The first quarter of 2009 has rapidly passed and the social services world in which we operate continues to evolve at an even greater speed.

We have been advised that our tender to the Australian Government to establish Job Services Australia sites has been successful in six regions around south east Queensland. The task of identifying locations and pulling together a wide range of resources has began and takes on a degree of urgency as we must be open for business 1 July this year. At a time when unemployment rates are rising we clearly see that our role in identifying appropriate employment opportunities is a critical one and rests at the heart of our vision.

The Star of the Sea Child Care Centre opened in March collocated with Cleveland Parish and Star of the Sea Primary School. This brings to five the number of long day care centres that have been established in the last three years to enhance our well established and extensive child care network.

Centacare’s largest undertaking in terms of staffing and expenditure is disability services. The vast majority of our funding to undertake our work supporting over 1000 people with a disability is provided by the Queensland Government. In recent years this funding has not kept pace with inflation and the evolving needs of our clients and we continue to negotiate with the state government to secure appropriate support. We acknowledge that these are difficult times but we remain hopeful of achieving an improved result for some of the most disadvantaged people in our communities.

The reaction to our first edition of “Footprints” has been extremely positive and supportive. I thank everyone for their interest and sincerely hope that you enjoy this second edition that again illustrates our work in fulfilling the mission of the Church in our community.