Bridgewater PCYC22-24 Greenpoint Road, Bridgewater TAS 7030

Ph 6263 5277 – ABN 19 870 722 560

Bridgewater Police and Community Youth Club:

2017/2018 Annual Managers Report:

Table of Contents:

1. Managers Perspective

2. Annual Overview

3. Strategic and financial 2017/2018 Overview

4. Summary of Commitments, Projects and Programs

5. Staffing Summary

6. Auxiliary Staffing

7. Organisational Collaboration

8. Governance and Leadership

9. 2018/2019 Direction

MISSION STATEMENT:Engage, empower and support our youth and community to develop resilience

and maximise opportunities.

VISION:To Engage youths across the community,

To Enhance individual and community opportunities, and,To Provide professional quality services.

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1. Managers Perspective:

2017 marked the appointment of a new manager after 8 years. The Brighton Municipality, and in particular the suburbs of Bridgewater, Herdsmans Cove and Gagebrook were all identified as disadvantaged communities, each displaying symptoms consistent with a region poorly performing by the majority of socio-economic indications.

This period coincided with a changing landscape in the political and corporate economic climate directly influencing the Bridgewater PCYC. The effects were, reduced funding opportunities to deal with the same perpetual problems.

This opportunity for a new perspective has resulted in the Bridgewater PCYC undergoing a transformational change implementing a new approach to many of our existing community wide problems.

Change, especially when accompanied by substantial expansion can expose vulnerabilities. What ensued was thorough support from one of the most dedicated and committed teams that I have ever worked along side, a feature that ensured our transformation was both successful and productive. The manner in which our staff were able to embrace change was immediately reflected in a dramatic surge in support and engagement from both the community and partnering agencies, all of which has facilitated further improvement and fostered stronger community ties.

In reflecting on my first year with the Bridgewater PCYC I have seen how the efforts of a few dedicated members can have a profound and lasting effect on those they strive to support. These inspirational efforts not only best explain what the Bridgewater PCYC represents, but capture the one commodity in abundance in the Brighton Municipality that is a strongly defined sense of community.

2. Annual Overview:

The 2017-2018 period commenced with the Bridgewater PCYC undergoing substantial restructuring. Historically, the Bridgewater PCYC has predominantly conducted sports based programs under the setting of a community club.

While still offering sports based engagement activities, the organisation has undergone significant developments into the areas of community service enhancement and community development.

To enable such change and development within the organisation, the Bridgewater PCYC now operates a wider array of services fully integrated and delivered in a complementary manner under an expanded collaborative platform.

These services have combined to increase community engagement by approximately 400% across broader demographic groups within the municipality and have facilitated the expansion of staffing by approximately 180% accommodate the additional services.

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This organisational development has allowed the improvement of services and encompassed an increased diversity of staffing. Combined under a newly enhanced engaging model, the Bridgewater PCYC has improved its community position in relation to both community members and collaborating organisations. This combination of improved services has enabled yet further service diversification offering greater flexibility and capabilities.

Offering greater program capacity, the organisation has been afforded the opportunity to address community and societal issues not traditionally associated with PCYC’s ranging from individualised support to workplace development. A similar scenario has facilitated additional and earlier attention being devoted to intervention strategies delivered at an earlier age and in varied settings including the local schools and multiple off site venues.

Combined, the integration of programs enabled the Bridgewater PCYC to win the Institute of Public Administration Australia’s 2017 Public Service Excellence Awards for Service Delivery.

These combined initiates represent a unique and innovative model that has invigorated both the organisation and those engaging with us in less than 12 months. The community traction and momentum gained have accelerated further structural development to enable wider and more effective support strategies to be delivered. These 12 months have been marked by rapid and measureable quantitative expansion followed by consolidation and qualitative improvement.

3. Strategic and financial 2017/2018 Overview:

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Accurate evaluation of identified needs within the municipality has entailed the consultation of both the community and those organisations/agencies delivering support. This process was undertaken through late 2017 and resulted in increased liaison and communication with key agencies including; Government: Brighton Council, Tasmania Police, Department of Education (Brighton, Herdsmans Cove, Gagebrook and East Derwent Primary schools, Jordan River Learning Federation and Claremont College), Department of Health (in particular Child Protection and Youth Justice).Funding Agencies: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Department of Premier and Cabinet.Community Organisations: Centrecare, Red Cross, Workskills, Tagari Lia and Jordan River Service.(Current list of partnering agencies below)While far from exhaustive, consultation with these providers immediately identified areas where support and services were desirable and often compatible to multiple organisations requirements.

Strategically, the Bridgewater PCYC sub sequentially identified and targeted areas within the Brighton municipality deemed to require additional support. Under this rationale, attention has been directed immediately to supporting local schools and the student populations to enhance attendance and retention while simultaneously developing funding models and partnerships to deliver these services.

While other similar organisations have traditionally pursued a ‘user pays’ revenue model as their operational base, the Bridgewater PCYC actively avoids the necessity to depend on such models, instead prioritising on community need.

Annually, the Bridgewater PCYC has operated with a relatively insufficient financial margin, (2016/17 yielding a surplus of $12,500.00 - See Independent audited financial reports: not included in this annual report). The three-year period immediately preceding the 2017/18 year saw substantial yet diminishing corporate donations to the organisation to facilitate programs and staffing. Recognising an inability to secure similar funding in the 2017/18 year, strategy was rapidly developed to match service delivery to both needs and, in particular, those areas where funding could be secured to sustain the community services offered.

Securing a ‘client’ base more closely aligned to the strategic priorities of the organisations major stakeholders and funding partners has been pursued under long term, intermediate and immediate operational objectives to facilitate increased sustainable support. This marks a shift in preferred funding sources away from a traditional grant based model to longer term revenue streams with grant based capital utilised to value add to an other wise expanded operational base.

The developed funding model dramatically improved the organisations ability to provide suitable staffing and program support directly to areas requiring attention with consistency and regularity across broad engagements. Typically, this model involves the allocation of subsidised staffing support attached to municipal schools on a daily basis while narrower specific grant funding provides for value added programs to be implemented in support of these positions.

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2017 saw the development of the partnerships required to facilitate dedicated support where required and simultaneously yielded increased community engagement in support of the organisation, much of which presented in the form of volunteering community members. This feature was itself developed in early 2018 to facilitate opportunities amongst unemployed youths and community members whilst developing the community services being implemented and was the subject of a pilot program designed for mid 2018.

(See below, March 2017 engagement distribution by age and comparison March 2018 data).

4. Summary of Commitments, Projects and Programs:Schools: Developed in 2017, Bridgewater PCYC currently supports six local schools with staffing allocations designed to achieve full coverage when ever these schools are operating as follows;East Derwent Primary - 1 position,Gagebrook Primary - 1.4 positions,Brighton Primary - 1.6 positions,Claremont College - 2 positions,Jordan River Senior school - 2 positions, and,Herdsmans Cove with a .2 positions and intermittent coverage.

These school commitments represent 8 permanent staff members who are supported by an additional 3 staff members intermittently allocated to enhancing the school support project. The school support has been tailored primarily to meet the demands of an ‘Attendance and Retention’ program and operates to compliment the Department of Educations strategic ‘Health and Wellbeing’ objectives.

Programs currently being delivered to these schools vary across each school term but generally consist of;Multiple transition programs,Peer and mentoring support programs for primary and senior schools,Sporting rosters,Culturally specific support programs,Assisted student transport across 4 schools,On and off site small group engagement activities,Parent engagement programs, and,

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Intermittent specialised support (such as individual support or specific target group support).

These programs represent multiple daily undertakings completed by multiple staff members across the municipality with several programs operating most days.

Sports: Traditionally, the Bridgewater PCYC has and continues to support on site subsidised sporting engagements such as Basketball, netball and futsal. Additional school based sporting rosters are regularly run both during the school year and in holiday periods.Periodic expansion of these programs has enabled specific and targeted sports programs designed to develop in late 2018 into competitive teams entered into existing local rosters.

Additional Programs: Currently there are three primary areas with dedicated additional programs, as follows;Outside of School Hours Care: Operated under state license and primary dedicated to supporting parents who require support and child care both after school and during school holidays. This commitment is developing into a self sustaining program under the implementation of the Centre Link subsidy system being introduced as of 2nd July 2018. This series of programs occupies and will ultimately support the staff required to operate the prime site for the duration of the week, which inturn allows for additional activities to be undertaken by these staff members outside of this commitment.Driver Education: An undertaking developed in late 2017 with fluctuating staffing levels that operates with a mainstay of two professionally accredited driving instructors who are supported by auxiliary staff members. This program is designed to value add to other engagements and enables the progression of individuals through the various stages of acquiring a drivers license. This program additionally supports the two current college commitments PCYC engages.Aged Pensioner assisted Transport: An undertaking operated in conjunction with Corumbene aged care providers to support those pensioners living within the municipality with free localised transport.

Community Engagement Officer: A project developed though out early 2018 as a direct result of the increased community engagement from members of the public seeking to support the PCYC. These members have engaged the PCYC from a variety of sources including; Community Volunteers, Student placements (Tafe, High School and University), Work for the Dole and some Community Service Order/Community Respect Order offenders.This project specifically promotes work place readiness, experience and training in a positive and highly motivated setting to maximise the capabilities of these members within a community service setting and is ‘marketed’ as ‘Our Community addressing Our Community Issues’.

Numerically, those individuals engaged in all manner of PCYC Bridgewater’s commitments have increased by approximately 400% as depicted in the below table. These figures represent those community members, the majority of whom are youths that interact and participate with our staff on a one to one basis each week (March 17 – March 18. Current June figures are approximately 1980 individuals each week).

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5. Staffing Summary:

The development of increased commitments across the organisation has resulted in increased personnel (See below tables). While expanded services have required expanded staffing, this has been developed as an opportunity to improved staffing diversity, skills and capabilities to broaden organisational diversity.

2018 staffing provisions are inclusive (but not limited to); - Child Carers,- Early Childhood Educators,- A registered Teacher,- Youth Workers (including university and diploma trained),- Community Services & Community Development staff,- Sports and Recreation Trained members,- Varied Personal Trainers including multiple sports and personal

disciplines,- Aged Care Personnel,- Driving Instructors,- Dancing Instructors,- Multi Lingual members (including Arabic),- Culturally diverse including Indigenous and Muslim members.

The combined staffing strength encompasses sufficient depth and diversity to enable members to deal with all manner of societal and community issues relevant to our community.

Staffing allocations:March 17 July 17 December June 18 July 18

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FTE 6 7 6 5 5

Permanent Part-time

- 1 5 11 11

Casual 4 3 3 3 3

Trainee 1 1 1 1 1

Volunteer - 2 4 8 8

Work placement

- 2 3 4 3

Student Placements (UTAS)

- 3 0 2 3

Student Placements (TAFE/HS)

- - 2 5 3

Total Staff 11 19 24 39 35

6. Auxiliary Staffing:The 2017/18 period saw the organisational expansion yield results in various areas of endeavour. This increased activity has coincided with, and is presumed to have instigated a rise in community involvement beyond members routinely engaging in activities or seeking support. The ensuing results saw a multitude of community members approach the organisation to participate in a voluntary capacity. These volunteer members have generally originated from;

- Work for the Dole participants,- Adult (TAFE or similar) student placements,

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- Student work experience placements,- University placements,- Community Service Order participants,- Diverted Community Respect Order (Youth) participants, and,- Community Volunteers.

Collectively these members represented a pool of motivated individuals well positioned to support the organisations community service engagements. Numerically, they represented a steadily growing resource with enormous diversity and all displaying a desire to contribute. By the close of June 2018, there had been 49 such members contribute their time and effort to the PCYC within the preceding 48 weeks of normal operations. Effectively, 1 new volunteer approached the club each week, some participating at a full time loading, others possibly once each week.

Recognising the potential for further development, these members were subsequently found to be predominately unemployed young adult job seekers, the majority motivated but themselves requiring job readiness experiences. Recognising their varied levels of capabilities, a program was formulated to seek funding and launch an undertaking in partnership with multiple other agencies to develop these members’ abilities whilst engaging them in community service activities.

The piloted program is established to launch at the commencement of the 2018/19-year but is based on the volume and commitment of these auxiliary members engaging with the service in the preceding year. The table below represents the total numbers engaged. Approximate calculations indicate these members equated to 3.5 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) members for the majority of this period, increasing towards June 2018. Projections for the early 2018/19 period are anticipating approximately 12 to 14 auxiliary member engaged each week equating to approximately 8.5FTE’s.

Cultural Diversity: As of June the organisational diversity includes approximately 26% Indigenous staffing and includes additional cultural minorities currently inclusive of Muslim, Jewish, Christian faiths, Recent immigrants and operates under an equally gender diverse establishment.

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7. Organisational Collaboration:

Traditional PCYC establishments have periodically developed partnerships with external organisations. The current community service sector environment parallels contemporary government and public sector requirements, each being marked by a distinct preference towards interagency collaborative arrangements.

Current government funding opportunities predominantly requires collaborative operations and itself, reflects a trend over the past 20 years recommending such collaboration as an effective business and agency tool.

The Brighton Municipality represents one of Tasmania’s most challenged regions, and as such, features in excess of 70 agencies and organisations who identify as supporting this community. Of these, the Bridgewater PCYC now supports multiple partnerships ranging from contract-based services to cooperative endeavours and third party funding partners including;Tasmania Police, Gagebrook Primary School,Brighton Council, Jordan River Learning Federation,Department of Corrections, University of Tasmania,Workskills Bridgewater, Brighton Primary School,Centre Care, Salvation Army (Communities for Children)Herdsman’s Cove Primary, Max Employment,My State Foundation, Claremont College,Tagari Lia, Woolworths Bridgewater,Department of Education, Matana Foundation,Your Town, Dominic Old Scholars Association Sports Club,Red Cross, Motor Accident Insurance Board,Sidney Myer Foundation, Edmund Rice,East Derwent Primary, Sisters of Charity,Life Without Barriers, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet,Hobart Chargers, Department of Premier and Cabinet,Boots for All, Tasmanian Community Fund,Mission Australia, Education and Care Unit,Glenorchy Spartans, Reclink Australia,Bridgewater LINC, Corumbene Aged Care,L’s to P’s Driving, E Learning,Bagdad Primary School, Trade Training Centre,Derwent Valley PCYC, Glenorchy City Council,Plus intermittent periodic additional arrangements.

The Bridgewater PCYC’s ability to encourage and maintain wide spread collaborative partnerships has significantly improved the capacity of the organisation to direct resources efficiently towards enhanced service delivery.In many instances, the organisation will perform a ‘lead role’, while in others act as a minor or enabling partner. It is the ability to retain sufficient flexibility in delivery models and internal structure and operations that has allowed such collaborative diversity. From a community perspective, the Bridgewater PCYC represents a well-networked and connected organisation that can interact on multiple levels and/or

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platforms and rapidly acquire support when necessary. This is a testimony to the dedicated staff and community support for the organisation. 8. Governance and Leadership:

As the name suggests, the Bridgewater Police and Community Youth Club is a registered organisation under the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission operating as an independent incorporated entity.

Under such, the organisation is governed by a board operating in the capacity as an oversight committee. The composition of the board is as follows;

President Rodney Graham,Vice President Geoffrey Jackson,Treasurer Maria Blight,Member Brian McQueen,Member Lisa Goss,Member Brian Skinner,Member Moya Jefferies,Member Shane Denney,Member Andrew Dean,Member Justin Abrahams,Member Samantha Andrews,

Management and operations of the organisation is the responsibility of those appointed to the following positions which approximate seniority in the order of;

Manager Justin Abrahams,Assistant Manager Andrew Dean,Assistant Manager (Acting) Samantha Andrews (Central programs),Community Engagement Allan Matcham,External Programs Stephen Howard,Family Liaison Ashlee Elwell,

Leadership has been the conduit by which the Bridgewater PCYC has developed beyond an internal Club and into a genuine community service that offers the support and direction sought not only by those community members engaging with the organisation but other agencies and organisations operating within the same region.

9. 2018/19 Direction:

The growth and development experienced across the 2017/18 period has resulted in increased services beyond initial 2017 expectations. The prolonged period of growth has attracted significant additional resources to ensure adequately supported service delivery, but impacted the capacity for qualitative assessment.

2018/19 is a planned period of consolidation in which current services are afforded the opportunity to evolve and adapt whilst pursuing further efficiencies and service delivery excellence.

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Current strategic direction dictates the consolidation of existing youth and community service programs under an integrated model to enhance both end user outcomes and cost effective delivery.

There are no expansion projects beyond current commitments scheduled for the coming period. Instead, improved collaborative partnerships are preferred with alternate and additional program support seen as desirable to ‘value add’ to the impact of existing services. This is inclusive of dedicated prioritisation towards the current school support packages being delivered and OSHC commitments.

2018/19 staffing allocations are expected to remain consistent with minimal disruptions. A similar period of staffing consolidation is sought to further enhance staffing knowledge, capabilities and diversity through systematic training and development.

Structurally, the organisation will benefit from a period of stability and allow newly implemented leadership models and management principles to be fully appreciated.

While structural ‘self improvement’ is a core priority, the organisation is dedicated to retaining the flexibility to adapt to changing political and social circumstances as part of an ongoing organisational risk aversion policy. This policy similarly allows opportunistic development and rapid reaction to external influences.

The primary focus for this consolidation is the approximately 2000 school aged youths we currently engage to concentrate on the integrated attendance and retention initiatives.

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