STEPS News

The Riverside Community Nursery at Green Point, Bridgewater is starting to come alive again with keen input from a variety of local groups and individuals.

The nursery and community garden has been the centre for a host of activities in the past, but had fallen into disrepair over the last two years since the demise of the community organisation that was operating it.

A large community garden and plant nursery at Green Point, Bridgewater, has been given a new "lease of life" with the signing of a lease agreement between Brighton Council, the owner of the facility, and STEPS.

At the beginning of September this year, the first tenants were introduced to eleven new housing units built by STEPS in Bligh St and Cumberland St, Warrane. After a few weeks, tenants are now settled and comfortable in their new homes.

Five eastern shore neighbourhood centres (Risdon Vale, Rokeby, Clarendon Vale, Pittwater and Warrane/Mornington), together with STEPS Employment and Training Solutions, are working together to create and operate a new centre for assisting at-risk young people on the eastern shore to re-engage with their communities and develop their educational, vocational and life skills.

Early in 2007 the iconic Tasmanian company Blundstone, maker of boots in Hobart for almost 140 years, announced that they would be moving their operation offshore to remain competitive. 300 workers facing redundancy feared for their future. To ease their concerns, Blundstone workers were offered special assistance to find alternative work, under the Australian Government’s Textile, Clothing and Footwear Labour Adjustment Package.

Every person who registers as a job seeker with Centrelink is asked to nominate a Job Network provider to register with. Some people do choose: others don’t make a choice, and are automatically directed to a provider at random.

Job Network providers are contracted by the Australian Government to help job seekers prepare for, get and keep a job. Some agencies are private, some are community organisations. They are paid a modest set fee for each standard item of service, but also receive “outcome” payments – that is, reward payments for getting people into a job and keeping them there.

We regularly hear comments that job seekers – especially young ones – “don’t really want to work”. Luke Appleby is but one example of our many clients who have proved that they do.

After a period in the armed forces after leaving school, Luke found himself unemployed for over 18 months, with only occasional casual jobs in fruit picking to keep him going. He lived at Pelverata, had difficulty finding reliable transport, and sometimes couldn’t even make his scheduled appointments with his Job Network provider, STEPS Employment and Training Solutions at Kingston.

On Friday 14 July, STEPS Employment and Training Solutions was saluted by the Tasmanian Education Department at its 2006 Awards for Educational Excellence.

STEPS Community Solutions staff, Phil Leed and Laura Della Pasqua, accepted the award for their part in co-ordinating a program called “World is My Oyster” (WIMO) with Mt Faulkner and Landsdowne Crescent primary schools.

The program aimed at encouraging children to consider a range of potential jobs and careers, and thus motivate interest in following through with education. It arose out of discussions between Phil and Laura, and Michael Hayen of Mt Faulkner Primary School, about encouraging children before they move on to secondary school to see the value of ongoing education and to open their eyes to the range of post-school options available to them.

Today STEPS facilitated a launch of a video we produced called "Employing Refugees". The video was sponsored by Access and Equity Branch of the Education Department of Tasmania. Invitees to the event were recruitment consultants and those talking to employers on a day to day basis.

The video features a number of Tasmanian employers and their new employees. The event was well attended by the media with WIN Television, ABC and Southern Cross all having interviews with employers and Africans. The Mercury as well will be doing an article.