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> Annual Report 2001 - 2002

Annual Report 2002 - 2003

President's Report 2002 - 2003

I have always known that the work undertaken by Outcare changes lives but I forget some times how difficult it is for these changes to occur. This difficulty was driven home to me earlier this year when Outcare attempted to purchase a building in Victoria Park. As you know from previous annual reports we have been searching for several years to find just the right place and this building meet all our requirements. Purchasing the building was subject to obtaining approval from the Victoria Park council to have the building zoned for "office" rather than "business" use. What unfolded following the application being made to council was quite unbelievable.

Apart from an administrative blunder made by the council resulting in the original decision to approve the application being rescinded there was a small but vocal group in the community that actively campaigned against Outcare bringing "those types" of people into Victoria Park. It was a campaign based around people’s fear of crime. Unfortunately when the approval request was tabled at the next council meeting it was defeated. In telling some very close friends of mine of this outcome a couple of them responded with "I know that Outcare does some really good work and I applaud your efforts, but I wouldn’t want you to set up shop in my neighborhood either".

We have a long way to go in educating the community on the role that it can and should play in reducing crime. A positive step has being taken by government to help address this issue through the introduction of the Re-entry program, which is focused on taking a holistic approach to assisting offenders and ex-offenders to become an integral part of the community. Outcare looks forward to working with government, the business sector, other community agencies and the wider community in making this program work.

There is always more to do but lets not forget to take the time to acknowledge and appreciate what we have achieved this year. I encourage you to take time to read this report, as it will provide a small insight into some of the excellent work that has been undertaken by staff over the past 12 months. These achievements would not be possible without the continued efforts and commitment of staff, volunteers, Board members and Trustees.

Peter Henson
President

Executive Director’s Report 2002 - 2003

The past year has brought about some significant changes in the organisation's service delivery. The New Directions program emerged out of the previous State Employment Assistance Strategy (SEAS) and this unfortunately also meant a 30% reduction in funding and an increase in the scope of work expected from the new program. Significantly the New Directions focus on employability and training removes Outcare’s capacity to do employment placement, which is a real loss to our client base as they do not get a good service from the Job Network employment placement process.

We have long held that specialist areas and groups such as mature aged, culturally and linguistically diverse, offenders and so on need specialised support which the Federal employment system does not adequately provide.

Earlier on in the year we looked at the new national Employment Services Contract process and decided it was not worth submitting again as the chances of trying to get specialist services such as ourselves funded in the current environment were minimal.

The recent restructure of ATSIC into Regional Councils and ATSIS saw a realignment of regional priorities and the staged withdrawal of their law and order funding to Outcare. This project had been partially funded by the Noongar Regional Council for over 15 years. While we are sorry to see the funding go, we are thankful that the Regional Council’s support of the Aboriginal Intensive Transition Program has extended for that long. ATSIC took it on because no one else would, and it was servicing a great need because Aboriginal people make up such a large proportion of the prison population in Western Australia.

On a more positive note, Outcare’s Addiction Services has recently been refunded for another three years until 2006.

The Family Support Services, Accommodation services, post release services, emergency relief and other programs continue to be provided.

In the last year we have also taken on some new projects:

• Aboriginal Employment & Assistance Service: This is a pilot intensive transition service which works exclusively with Aboriginal offenders pre and post release in the area of employment placement. Its aim is to place 20 Aboriginal staff into employment or training in a 12-month period.
  
  
• Blood Borne Virus Project: This is a pilot project dealing with blood borne virus issues with families of offenders and ex-offenders. It entails working with families and offenders to reduce health risks from blood borne viruses in that group.
  
  
• Employment traineeship transition project. This is a project in partnership with the Department of Training and the Department of Justice which will work with offenders in traineeships in the Justice system. It will link and support these trainees to continue their traineeships in the community upon release.
  
  
• First Click: This was a computing based project done in partnership with Internet Community Hour which took training into the prisons around the state and targeted women who had little or no exposure to computers and taught them computing basics.
  
• Santa’s Workshop: This was the volunteer service attached to Curtin Radio and over the last 5 years Outcare was a beneficiary at Christmas time. Toys and presents were made available to offenders and their families. Outcare has been asked to help this group and subsequently we have raised the funds to build a workshop for them on land at Sevenoaks College in Cannington, from where they will operate.

Many of you will be aware that the organisation has been given access to funds to purchase its own offices and this process took some time from, and took a toll on the organisation in this year. Our attempts to relocate to a site in Victoria Park met with some stiff resistance from some local councillors who went out of their way to mount up a scare campaign with the local residents. They also got us caught up in the Nyandi Women’s Prison debate and in issues relating to the local elections. Against the odds, we managed to get approval through council the first time around but the decision was rescinded after council staff made errors in the process. We did mount an appeal which however ceased to be relevant as the building was eventually sold to another party. It was sad to see so much misinformation and political self-interest take the place of reasoned decision making. I would like to thank those councillors who did support us against strong pressure. As a result of pursuing the acquisition of this accommodation we were unable to renew our existing lease and when the property in Victoria Park fell through we relocated to an office in Perth near the McIvor Railway Station, which is perfect for our current needs.

The organisation had a planning day in March and the result of this was an agreement to focus on marketing the organisation and developing our staff and this can be pursued more rigorously now that we are relocated.

At the time of writing a request for proposal for expanded prisoner and family re-entry services has been offered for submissions and its outcome is not known. We hope of course that we will be successful in obtaining some of these services, as it is something we have always been working towards as a main objective of the organisation.

We anticipate applying for further First click funding and are also currently looking at trying to secure funding for a service to work with young people and families who get caught up in the Northbridge curfew process.

Each year we have quiet a few donors and supporters who helped in a wide range of areas. This year we would particularly like to thank the Mosman Park Women’s Golf Club for their donation. This covered the cost of constructing a children’s sandpit at Casuarina Family Support Centre.

An organisation will do nothing well unless it has staff who are committed to its work and who do their job well. I would like to thank all staff for their contribution throughout the year. There are some staff who deserve special mention. Marion Leach came back to Outcare in 2000 and for the intervening time was the Manager of the Family Support Services located at the prisons. This year she wanted to reduce her workload and she is now working a few days a week for us at Casuarina Family Support Centre. I want to publicly thank Marion for her expertise and support over the years, it has been a great help to the organisation and myself.

Very early in the year Mrs. Kay Agnew retired after many years with the organisation. Kay was a staunch and loyal supporter of Outcare and its ideals and we have missed her in the last year. We wish her all the best in her retirement.

Kay Donovan left later in the year and then went on a world tour to catch up on the time and rest she needed for herself after putting in countless hours at Outcare, many of them over and above those asked of her. Kay put 120% into everything she did and she contributed greatly to the efficient financial administration of the organisation. We have appreciated that commitment to Outcare and hope her semi retirement is fun and a little less demanding.

I thank all the staff, volunteers and the Board for their efforts and support over a very trying year and look forward to another productive year working alongside you all.

Peter Sirr
Executive Director