Leader reflections
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Report from Chair of the Board
Chair of the Board
Over the past year Australia has continued to face considerable change, but with change comes opportunity. Opportunity to reconnect and reimagine Australia as a country where everybody can thrive. BSL is prepared to seize this opportunity.
Since 1930, the Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL) has been committed to the vision of an Australia free of poverty. While our focus on this vision has been unwavering, the past few years have brought incredible change that this country has never known before.
Although the immediate threat of COVID-19 has started to subside; its aftereffects are still being felt across Australia. Through this period, BSL has continued to help those experiencing poverty and disadvantage and the members of our team have tapped into their deep reserves of resilience in order to continue to deliver on our mission. This has been true in all our services, stores, offices, and in our Social Policy and Research Centre.
Our Aged Care facility in Clifton Hill has protected over 100 elderly residents from several COVID outbreaks. In the face of this, the team quickly responded to implement thorough infection prevention and control measures as well as careful site management to ensure this vulnerable community stays well protected.
The pandemic also accelerated the rise of national youth unemployment as well as persistently high underemployment. Again, we have responded to this change. We have partnered with employers, young people, training providers and community networks to co-design and deliver innovative, place-based training and employment models that are fit for purpose, and we are doing this in locations right across Australia. These partnerships will serve Australia well as we strive for full employment in the post-COVID-19 economy.
Our BSL stores are another example of where our people have triumphed over the challenges of the pandemic. Closing our stores during the pandemic was incredibly tough, especially as we know how they play a vital role within the community, offering a place to connect as well as an affordable shopping experience. However, they have turned this around and our stores are once again thriving, receiving more customers than initially forecasted.
These are but some of the many stories of change you will find in this Annual Report. Through these stories of change, you will see not only how BSL has been responding but also preparing. We believe that by working together with our staff, volunteers, donors, and supporters we can reimagine Australia and strive for lasting change.
BSL’s new Executive Director, Travers McLeod, is leading the charge now, he started in the role on 26 April. The members of the Board join me in offering our sincere thanks to Acting Executive Director Dr Lucia Boxelaar for her exemplary leadership of the organisation before Travers’ appointment – and for her continued leadership at BSL as our Deputy Executive Director.
Travers ‘hit the ground running' and has made a notable contribution already in the short time since joining BSL. He has quickly become familiar with our organisation, frequently attending our different sites, speaking with purpose at BSL’s monthly Town Halls and bringing together our staff and volunteers to reconnect after being separated for so long.
Travers has also been active as a strong public voice for BSL. He has represented BSL to government, business and community leaders. He has raised key issues in major forums, speeches, in the media, and in briefings to senior decision-makers. Travers is looking to build stronger connections and partnerships across the community, including with the new Federal Parliament and the Albanese Government.
Just as Father Gerard Tucker did when he brought together the Brotherhood of St. Laurence at a time of great need, BSL, under Travers McLeod’s leadership, is looking now to reimagine Australia. We know that starts with reconnecting as one organisation and with the communities we serve so that we can advance a vision for lasting change and an Australia free of poverty.
Stephen Newton AO
Chair of the Board
Report from Executive Director
Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St. Laurence
As we emerge from the pandemic, BSL is relishing the chance to reconnect as one organisation and reimagine a future all Australians can flourish in.
I am pleased to introduce BSL’s Annual Report. Here you can learn more about our organisation’s work from July 2021 to June 2022.
The past year has been a transformational time for BSL and for Australia. We witnessed ongoing challenges through the COVID-19 pandemic and welcomed a new Prime Minister and Federal Government.
For much of this period, I was appreciating BSL’s efforts from afar. I am full of admiration for the work done by our staff and volunteers as the pandemic turned our way of life upside down and put enormous strain on the essential services BSL delivers.
Since I began as Executive Director in late April 2022, I have been speaking with and listening to our workforce, participants, partners and community members across our services and within our policy and research team. I have learnt much more about our 2500 staff and volunteers who focus on key transition points across the life course, transitions that can build capability and confidence or deepen disadvantage.
I continue to be amazed by the stories of impact and the selfless dedication our people show to make a difference for Australians experiencing poverty and disadvantage. As we face a time of huge change, these stories are reassuring to hear. They confirm my belief in our ability to make an even bigger difference for those we serve in the years to come.
In the Annual Report, you will read about:
- The extension of our Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY) for five years. This will allow for critical access to high-quality early childhood education in 100 sites around Australia and enable earlier support for children aged three years.
- Our innovative approach, supported by the Paul Ramsay Foundation, is to build pathways for young people to participate in the economy. Through the National Youth Employment Body . BSL is leading the re-design of education and training alongside national industry leaders, local employers, training providers and young people.
- Our successful First Jobs program for secondary and post-secondary students in lockdown-affected public housing estates is helping students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to find their first jobs and gain vital experience.
- The incredible recovery of our stores and social enterprises after being severely impacted by successive COVID lockdowns, along with the continued popularity of Brotherhood Books, our online, second-hand bookshop.
- How we are supporting low-income and vulnerable households to reduce energy bills through the Power Saving Bonus initiative.
Of course, there is much more to do. The pandemic revealed how Australia has underinvested in the infrastructure needed to care for, educate and empower everyone in our society. We have looked past key opportunities and policies to prevent and alleviate poverty.
For BSL, it is significant to have a Prime Minister who has experienced poverty - raised by a single parent in public housing - and who finished his election night speech very powerfully by explaining he wanted nobody left behind.
Our challenge – and opportunity – is to accelerate this agenda so there can be a permanent reduction in the number of Australians experiencing poverty and disadvantage.
I don't think there's another organisation in Australia that better connects services — and a commitment to innovating in services for those Australians and communities experiencing poverty and disadvantage — and then aggregates that experience into better research, policy and advocacy on how those services and systems can be improved to benefit all Australians. It’s a rare combination, one done in service of a very clear vision of an Australia free of poverty.
We will need all this capability in the coming decade, one I believe will make or break Australia. There are sliding moments ahead in our pandemic recovery, approach to decarbonisation, how we reorganise and improve human services, nurture the NDIS, invest more in children, make work more secure, and embed the Uluru Statement from the Heart within our Constitution.
I have always thought of BSL as a centre of gravity for change — a place with a huge heart, an enormous legacy and a rare ability to shine a light on a different pathway for our country. Now a few months in, I am convinced Australia cannot flourish over the next decade unless BSL and the communities and people we serve can as well. The forthcoming Employment White Paper, NDIS Review, Early Years Strategy and implementation of the Aged Care Royal Commission findings are golden opportunities for BSL to reimagine the future and put it in place.
I want to thank Dr Lucia Boxelaar for her brilliant stewardship of BSL as Acting Executive Director and Stephen Newton AO for his exemplary leadership of our Board. Most importantly, to our donors, staff, volunteers, Charter & Life Members, and all the people who love BSL - its story, ambition and heart – thank you. BSL’s work would not be possible without you, and I look forward to working with you as we embark on BSL’s next chapter.
Travers McLeod
Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St. Laurence