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Responding to a summer of disasters Floods throughout much of Queensland, followed by Cyclone Yasi, made this year one of the toughest on record for the state’s community service organisations, their clients and a number of other people who had not previously required support from service organisations. At QCOSS we were relatively lucky. Unlike many of our sector colleagues and thousands of businesses and homes in Queensland, our premises in Brisbane and Townsville escaped major flood damage. Our staff in Toowoomba, Hervey Bay and the Sunshine Coast were more severely affected. Exhausted and muddy, QCOSS staff Tanya Hall, Jody Tunnicliffe, Jill Lang and John Mikelsons after clearing valuable archives from the basement of our Brisbane office. A mother receives support at the Cyclone Yasi evacuation centre in Tully. Photo courtesy Jack Tran, Australian Red Cross. Once we were fully operational again there was an important role for QCOSS to play in the recovery. Immediate responses included establishing regional and government contacts, discussing with the Victorian Council of Social Service what had worked and what hadn’t during their response to the 2009 Victorian Bushfires, and producing four special editions of eNews containing information on government and other support available. We developed a Flood and Disaster Impact Response Plan to map out our role and guide us through the first hectic months of activity. Our first step was to research the impact of the disasters on community sector organisations and people experiencing poverty and inequality. Our staff visited 15 flood-affected regions and interviewed 36 organisations to gather information so that our advocacy for systemic changes to disaster planning, relief and recovery reflected the voices of our members, and the sector generally. Finally there was support to our members and the sector around disaster management planning and relevant knowledge or skill gaps identified through our research. What we learnt through these first few weeks of the year was significant and timecritical. We developed an urgent supplementary submission to the Queensland Government’s budget process. This submission pushed for a re-prioritisation of resources and stressed the importance of long-term recovery plans to address societal as well as physical recovery needs – plans that would create fairer, more cohesive and resilient communities. Based on the Victorian Bushfire Case Management Service model we called for early intervention workers to support families and households. We called for community development workers for areas hardest hit. We called for a reduction of red tape to give community services organisations the flexibility they needed for their vital contribution to recovery. And we called for ongoing and additional funding to extend existing financial counselling services and provide additional services for the expected two years’ duration of the disaster recovery. 6 Annual Report 2010-11
This St Vincent de Paul Society store in Bundaberg was one of many sector operations hit by the floods. Our research contributed to our submission to the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry, stressing the same issues and making more specific recommendations regarding community service workers, financial counsellors and mental health workers to deal with long-term issues in affected communities. We coordinated a flood inquiry response on behalf of the Community Action for a Multicultural Society network, reflecting the perspective of people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. We continued our advocacy on all of these issues after gaining representation on the Human and Social Recovery sub-committee, reporting to the Queensland Reconstruction Authority. New State and Federal Government funding included a community recovery and wellbeing package to support community recovery and build resilience and future disaster preparedness. This included $20 million for community development and recovery, $10 million for a mental health disaster recovery package and $5.8 million for financial counselling. A strong focus on disaster recovery was included in planning for the 2011 QCOSS conference in Brisbane in August, with the theme Resilient Communities: Fairer Queensland. Najem Sujad and Sharif Omar from the Afghan Community Association set up a barbeque in a Brisbane park to feed flood volunteers. 7
Page 1: ANNUAL REPORT 2010-11
Page 4 and 5: QCOSS would like to thank its Board
Page 6 and 7: Vision, purpose & values Our vision
Page 8 and 9: Key outcomes During 2010-11, QCOSS
Page 12 and 13: Policy advocacy highlights Campaign
Page 14 and 15: Low income consumer advocacy Ensuri
Page 16 and 17: Sector development Leading and advo
Page 18 and 19: Communications and member engagemen
Page 20 and 21: Growing stronger children’s servi
Page 22 and 23: Coalition ensuring Indigenous acces
Page 24 and 25: Leadership, governance and manageme
Page 26 and 27: Governance committee report This ha
Page 28: Financial Reports 24 Annual Report
Page 32: 28 Annual Report 2010-11
Page 51 and 52: Bowen Neighbourhood Centre Boystown
Page 53 and 54: Murrie Watch A.T.S.I Corp Nambour C
Page 55 and 56: Helen Delaney Helen Twohill Helen W

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