Berry Street Web Docs Annual Report 2012 | Page 24
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People / Our lifeforce
Berry Street has the right people and organisational
culture for quality service provision.
Relationships are at the core of our work at Berry Street.
We know that respectful relationships are a fundamental
pre-requisite if we are to work constructively with our
clients and help children and young people heal from
the devastating impact of violence, abuse and neglect.
We also know that respectful relationships are at the heart
of our work with our adult clients and our capacity to work
collaboratively with our many stakeholders.
These relationships are formed by our skilled and
committed staff, foster carers and volunteers. Attracting,
retaining, supporting and developing these special
people is a critical part of our work.
New Initiatives
»» T
he rollout of our Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which
included health checks, a fund to support health and
wellbeing activities, a pilot ‘stop smoking’ program
and fortnightly health information through our staff
newsletter – ‘Berryland Banner’
»» A very successful new residential care recruitment
process, including shadow shifts
»» Strengthening our approach to supervision, with a
compulsory online module and one day session for
all new staff and 19 senior staff completing a course
on advanced supervision
»» Transferring all relevant staff to the Modern Award
Other highlights included:
»» M
aintaining our commitment to staff training and
professional development ($723,000 or 1.9% of salaries)
»» Enabling 17 Gippsland staff to complete a Diploma of
Community Services Work; 16 Hume staff to complete
a Certificate IV in Child Youth & Family Intervention;
26 staff to complete a Diploma of Management; 12
staff to complete a Diploma in Project Management;
90 residential care staff to attend Cybersafety training;
139 staff to attend Aboriginal Cultural Knowledge &
Understanding training; 48 staff to attend a Building
Resilience workshop; 176 staff complete First Aid
training; 138 staff attend Organisational Orientation and
33 complete a four day Introduction to Family Therapy
provided by the Bouverie Centre
»» By focussing on timely responses to critical
incidents, encouraging staff and carers to access our
Employee and Carer Assistance Program, robust risk
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B E R R Y S T R E E T A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 2 / / People
management, supervision and support systems and
processes, we kept our WorkCover premium 10% below
the industry standard
»» Granting up to five hours a week study leave to 39 staff
and assisting seven staff with course fees (through our
annual Fees Award)
»» Fifty-eight students were supported through our
Placement Unit. This investment is part of our
commitment to the sector and also helps attract new staff
»» Four hundred and fifty staff enjoyed our staff End of
Year celebration and were inspired by performances
from a number of young people from our Berry Street
School in Noble Park
We celebrated the success of:
»» B
oard member, David Green - awarded an AM in the
Queen’s Birthday Honours ‘for service to the community
through leadership roles with social justice organisations,
to welfare policy reform and to the community’
»» Board member, Lyn Allison - inducted into the Victorian
Honour Roll for Women
»» Board members Mary Clark (15 years), David Green &
Peter Koren (10 years) - celebrated their outstanding
contribution to our Board and Berry Street
»» Pat Clinton – 20 years leading residential services in
the South East with Berry Street
»» Brett Dowling – residential supervisor in Hume
received the Residential Care Leadership Award at the
Resi Rocks Conference. Kylie Jones (South East), Kelly
Gretton (Gippsland) and Maggie Hiscox (South East)
were also all recognised for their great work with young
people in residential care
»» Nathan Joyce – foster carer in the South East was
highly commended in the category of ‘Changing the
Definition of Family’ in the 2011 Robin Clark Memorial
Awards
»» Mavis and Doug Corkhill - foster carers in the North
recognised for 30 years of fostering
»» At our 2011 Annual Celebration, we honoured:
• Felicity Rorke (Senior Manager, Family and Domestic
Violence) – Deb Kearsey Award for Outstanding Staff
Member
• Bruce Waites – Selina Sutherland Award for
Outstanding Volunteer
• Megan Wisewould – Early Career Award for her work
with Take Two
• Al Dobbs, Jim Ireland & Church Street Enoteca – Life
Membership of Berry Street for their exceptional support
I have had many great experiences
during my five years here [at Berry
Street], including the many Darwin
and Broome trips, taking part in
Diploma level training and extensive
professional development opportunities.
Chloe | former employee