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Forum Flash
 

18 December 2008

Best Wishes for the Christmas and New Year Holidays

Many thanks to everyone who has been reading the Forum Flash during 2008. For our work to be effective we need you to stay engaged with what we are trying to do and we appreciate that you have taken the trouble to do that by reading the eFlash. We hope the work that we have done during 2008 has been helpful to you in your work and for the people and communities that you work for. We encourage you to give us feedback on any of the work we have done. On behalf of all the Board and staff at WSCF, I hope that you have a wonderful and relaxing Christmas and New Year holiday break and that you get some time with the people who are closest to you.

Regards,

Mary Waterford, Executive Officer

WSCF Highlights for 2008

Here are some of the things we have done in 2008 of which we are most proud: (To find out more about the individual projects please see our home page: click here)

Publications, Directories and Calendars

  • quarterly “Groupwork Calendars” which help services refer families with children under 8yrs to activities.
  • the Making Great Interagencies book was updated, reprinted, distributed and is also available on line
  • we started the “HACC Forum Flash” which is distributed on paper and is available on the website which updates people on all HACC matters for Western Sydney
  • we published the “Think Local” booklet, advocating the strengths of small, locally-based organisations
  • we published a broad Public Transport Position Paper to help people understand the public transport issues for Western Sydney and what position WSCF has on the issues
  • we produced the Connecting With Buses discussion paper which is a broad-ranging issues paper about bus-based public transport in Western Sydney and this paper will form the basis to our final Position Paper which will help guide our public transport work
  • we submitted to several inquiries including the IPART inquiries into CityRail and Bus fares, the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Transport Needs of North Western Sydney and wrote several media releases including about the changes to the School Travel Subsidy Scheme. We submitted to the Charities Review,

Web and Email Resources

  • Most information about WSCF can be found through our website now and we rearranged the site this year to make it easier for people to find what they need.
  • we gathered the HACC calendars and made them available to everyone via our website
  • we started the new “Newswire” for people looking for information about services for families with children. This is published regularly, is a very comprehensive directory and has a huge subscriber list of over 1400.
  • we changed the Forum Flash from a paper-based publication to an email and web-based publication to let people know what is happening at WSCF (as you would know if you are reading this)
  • we started the new www.wsptu.blogspot.com website to connect with public transport users and keep them up to date on transport issues
  • we produced a number of videos about the CSGP Review and the Wood Special Inquiry into Child Protection. We posted them to Youtube to make them available to everyone in the sector

Training

  • we published our regular Training Calendar which is developed each year according to the needs of the sector
  • we have developed a partnership with Family Worker Training to provide RBA mentoring and training projects
  • we started the Diploma of Community Service Management in partnership with Harris Bromley and have our first group of students progressing through the course including several students on specially created Aboriginal scholarships

Forums and Events

  • our training room was used by over 2,000 people this year at over 100 events and seminars and is available for bookings in 2009
  • we ran several “Service Practice” forums on up-to-date topics of interest for Child and Family service providers
  • we created the Connecting With Buses forum which is designed to provide a place for people involved with public transport provision in Western Sydney to discuss industry innovation and trouble shoot problems
  • we continued to support one of our most long-standing advocacy groups, the Liverpool Transport Taskforce which has now been working for more than 10 years
  • we have continued to support several local HACC Forums, especially the ones which have experienced difficulties
  • we have facilitated the quarterly Regional HACC Forum with the Northside Forum we created the Community Care CEOs Forum
  • we restructured and continued to facilitate the Western Sydney Food Forum
  • we ran regional Forums to explore “Social Inclusion”, “Working With Aboriginal Communities”, and “Affordable Housing” as issues for services in Western Sydney
  • we ran a breakfast to support the “Closing The Gap” campaign
  • we participated as one of the key peak bodies on the CSGP Review Roundtable

Relationships - In 2008 we focused on developing key relationships

  • we have developed, in consultation with local Aboriginal people, an internal WSCF Aboriginal strategy which is designed to improve our connection to and usefulness for Aboriginal people and communities in Western Sydney
  • we have tried to make sure that we try to link the different regions is Western Sydney, particularly the West and the South-West
  • we made a conscious effort to improve our connections with several key Government departments, including DADHC, DoCs and MoT
  • we worked on building relationships with Child and Family service providers in the Blacktown and Auburn areas
  • we have provided some management support for vulnerable Neighbour Aid projects
  • we have developed a project plan for a Western Sydney Public Transport Users Association which we hope to progress in 2009

Internal organisational successes

  • our new WSCF Strategic Plan has started to operate and has successfully started to effect the direction of the forum
  • we successfully restructured the internal management and have created new staff supervision and project coordination processes
  • we successfully negotiated the HACC IMF process
  • we had as a well attended and successful AGM, in cooperation with WESTIR, and have some new Board members
  • we have successfully recruited for staff positions and have new staff settled into their positions

WSCF Closing Dates

WSCF will be closed between December 22, 2008 and January 5, 2009.

Reserve the Dates

Training

EFFECTIVE ORIENTATION, TRAINING AND MANAGEMENT OF VOLUNTEERS

Facilitator: School of Volunteer Management

Please put this in your diary before the New Year break!!

Cumberland/Prospect 17th February 2009  9:30 am – 4:30 pm

Western Sydney Community Forum Level 4, 146 Marsden St, Parramatta

The competency and commitment of volunteers will play a crucial role in meeting today’s legislative requirements as well as quality assurance and continuous improvements requirements for not for profits. Orientation of volunteers will give volunteers the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will allow them to work productively towards the goals of your organisation. A volunteer who is well trained and managed, and therefore competent in their role, will have more reasons to continue volunteering. Orientation can also be the first step in which future needs for volunteers can be determined.

This training session will look at:

  • Getting Ready to Receive Volunteers – The Workplace
  • Position description
  • National Standards
  • Right and Responsibilities of volunteers and the organisation
  • Orientation
  • Clients Relations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Effective Training of Volunteers
  • Managing and Leading Volunteers – Effective and Simple Styles of Management
  • Preparing and establishing cooperative working relationships between paid staff and volunteers

Click here for Registration

Forum: After The Apology – one year on … Thursday February19th 9.30 – 1.00pm at WSCF more details to come

Many thanks to everyone who has been reading the Forum Flash during 2008. 

Joke Spot

Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.

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For a full WSCF staff list with contacts, click here.

Western Sydney Community Forum
t 02 9687 9669 | f 02 9687 8665 |e wscf@wscf.org.au  | w www.wscf.org.au

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