Annual Report 2012 - Lifeline Darling Downs

Lifeline Darling Downs & South West Queensland Ltd 2012 Annual Report
COO Human Services Report
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by Paul Jensen, COO Human Services
In this AGM report I will reflect on what has been achieved in the 2011-2012 year and
forecast some future directions for 2012-2013.
Eight key achievements are salient as I reflect on 2011-2012.
Firstly, last year, there were the flooding disasters that occurred particularly in South West
Queensland over the January period. Unlike 2010-2011 this year some of our staff were
more directly affected by the impact of floods. Again I want to acknowledge the response of
agency staff, their resilience in the midst of collective trauma and their ongoing commitment
to the work of the agency. It is truly inspiring to witness their example and to work with such
individuals.
Second were some of the services that we've operationalised in 2011-2012. Our
Queensland Gas Company funded service consists of three Counsellor positions - one with
a focus on men's issues, one with a focus on men's counselling and one with a focus on
general family counselling. The challenge that we have had in delivering this service is
maintaining the delicate balance between offering therapy and respectful advocacy. This
program is funded by QGC yet some of our clients claim to be adversely affected by the
impact of coal seam gas mining in that region. We've managed the tension by balancing the
competing interests of our clients and funding bodies respectfully and transparently.
The Natural Disaster Recovery Coordinator program represents a collaborative partnership
with the Toowoomba Regional Council and operates out of Council offices. The role of the
Coordinator is to develop a database of volunteers who are able to be activated in the
advent and wake of a natural disaster and provide voluntary support for a range of activities
that are experienced in the wake of a natural disaster. The flood enquiry report into the
2010/2011 natural disasters highlighted particular vulnerable people groups, namely the
Community Culturally Linguistically Diverse Community and the community of peoples with a
Disability. These folk were particularly affected in the wake of natural disasters. Volunteers
recruited through this program will also have a focus on responding to those two particular
communities in the wake of a natural disaster.
Finally after securing Natural Disaster Resilience and Recovery funding via the Federal
for the South West, in St George, Charleville and Mitchell with outreach to Roma. They are
serviced, mentored and supervised by an experienced and qualified Financial Counsellor in
that region.
We have had other smaller funding initiatives around fixed term project work in the
2011/2012 financial year which have been very exciting and reflected in other Managers
reports.
The third was the ongoing embedding and restructure of the Human Services Division. One
of the key ways to embed change is to develop further clarity about the new roles we
recreated in the 2011 restructure in which the Manager and the Senior Practitioner roles
replaced the former Team Leader roles. One strategy for creating greater clarity between
those roles was the creation of Position Profiles. A Position Profile is made up of a Position
Description, the Key Result Areas for that particular Position Description and Performance
Development Plan - how we develop the performance in the Key Result Areas for each staff
member. Currently all staff within the Human Services Division now have a Position Profile
and that is aided in providing greater clarity for the roles of Senior Practitioners, Managers
and for staff themselves. An illustration that our 2011 restructure is working well was
positive feedback and input at our one year anniversary Professional Development training
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