Media Release 8 September 2020 Catholic Social Services Australia is calling on the Australian Government to ensure the needs of children and vulnerable families are priorities in the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. CSSA comprises 60 member organisations providing social services in more than 650 communities across Australia. The network supports some of the country’s most vulnerable...
A special thanks to the Illawarra Mercury for creating a wonderful tribute to CatholicCare Wollongong, marking their 40th Anniversary. The article honours the special people who built the foundations of this organisation, namely Roger Austin and Kath McCormack, while looking at the evolution of social services over time. CatholicCare's mission remains the same, existing to bring joy to...
Media Release 8 January 2020 Supporting families and communities through the trauma and lasting impact of the bushfire devastation in New South Wales and Victoria is a national priority for Catholic Social Services Australia and its members. With staff and volunteers working in some of the most bushfire-affected areas of the country, the national network of Catholic...
28 November 2019 As the nation’s attention again turns to bushfire, drought, regional mental health and family support, we are reminded of the important role social services play in the aftermath of community disasters. In this piece, CSSA Research Director, Brenton Prosser, overviews recent work that seeks to capture the value of the services from locally-embedded...
26 July 2019 Times are changing. Not only do you have to be good at what you do, increasingly you need to show the outcomes of what you do. CSSA's former Research Director, Brenton Prosser, explores some simple strategies for social service providers to display their good work with more impact. Around the world, governments need more...
As published CathNews, 17 April 2018 By Brenton Prosser PHD, Former Director Research, CSSA Federal Budget week was another significant one for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It was a central feature in the speeches of both the Treasurer and the Opposition Leader. Public debate centred on $1.6 billion of allocated (but unspent) funding going back into the Government’s projected $7.1 billion surplus. The Budget...
An edited version of this paper was published in the Mandarin on 26 February 2019. Australian media regularly reports concerns about the over-use of drugs to treat our most vulnerable. However, what this reporting has missed is the subtle but underlying trend toward medicalisation in public policy. I first met Dorothy as part of a national evaluation of community-based...
28 November 2018 By Brenton Prosser PhD, Former Director Research, CSSA Over the last few years, there has been growing interest around school-led community initiatives to respond to challenges in areas of entrenched disadvantage. It is not as though community hubs are a new idea, while place-based projects have been around for over a decade. But it...
By Brenton Prosser PhD, Former Director of Research, CSSA For many years, professionalism in social service delivery meant being caring but not immersed, empathic but not emotional, and rational not religious. Increasingly academic research is showing the importance of spiritual leadership, mindfulness and personal belief in sustaining social service workers and quality of care. Recently, the Australian...
23 August 2018 By Brenton Prosser PhD, Former Director of Research, CSSA For some time now, health and social service providers have pointed to the contradiction of being funded by the number of services they deliver for programs that espouse better client outcomes. Now, with increased commonwealth government interest in outcomes based approaches, is this a case...
