(Should there be a prize for the best caption for this photo?)
This week our guest speaker was Peter Hughes of Rotary Club of Canberra (the oldest Rotary Club in the ACT - chartered 1928).
Peter told us a bit about his clubs history and mentioned a few of the projects that they are involved with. His particular focus was around homelessness in the Canberra and in particular the success of 'Our Place' a successful community supported program comprising of an integrated range of services such as education and accommodation specially tailored to help young people break the cycle of homelessness.
In 2008 the ACT Government and the Rotary Club of Canberra met to discuss concerns for the growing numbers of homeless people in Canberra. They canvassed the idea of developing an ACT Community supported holistic program, focused on breaking the cycle of no home, no education and no job prospects. This was for a cohort of young people prepared to commit to actively participate in a program to realise their potential and move forward to being independent and successful in life.
The ACT Government advised the Rotary Club that its draft for a proposed program, was similar to the existing proven successful UK Foyer Model programs which the Government had been researching. In turn the Rotary Club investigated Foyer and funded a visit to Canberra from the UK, of the two leaders of the Foyer Federation. Whilst in Canberra they meet with the Australian Government Minister for Homelessness, the ACT Government and the Rotary Club.
Following further collaboration with the Rotary Club, the ACT Government with funding under the National Partnerships Agreement from the Australian Government, decided to allocate a portion of a proposed new public housing development in Braddon to a Foyer like Program. Initially known as the Youth Integrated Education and Accommodation Program this was then put out to tender. The contract to operate the program was won by the partnership of Barnardos and Anglicare ACT.
The Program commenced in June 2011 and with input from the first group of young people the name of the program changed to “Our Place – live, learn, achieve’.
A Governance Committee comprising representatives of the ACT Government, the Rotary Club of Canberra and Barnardos and Anglicare guided the program through the establishment phase.
In May 2014 the Our Place Advisory Group was formed with representatives from Barnardos, Anglicare and the Rotary Club of Canberra, with responsibilities including “Raising the profile of Our Place and promoting the successes to all stakeholders including the wider ACT Community”.
