and heart-warming, the whole school was abuzz - students, teachers and principal alike.Just to see the satisfaction and expression of happiness on the faces of Mr Fitzpatrick, Mr Doherty and the other teachers made me feel that Jesus was running from stall to stall and having a fantastic time. Indeed the spirit is very much alive at SJV.

Serge Florent Springvale North Conference

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Youth RetreatSam Tyrer | Burwood Bennettswood Young Vinnies

A group of Young Vincentians recently gathered at St Francis Xavier Parish in Frankston for a one-day retreat. During the day there was time for quiet personal reflection in the church, the nearby park or even by the Frankston waterfront. The retreat was led by a former Young Vincentian, Fr Nicholas Pearce and so had a truly Vincentian focus. Two short reflections/talks were given. In the morning talk, Fr Pearce unpacked the virtues essential for carrying out work as volunteers and also for growing in the spiritual life: simplicity, humility, gentleness, selflessness and zeal (all detailed in The Rule!). At lunch, participants came together and broke silence for a short time before returning to the general reflective atmosphere of the day. The retreat culminated with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and a Mass. One participant commented that “Coming away for even just a day to sit still and reflect can be a real challenge. But being with a group of people makes it easier to enter into the silence”. The St Vincent de Paul Society, through this retreat, has once again challenged its members: to reach out to others, but here also to grow in faith.

Celebrating Feast DaysLivia Carusi | Mission Integration Officer

On Wednesday 25 September, 70 members, staff and volunteers gathered to celebrate the feast days of our Founder, Blessed Frederic Ozanam and our Patron Saint, Vincent de Paul.

Our State President, Tony Tome officially welcomed everybody and reflected on how the Society has marked and celebrated the bicentenary anniversary of our founder in 2013 and in doing so gave thanks to members, volunteers and staff for their service, work and overall contribution to the Society.

He then acknowledged members, conferences and councils that have also celebrated a significant anniversary in 2013.

Tony’s welcome was followed by a passionate and insightful presentation by Peter Chiang, Regional Council President, Geelong. Peter shared his experience and insights into the Geelong region, with a particular focus on the good works, achievements and challenges as well as some of the actions and new initiatives being taken in this region. If you would like a copy of Peter’s presentation, please contact me livia.carusi@svdp-vic.org.au or 0448 719 177.

The celebration then took an unexpected surprise which bought much joy to all present.

Frank Gill, Moorabbin Conference President, alongside other members from Moorabbin, honored the Society by giving Tony Tome two St Vincent de Paul mosaics for safe keeping and for display for all to enjoy. Heartfelt thanks to Frank and all the members of the Conference for such generosity!

The event concluded with the celebration of mass with Father Brendan Lane.

A terrific day was had by all and in the words of one member, “there was a real sense of community and celebration”.

In 2014, our wonderful Society will mark 160 years since we first opened our doors and hearts to the people of Victoria, with the first Conference being established by Father Gerald Ward, at St Francis Church, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

Our Feast Day celebrations in March and September 2014 will centre on honouring our place within the Victorian community and I look forward to welcoming you at these events.

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Conferences and Councils125 years of service East St Kilda Conference100 years of service Ballarat East Conference, Bendigo Regional Council and Brunswick Conference90 years of service Thornbury Conference80 years of service North Western Central Council, Creswick Conference, Castlemaine and Newport Conferences70 years of service Beaumaris/Black Rock Conference60 years of service Heidelberg West Conference, Highett Conference, Manifold Heights Conference and Norlane Conference50 years of service Camberwell East Conference, Reservoir East Conference, Berwick Conference, Deer Park Conference, Wangaratta South Conference and Murrumbeena Conference

50 year honour board members

Brian McCarthy - Mentone Conference Ron Ferrari - Kew ConferenceRon Smith - Ringwood North ConferenceBryan O’Keeffe - Warranambool East Conference

Vinnies Ringwood promoting a new look shop

The marketing & fundraising department was called upon to help support the significant renovation of the Ringwood Vinnies store in August/September with promotion to drive traffic to the shop and sales.

Given that nine million Australians use Facebook every day, we decided to make an investment in Facebook advertising for the campaign. We have not done this before and made some interesting discoveries and have learnt much to inform future campaigns. Our first ‘sponsored post’ was seen by almost 22,000 people in Ringwood and surrounding suburbs and cost $85 to run; a very cost-effective and targeted promotion.

It also provided an opportunity for another first for us, known as ‘blogger outreach’. Increasingly people are searching for content related to their interests online over and above traditional media outlets. There has been a huge surge in the number of people running their own websites, known as blogs, to cater to this interest. For this campaign, we went to a range of fashion bloggers as well as a prominent interior design blogger to ask them to do a story on the newly renovated Ringwood Vinnies and we had some great success in this area. One blogger wrote “This branch of Vinnies is so huge you can easily while away an hour or more. There’s a curated vintage section, but plenty of gems on the regular racks make a thorough rummage rewarding.”

Also in the digital space, we fired up our Instagram account and also used our Twitter account (both @VinniesVictoria) to further support the campaign by sharing product photos and links to blogger and other relevant online content.

We also ran a traditional media campaign with advertising and editorial in the local Leader newspaper. We’re looking forward to taking away the learnings from this campaign and using them to inform further campaigns both with Vinnies shops and other St Vincent de Paul Society programs.

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This Christmas we are asking:

What’s your reason for giving back?

Our annual Christmas appeal will be launched in November including television and radio advertising as well as a significant online element this year. The campaign states that ‘there are hundreds of reasons to donate, you only need one’, highlighting the many varied motivators behind people’s reasons for giving back.

St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria CEO Cam Battaglia says there are many reasons for giving back but that the crucial thing is that Australians continue to show their willingness to lend a hand to those who are struggling.

For the October to December quarter in 2012, reflecting the support provided for Christmas, the St Vincent de Paul Society provided $3.1 million worth of assistance to people in need in Victoria.Photo: Porter Novelli

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Calendar DatesChristmas Appeal 8 November 2013 - 28 February 2014

Thanksgiving Mass Tuesday 12 November 2013, 7pm St Francis’ Church, Cnr Elizabeth & Lonsdale Streets, Melbourne

Social Justice in the City Wednesday 27 November 2013, 12-1pm Guest speaker: Dr Cassandra Goldie, CEO of the Australian Council of Social Services

Office Closure | Festive Season Wednesday 25 December 2013 - Wednesday 1 January 2014 Reopening: Thursday 2 January

2014 Ozanam Lecture Sunday 23 February 2014, 2.00pm Australian Catholic University, Central Hall, 20 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

2014 Vinnies CEO Sleepout SAVE THE DATE: Thursday 19 June 2014

Contributions to Societynews are always welcome. Email: stephanie.puls@svdp-vic.org.au or send to:The Editor - Societynews St Vincent de Paul Society Locked Bag 4800 Box Hill Vic 3128Phone: 03 9895 5800 Fax: 03 9895 5850We endeavour to include as many items as possible in each issue.

Hands@workA reminder to members that the new Hands@work website (also known as an extranet as it is not a public website, rather a site specifically for members requiring a sign-in process) is now up and running. Designed to be simple to use, the site has been developed especially for you as a great source of materials and news. Visit www.ourhandsatwork.org.au if you haven’t already to walk through a simple sign up process.If you require any assistance with this, contact Dianne on 9895 5800 or email dianneb@svdp-vic.org.au

Vincentian StoriesIn 2014, the Society will honour Sandra Walker, Leo Walsh, Bill Eccles, Bill and Eileen Norman and Elizabeth Bond for their commitment and service to the organisation. Details will be provided on the honouring event that will be held at Gerald Ward House in a future edition of Societynews.As part of honoring the members we are encouraging other members who may wish to share a story or two to contact the Mission Integration Officer, Livia Carusi, via 0448 719 188 or via email at livia.carusi@svdp-vic.org.au

Anti-Poverty Week13-19 October 2013Livia Carusi | Mission Integration Officer

Nelson Mandela wrote, “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.”

In Victoria, and right across the country the St Vincent de Paul Society marked Anti-Poverty Week (APW) with a range of events, including the launch of the National Council’s report titled ‘Two Australias: a report on poverty in the land of plenty’.

Here in Victoria, close to 275 people participated in events organized centrally and many more participated in local and regional events held. The events held included a ‘donate a can’ morning tea for employees at Gerald Ward House with the food collected given to the Collingwood food shop to assist local families in need.

The St Vincent de Paul Society’s National CEO, Dr John Falzon, generously gave his time to deliver two addresses in Bendigo and Box Hill titled ‘Voices of the Unheard’. As always John gave an inspiring address, leaving us with much food for thought.

On the Thursday, the Society co-hosted the ‘Australia’s Human Rights Future’ conference with a group of other non-government organisations.

Drawing on the experience and leadership of key social commentators from around the country, including Professor David Hayward (RMIT University), Jacqui Phillips (Australian Council of Social Services) and Caz Coleman (Asylum seeker and refugee advocate) the participants were afforded the opportunity to consider the issue of poverty within a human rights context and how each of us have an important role to play to advocate for effective change.

The week concluded with a discussion on poverty and mental illness hosted by our Compeer program and the celebration of mass with Father Bruce Duncan, who reminded us all of Blessed Frederic Ozanam’s call to help the poor and eradicate poverty.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank members, volunteers and staff for participating in this week, for raising awareness on the issue of poverty, for advocating for change, but most importantly for serving those in need with respect, dignity and with friendship.