Last month UnitingCare Queensland’s Edge Innovation Festival set out to challenge the preconceived ideas of UnitingCare Queensland staff. Ashley Thompson reports. Created with the objective to “turn your thinking upside down”, Edge is a festival of free events designed to inspire Uniting Church service groups including: UnitingCare Community, UnitingCare Health, Blue Care and the UnitingCare Group Office. Not unlike the ...
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Debates about welfare often place charities and policy-makers at odds, but UnitingCare Australia sees opportunity in the federal government’s latest review of welfare. Annette Pereira reports. UnitingCare Australia has long advocated investing more, not less, in people who are disadvantaged. When the final report of the government’s welfare reform review was handed down earlier this year, there were some unexpected ...
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The government has announced a new initiative consisting of $54.4 million in funding over four years for people with severe symptoms of dementia in residential care facilities. “It is very good news,” said Lin Hatfield Dodds, National Director of UnitingCare Australia. “Our agencies provide the largest share of aged care in the country and we are consistently hearing that the ...
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While Queenslanders spend up to $175 million at the pokies each month, some congregations are receiving a portion of the state government’s take in grant allocations. Bruce Mullan explores the ethics of churches accessing gambling revenue. Australians spend a staggering $20 billion dollars each year on gambling, and in 2013 Queenslanders spent more than $2.1 billion on pokies alone—the equivalent ...
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Australia’s major church health and community service providers are today lodging submissions on the Welfare Review Interim Report, and are encouraging the reference panel to keep top-of-mind some key themes and principles when reviewing feedback. National Director of UnitingCare Australia, Lin Hatfield Dodds said it is positive that the McClure Review is looking at the adequacy of welfare payments. “Welfare should give ...
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Dianne Jensen talks to Dave Andrews, Charles Ringma, Lin Hatfield Dodds and Sue Hutchinson about why they keep working for social transformation. “Many people start out with the fire in their belly to set the world alight when they are young; but very few people still have the fire in their belly when they are old,” says Dave Andrews. The ...
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The 2014 Budget was a major concern for the Uniting Church and its agencies. Mardi Lumsden reports. The federal government’s 2014 Budget was met with frustration and concern by many different parts of the Uniting Church in Australia in May. Uniting Church President Rev Dr Andrew Dutney said the church’s main concern is how Australia’s most vulnerable are affected by ...
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