Today May 26 is National Sorry Day which began in 1998, one year after the ‘Bringing Them Home Report’ was tabled at parliament in 1997. This report was the result of an enquiry into the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and country.

Reconciliation Week occurs annually from 27 May to 3 June and is bookended by two significant dates in history.

27 May is the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum which Australian people voted to allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people be counted in the census, as people, and no longer classed as flora and fauna. This also allowed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the opportunity to vote for the first time.

3 June is known as Mabo Day, commemorating Eddie Koiki Mabo, who fought tirelessly for Native Title and on 3 June 1992 the High Court made a landmark decision which overturned the Terra Nullius myth. This paved the way for Native Title and land rights. Sadly Eddie Mabo passed away 5 months before the decision from his hard work.

Reconciliation is about ALL of us coming together to ensure that we live in a Country of harmony and inclusion.

Some online events, talks and webinars are available at Reconciliation Australia’s website and Facebook page and I encourage people from all walks of life to connect, learn and understand the oldest, longest living culture in the world and as Australians, to be very proud of that.

Ways to do this is listen to stories from survivors, read books, watch films and documentaries, talk to elders in the community and more and hope one day cultural practices are carried out to protect our country, communities and waters for future generations.

(Thanks to Maree at Lake Macquarie Council for these words).

What's Happening At Songbird

Whilst Australia still remains under restrictions due to COVID-19, The Songbird Team are ready and waiting to support you to transform your life and achieve your goals. We are turning this crisis into opportunity for all of our participants.

PSFANS is looking to get the message out to people who normally wouldn't access services via this paid social post.

PSFANS is able to support individuals and families with:

Vouchers for Woolworths food

EAPA vouchers for Electricity

Water bills for home owners that receive a bill from Hunter Water

Telstra vouchers for persons on a Telstra Plan

Read the update here

Join us following our next Interagency on 9 June. Email Mylink@portstephens.nsw.gov.au to register your interest.

Minutes from today's Interagency are in the library here

In order to continue delivery of quality services to older Australians it is critical that Aged Care Service Organisations have access to ‘right fit’ employees in a timely and efficient way.

For many organisations the COVID-19 situation has increased their need to recruit additional staff in an environment where recruiting ‘right fit’ employees was already difficult. However we now find ourselves in a unique situation where there is a significant increase in the number of people looking for work.

To help match Aged Care Service Organisations with people looking for work ACSA have developed a National Aged Care Services Workforce Hub. A key component of ‘the Hub’ is the Employment Register.

What is the Employment Register?

• Individuals looking for work - can submit an application to be on the Employment Register through the Workforce Hub.
  • The application is an on-line form which requires a range of mandatory fields to be completed, it has been designed to provide an employer with essential information about each applicant.
  • The application includes the areas of interest that the jobseeker is qualified for, experienced with or has similar skills and would like to be considered for.
  • The application allows the jobseeker to nominate a region and local government areas for which they would like to be considered for work.
• Aged Care Service Organisations - can access the Employment Register to search for individuals seeking work in their region.
  • Organisations will be able to search the register by job role, Region and Local Government Area at no cost
  • Organisations will be able to advertise vacancies to job seekers at no cost

For immediate action, we encourage:

• People looking for to work to go to ‘the Hub’ and submit your application now
• Aged Care Service Organisations to register on ‘the Hub’ to access the Employment Register

‘The Hub’: https://employment.agedservicesworkforce.com.au/. Please note: there are no costs associated with utilising ‘the Hub’ for jobseekers or Aged Care Service Organisations.

Aged Care Services Organisations are asked to please keep in mind that the number of applications on the Employment Register will be minimal within the first few days of going live and will continue to grow as people become aware, and take advantage of the opportunity.

We encourage you to share this information with all people and organisations who you think this opportunity may assist!