| Brief History | Anglicare’s website ( www.anglicarewa.org.au ) gives the following historical overview of how Anglicare evolved:
Moves to establish a general social services agency as an outreach of the Church began in the 1960’s. It was not until the early 1970’s however that concrete progress was made. Archbishop Geoffrey Sambell had been appointed Archbishop in 1969. In June 1972, he produced a paper entitled “The Church and its place in Health & Welfare Services.” In his Synod Charge of September 1973, Sambell set out in detail his vision of how and why the Anglican Church was to develop in its delivery of social services.
The basis of the service was to be “Salvation”. As Sambell pointed out, “its root derivation is related to health and wholeness, yours and mine…. Personal salvation or liberation is to discover what it is to be fully human.”
For Sambell, the Church is “the active community or conveyor of salvation”. Anglicare’s work as an agency of the Church is to create the opportunity for our clients to experience this sense of health and wholeness…
While planning for the Sambell Centre in Colin St West Perth was underway, the first operations of Anglicare were undertaken from premises at 52 Mount St. Perth. Anglicare assumed the work of the Church’s Social Services department. Rev. Roy Poole was appointed as the director of “Coordination and Administration” in February 1974…
One of the key elements of the Sambell vision was that the agency must operate at the highest professional standards. As Sambell said, “such …agency must always be ready to give an account of its services, to maintain standards…to continually evaluate its work and its performance and the needs it is servicing…”.
Robert Chelliah was the first professional social worker employed, followed by Joy Strickland. The original work of the “Field services” team was to consult with the Anglican parishes and determine what needs existed in particular areas. Work with migrants and other disadvantaged groups in the areas of Coolbellup/Willagee and Balga/Girrawheen formed the basis of work at that time…
The first Director of Anglicare was Rev Roy Poole, who served from February 1974 to December 1977.
Bill Couche, who had previously been Director of Residential Care at Parkerville and St Bart's, was appointed Director in 1978 and continued until 1984.
Rev Peter Allen was appointed to the role of Director in 1984 and continued until September 1989.
Rev Gerry Costigan was Director from March 1990 until September 1994. The current CEO, Mr Ian Carter, was appointed in April 1995.
Wilson and Robinson outlined the administration and governance structures of the Anglican Church in hostel management as practiced in 1971:
The “Anglican Church, under a revised policy, regards Aboriginal welfare as a local and diocesan problem within the context of general community social welfare at the local level….The Anglican Church was the first group involved in the Department [of Native Welfare]’s metropolitan hostels. When Alvan and McDonald House were considered no longer suitable in the late ‘50’s, the Anglican Church (through the South West Anglican Mission) was approached to assume control of both….they were unable to undertake both ventures and managed McDonald House [see entry] only….
McDonald House is under the control of the Anglican Social Services Committee which is also responsible for a family centre in East Perth, aid to immigrants and other ‘local welfare work’. The Committee is under the directorship of the Rev. Michael Rowden who is in turn responsible to the Archbishop in Council.
There have been considerable recent changes within the Anglican welfare administrative structure and the creation of a special ‘Department of Social Concerns’ under a ‘Home Missions Director’ was being considered at the time [of Wilson and Robinson’s survey].
Unlike most other controlling authorities, the Anglicans have few direct links with rural mission work (especially since the abandonment of the Forrest River Mission) [see entry].
[In terms of selection and placement] without major centres for residential welfare in country regions, and especially since the abandonment of the South-West Anglican Mission [presumably, Forrest River], [the Anglican church agencies] rely upon the Department and other ‘interested parties’ to nominate potential residents…The Rev. Michael Rowden, Director of the Anglican Social Services Committee, attempts to interview prospective residents in conjuction with Divisional staff and houseparents. He would like to have ‘…the final say’. ” Wilson and Robinson (1971) Aboriginal Hostels in Perth: A Comparative Survey
In 1974, Anglican Health and Welfare Services was established to extend the role of the Anglican Diocese of Perth in providing services to those in need. (Department for Community Welfare, TRIM Administration File A419301, p.103, 1974). In the first instance, the Anglican Health and Welfare Services, from its premises at Bishop’s House in Mount Street, took over the management and coordination of services that had previously been run by individual Parishes.
From 1982 until 1992, the Anglican Health and Welfare Services ran a program called “Homesharers” [see entry], providing foster care to children in the metropolitan area.
Anglicare was involved in a “cooperative initiative” with the Northern Metropolitan Region of the Department in 1989 in response to the Department’s falling number of available foster carers in the region and was noted (along with Communicare, which was also an agency of the Anglican Health and Welfare Services) as the Coordinator of the Emergency Foster Care Scheme [see entry]. (Annual Report of the Department for Community Services, 1989).
In 1991, Anglicare was “made responsible for the Temporary Foster Care (TFC) Service to young people over the age of 14 and their families.” (Annual Report of the Department for Community Services, June 30th 1991). Departmental files report that Anglicare’s residential programs in 1991 included Temporary Foster Care (for adolescents), the Anglican Youth House [see entry, Anglicare Youth House] and the Western Venture Youth Focus, also at Carlisle [see entry, Youth Focus].
In 1994, Anglicare’s Teenshare program was funded to “provide 24 hour emergency foster care, and medium to long term foster care for young people.”
Purpose: “To provide 24 hour emergency and medium to long term foster care for young people 14-18 years in up to 20 assessed foster homes in the Perth area.”
Key Service Objectives: “To provide 24 hour emergency/temporary placements for children aged 14-18 years in up to 15 assessed foster homes. To provide medium/long term placements for children aged 14-18 years in up to 5 assessed foster homes. To recruit, train and provide effective support during placements, to foster carers.”
1994 services included:
• Teenshare [see entry below] (emergency foster care program)
• Medium/Long term foster care program
• Anglicare Youth House (16-19 years) in Carlisle
(Out of Home, Preventative and Alternative Care Services Review, “Terms of Reference”, Family and Children’s Services, 1995).
In 1995, Anglicare’s Funding Agreement with the Department outlined the purpose of the funded services, the service objectives and performance indicators:
Anglicare’s Housing and Accommodation Programme was funded under the Supported Accommodation Assistance Programme, the Youth Social Justice Initiatives (arising from the Burdekin Report into Youth Homelessness) and the Residential Child Care Programme. Anglicare’s Housing and Accommodation Programme “receives funds to provide temporary housing for homeless families, shared accommodation for young people in a group house situation [Anglicare Youth House, see entry], and short/long term accommodation for 14-18 year olds in households with trained caregivers in the Perth metropolitan area. Youth Focus [see entry] supports 16-17 year olds in Homeswest accommodation in the northern suburbs.
Anglicare is committed to assist people achieve well being through the resoration of their dignity and independence and self-worth.
Service Objectives:
Families and young people who are homeless and in crisis receive supported accommodation.
Parents, children and young people in supported accommodation gain life skills.
Families and young people participate in or develop supportive community networks.
Families leave supported accommodation for other stable long-term accommodation.” (Funding Agreement between Anglicare and Family and Children’s Services 1995, as reported in the Out of Home, Preventative and Alternative Care Services Review, “Terms of Reference”, Family and Children’s Services, 1995). |