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In this edition, learn more about the work the SESU has been undertaking with community and ACU stakeholders to co-design the SESU's new research agenda. We share the findings from a recently completed SESU project about the impacts of a program designed to support young families with complex needs. You will also learn more about how the findings of a SESU project are inspiring cross-sector collaborations between Catholic agencies delivering family violence services. We also provide information on changes that are coming to the SESU's next round of community applications, which will open early next year, and much more.
Learn more about SESUWe are very pleased to announce the organisations which were successful in their applications to partner with the SESU in our 2024 Expressions of Interest (EOI) round. The last few months have produced some valuable collaborative conversations with our new partners as we activate the below projects.
Please join us in congratulating Australian Marist Solidarity; cohealth, Access Health and Community, North Richmond Community Health; and St Vincent's Care Services!
Australian Marist Solidarity (AMS) works to ensure that all young people have access to educational opportunities. AMS believe education has the power to eradicate poverty. Working across Asia and the Pacific, AMS are committed to help young people who need a little extra support to thrive in learning environments. This research project will focus on the needs of young people in the Baucau Diocese of Timor Leste region. The research is driven by a desire to directly engage with youth and youth services, to capture a detailed narrative of the community's needs from the perspective of its most vibrant yet vulnerable demographic. This project aims to create a comprehensive map of existing community assets and capacities that can support, educate, and empower young people into adulthood.
Meet the Project Team
A collaborative submission from three community organisations across the City of Yarra including, cohealth, Access Health and Community, and North Richmond Community Health, who all seek to provide high quality primary and preventative community health care for residents of the City of Yarra, most importantly including those in social housing.
Each organisation being committed to the wellbeing of their communities and identifying that social housing tenants in the City of Yarra comprise 9.5% of households and are more vulnerable to multiple health conditions compared to those residing in non-social housing have collaborated on this project. In partnership with ACU, cohealth, Access Health and Community, and North Richmond Community Health aims to understand how a co-designed Interprofessional Student-Led Allied Health (ISAH) service can improve health for residents in social housing.
Meet the project team:
St Vincent's Care Services - Evaluating Heartprint: engaging residents, families, and care workers in evaluating outcomes of an innovative person-centred care program
St Vincent's Care Services (SVCS), is a leading and trusted provider of aged care and retirement services, and part of Australia's largest not-for-profit health and aged care enterprise - St Vincent's. SVCS provide outstanding care that is informed by leading research and is resident-centric. SVCS are implementing an integrated, relational model of care, called Heartprint. Heartprint, aims to empower people living in aged care homes to live their lives the way they choose and to promote and foster independence and individuality. This project aims to meaningfully evaluate joy, loneliness, and the success of interpersonal relationships between people living in residential aged care and their workers. Findings will help SVCS better determine the impact and further improve outcomes for residents and workers of the Heartprint model of care. The Heartprint model endeavours to transform care minutes into more to meaningful minutes.
Meet the project team:
During September 2024, the SESU team engaged in a range of community consultation approaches ensuring community voice continues to guide our work, to support the development of SESU's research agenda moving forward.
Through this process, SESU invited community and ACU feedback on recently developed research themes that will be launched as part of the SESU's EOI round in February 2025 for community organisations.
Introducing a themed approach to community requests for research will focus the SESU's research into core themes and help strengthen community impacts and collaborations between like-minded organisations.
The themes were developed through thematic analysis of the core issues explored through the SESU's projects from 2020-2024. Each completed or ongoing SESU project can be mapped against one of research themes proposed. The themes also support the focus areas identified in ACU's recently released 10-year strategic plan, Vision 2033, to work towards ethical futures, thriving communities and flourishing lives.
From 2025, community organisations will have the opportunity to either submit an EOI related to a specific theme or submit an EOI unrelated to the themes.The current proposed themes we received feedback on include:
Theme 1: Addressing social justice challenges resulting from global or regional change
Theme 2: Improving the wellbeing of at-risk groups
Theme 3: Exploring Catholic identity and organisational practice
Once all feedback on these themes has been collated, it will be presented to the SESU Advisory Group for review and approval in November, thereafter the finalised themes will be launched next year and communicated with all SESU stakeholders.
Delivered in partnership with CatholiCare Sydney, the final report for a SESU project has highlighted the value of practical support and strong relationships in a program that walks alongside young parents with complex needs to work towards their goals for creating a safe, positive and sustainable future.
CatholiCare Sydney's HOPE Program provides essential supports for young parents aged 24 and younger, focusing on basic material needs, community connections, therapeutic youth support and parent coaching, with children and young people at the centre. The program empowers young families by harnessing their resilience and strengths and increasing the knowledge, skills and opportunities needed to build a stable and healthy environment for their growing family.
Co-designed and delivered with CatholiCare Sydney staff, this SESU project sought to evaluate the HOPE Program, identifying the benefits young people received from program participation and determining whether these aligned with HOPE program aims and documentation. Valuable information was collected through surveys and interviews with program participants and staff, and through review of program documentation.
Findings revealed that engagement with the program overall improved participants' circumstances. Participants reported that they found the practical supports they received (including coaching on parenting skills) and the quality of their working relationship with program practitioners most beneficial. Most participants revealed that HOPE practitioners provided the emotional support and encouragement that motivated and inspired them to set and achieve their desired goals.
Based on the findings, program staff are implementing improvements related to the program design, practice and impact measurement going forward. As continuity of care had such positive impact for participants, intake procedures are also being refined to best support future HOPE participants.
The research findings of a SESU project between Caritas Australia (Caritas), Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA) and Catholic Health Australia (CHA) have led to collaboration, practice and resource sharing across sectors to enhance Catholic agencies' service delivery in family violence. The final report, delivered last year, highlighted the unique work of Australian-based and international Catholic agencies in responding to and preventing family violence.
The findings also shed light on the key role of Catholic Social Teaching principles in shaping perceptions of Catholic agencies' work in family violence, understood as upholding the human dignity of all persons.
Catholic Health Australia (CHA) has used findings from the report to inform discussions with not-for-profit health and aged care providers around further incorporating awareness of domestic violence into service delivery. More broadly, the report will help Catholic health and aged care providers identify areas of greater need and prioritise resources to support victims. Conducting this research has fostered links between Catholic agencies delivering different types of services and it is hoped that this will lead to other opportunities for collaboration.
Anne Aziz-Parker, Communications Director, stated, "CSSA has established a Community of Practice for domestic and family violence, where our member agencies work together to share knowledge, foster connection and gather information to help shape future policy submissions. This work is intended to help build a supportive community focused on addressing the complexities of domestic and family violence." CSSA has also established a Community of Practice for domestic and family violence, where Catholic agencies are working together to promote connection and knowledge sharing across organisations and sectors.
Other examples of collaboration between faith-based organisations include a recent visit by CatholicCare NT to a Caritas Australia protection program in Timor-Leste. It was hosted in recognition of high rates of gender-based violence in Timor-Leste, as well as in the Northern Territory where Aboriginal women make up most of the victims. With 97 percent of the population of Timor-Leste being Catholic and First Australians being the fastest growing population of Catholics in Australia this meeting gave both faith-based organisations an opportunity to share knowledge and expertise around running effective safe houses for those escaping gender-based violence.
Changes are coming to the SESU's next round of community applications. The SESU will call for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from community organisations again in our 2025 round, due to open in February next year.
In this round, community applications will work a little differently than in previous years. Read on for more information!
What's changing?
In this round, we will be launching the SESU's newly developed research themes.
This means that community organisations will be invited to submit a research proposal aligned with one or more of the SESU's new research themes. This option will be available in both application streams (more on that below).
While community organisations will still be able to submit a research proposal unrelated to the themes, these projects proposed are likely to be activated on a smaller number of occasions.
The current proposed research themes include:
Theme 1: Addressing social justice challenges resulting from global or regional change
Theme 2: Improving the wellbeing of at-risk groups
Theme 3: Exploring Catholic identity and organisational practice
The language and scope of the final themes will be confirmed once all community and ACU feedback we have received on the themes has been reviewed by the SESU Advisory Group.
What's staying the same?
a) An organisation-specific project: a project that aims to inform, evaluate or enhance one of your programs or services; or
b) A sector project: a project that aims to address a broad or systemic issue that multiple organisations face in the community sector.
You'll be notified next year when the call for EOIs opens, and you will be able to view the confirmed SESU research themes on our website.
Do you have volunteer opportunities or programs that ACU students or staff could support you with? Or do you have clients who may not have completed a formal education and would like to? ACU Engagement supports partnerships with community for positive social outcomes. Read on to engage with some of ACU's flagship community engagement programs.
Visiting our students: Community Engagement Breakfast Club and Wellness Program
"This week I was fortunate to meet with our incredible community partners The Big OC Foundation and Peach Tree Perinatal Wellness and importantly have a chat with our students experiencing community engagement.
The Big OC Foundation delivers a youth mental health program, where our ACU students engage with vulnerable, disengaged young people at a Breakfast Club. It was wonderful to see ACU OT students Courtney, Stephanie and Juliette prepare breakfast and enjoy chatting with young people from Brisbane Bayside State College on Wednesday morning. Feedback from Director Matt Tsin has been overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the positive contributions our students have made to the lives of young people at the school.
I also had the privilege of attending the Peach Tree Perinatal Wellness program in Morayfield. Peach Tree offers peer-led support sessions for pregnant and new parents experiencing wellbeing challenges. Paramedicine student Michaela, who is a Child Buddy at the program, has thoroughly enjoyed her community engagement experience. She commented that she's never had the opportunity to engage with little people before and is so pleased to have now had this experience. It will prove valuable in her future career!"
Kimberley Fort
Senior Community Engagement Officer,
ACU Engagement
Australian Catholic University
Clemente advisor and longtime ACU Engagement member Youssef Taouk features in ACU's content hub, Impact.
Youssef spoke with Menios Constatinou from ACU's Content team on the life-changing impact of Clemente, and his own achievements in his academic and community work.
If you are interested in learning more about the Clemente Program at ACU either as a Partner, a Volunteer, a Learning Partner or as a student, please contact the Clemente team.
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