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Note from Chair |
As I now enter into my seventh year as Chair the opportunity to reflect over the past 12 months is more than welcomed. Again the year has been full of many exceptional highlights. As a Board in early July 2022, we came together with the CEO and senior leaders to give consideration to the business we were engaged in, potential challenges and our ambitions. We talked at great length about what was our formula for success and how we should always prioritise key elements such as our capacity to respond effectively when needed, to provide high-quality and evidence-informed services and always aim at doing more and doing it better. In short, we agreed we should take nothing for granted and that we should never take our eyes off quality.
By mid-October, our ability to respond to a significant demand surge was again at the forefront with another devastating natural disaster impacting large areas of our State. Building on our growing expertise I was very proud of our ability to once again support those impacted by the floods through efficient and effective intake and rapid responses to housing relocation needs. We were also very honoured to work with many local agencies supporting them to drive local responses during a difficult time for them and their staff impacted by this natural disaster.
As a Board, we have received inspiring updates across the year directly related to our Strategic Plan with senior managers presenting on key items such as Welcoming & Inclusion, People & Capability, Consumer Engagement and the development of a long-awaited Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. As we conclude this report we enter into a new three-year strategic plan cycle and based on contributions from many sources including the Board, I am looking forward to another productive period.
In closing, I would like to welcome to the Board George Salvanera and acknowledge the departure of David Sagar after six years of service. I would also like to acknowledge the departures of Kate Lord and Guy Peckham from our Service and Enterprise Risk Committee and welcome Kosta Zambitoglou. I truly appreciate the commitment demonstrated by all Board and Advisory Committee members as they volunteer their time to Windermere and its broader community. I further extend my thanks to the management team and the now 300-plus staff for all that you do. It is truly a pleasure being part of such a committed and dedicated team of people.
Gary Castricum
Chair
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Note from CEO |
As we draw to the end of our 2020-23 Strategic Plan, "Doing it better together" there is much to celebrate. Across the three years, we have focused on four themes: Improve lives; Ask, listen, act; Do more & do it better; and Evidence matters. Across the last 12 months work has continued across our many strategic priorities. To acknowledge some quick highlights the work of our Welcoming & Inclusion Project to support the commencement of our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RRAP), Rainbow Tick and internal knowledge building have achieved the inclusion of new policies, procedures and commitment to new practice. True progress has been made in shaping our commitment to the Voice of the Child and reshaping our Employee Value Proposition. Every project has engaged a cross-section of our organisation and strengthened our ability to support our consumers.
As always with one planning period concluding there is always the excitement of "What next?" Here at Windermere, there is never a shortage of ambition hence while the ink is drying on our next plan it is important to not lose sight of what has been achieved.
As the CEO, I fully recognise that inclusion is reliant on action, leadership and broad thinking across our service delivery, policy development and workplace. Together with all our staff, I look forward to progressing our inclusion work in the years to come. This year we also committed further to continue building a stronger evidence-based approach to our practice. As always, we were truly excited to continue our valued partnership with the Parent Research Centre moving from an Excel spreadsheet to a real-time database collecting and reporting consumer outcomes and supporting our staff to develop an even deeper understanding of their practice approach and, more importantly, the impact they can create together with our consumers.
Across 2022-23 there have been many wonderful outcomes, as stated by the Chair, our ability to support and respond to the October 2022 Floods was a significant privilege, along with successfully seeking and being awarded the opportunity to expand our Victim Assistance Support services from two regions into four. This year we also sought to expand our Out of Hours School Care footprint. Having been testing our service structure over the previous 12 months we went from two to five school partnerships and we look forward to more in the future. Across our many other service areas, great work continues to occur in engaging with our consumers to support them in achieving their goals and we look forward to continuing this work into 2023-24.
Finally and of significant impact is the near completion of our Narre Warren site refurbishment. A project that commenced pre-COVID and is on track to reopen in August 2023, there is much to be proud of, the consumer spaces are respectful and the employee work stations inspiring with multiple collaboration locations bringing teams back in for purposeful engagement. A new space to be enjoyed for many, many years to come.
As we embark on the next 12-month period I know that the dedicated team at Windermere will once again remain focused on delivering great services and advancing strategic outcomes at all levels. Thank you to everybody for your commitment and dedication, it is my pleasure to work with you every day.
Dr Lynette Buoy
Chief Executive Officer
In the 2022-2023 financial year we supported
26,670children, families and individuals.
That’s
people every week and
people every day.
Your expertise as a Victim Assistance Provider is evident, but it's the human qualities – your patience, kindness, and unwavering support – that truly set you apart. The comfort and safety I felt knowing you were there, helping to guide and advocate for me, were invaluable.
Windermere’s support, communication and advocacy has been nothing short of incredible. The family I referred had differing complexities including major health issues impacting their children. Their worker has really thought outside the box … I just wanted to thank Windermere for their Housing Support program and for having a dedicated, caring, professional support worker who is not afraid to go the extra mile. Thank you.
I was supported by a Windermere worker after the bushfires for many months with regular phone conversations. She is empathetic, understanding and patient. Her farm background and love for animals made it easy for me to connect with a person I have never met before.
Our family services support worker has made a world of difference in raising our pre-teen daughters. Our family’s parenting styles differ but with my worker’s input we are finally on the same page and homelife is more peaceful. Thank you.
I recently went through the court process as a victim of a paedophile. I had unwavering support and belief in me by my Windermere Worker. I am forever grateful and thankful. Your staff are amazing and their experience shone. Throughout the whole process they were available for me and nothing was a problem. Thank you Windermere.
Our strategic plan guides our operational priorities and strategic direction while supporting our purpose and vision as an organisation. This was the last year of enacting our current 2020-2023 strategic plan, which incorporates the themes of:
During the year we concluded our current strategic plan and began developing and launching our new 2023-2026 strategic plan.
During the year our team continued to roll out our new Practitioner Coaching Framework (PCF) across our practices. The PCF is based on a coaching model which encourages our consumers to build and develop their inner strengths, skills and confidence to problem-solve and meet challenges in their lives. It is a powerful and effective way of promoting the capacity of the people we work with so they can live their best lives independently and safely.
During the year, our advocacy and partnerships with stakeholders resulted in ongoing safe housing for vulnerable victim-survivors. We helped several vulnerable consumers secure long-term housing through our positive partnership with Viv’s Place, Dandenong. Our participation in the regional motel mapping project facilitated collaboration with hotel and motel operators to provide safe and appropriate emergency accommodation to those fleeing family violence.
We have effectively integrated our rapid response model to support flexible demand management strategies, enhancing our ability to meet the needs of our consumers in family violence crises.
The Rapid Response model also aligns with the government family violence crisis response model reforms that will impact demand management and bring about a process change going forward.
We also made significant progress during the year to roll out the PCF firstly through a pilot group of our team with subsequent rollout throughout the team. This has demonstrated the positive impact our services have on our consumers in areas of stable housing, safety and recovery from family violence.
Our funded services are dedicated to addressing homelessness and continue to offer assistance to families experiencing homelessness or facing the risk of becoming homeless in the Southern region.
Loving mum Lucy is no stranger to life's overwhelming challenges. Her first-born daughter Hannah was diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy and has complex needs requiring constant care. Lucy had little help to care for her as well as her son Elliot as she was trapped in an extremely abusive relationship.
Lucy’s only source of support was her mother who fell critically illy leaving Lucy isolated and trapped. Struggling with trauma, depression, and substance use, Lucy's life took a dangerous turn when her partner turned extremely violent. In an attempt to flee from him Lucy lost access to her car.
When Lucy turned to Windermere's Family Violence program for help, it proved to be a lifeline. After helping her secure a suitable rental, her support worker extended assistance during a critical time that followed. As Lucy struggled to cope on her own with a single income, her partner returned to her life with promises of change. When the pattern of violence resumed Child Protection Services intervened to temporarily remove Lucy’s children from her care.
Lucy’s support worker stepped in to link her with further intervention, counselling and other supports. It put Lucy firmly on the path to recovery.
“When you are not alone, you are more likely to be able to change without trying to fill that void with substances. It takes a village and they were my village,” says Lucy who now lives independently with Hannah and Elliot, free from harm and trauma.
Our specialist team provides confidential counselling for individuals and families to assist them in recovering from trauma or challenges as a result of sexual assault and family violence. We concentrated on enhancing the experience of the people we work with by providing more meaningful support to our consumers by meeting their needs in a more timely manner. An increase in our sexual assault funding meant we were able to provide additional support in our counselling services. The counselling wait list has reduced significantly due to our consumers waiting around 2- 3 months for support. Intake and Counselling staff have modified their program practices to ensure all consumers are supported promptly through counselling and group interventions within a trauma-informed framework.
Our partnership with Anglicare’s Trak Forward program ceased in March 2023, but the opportunity to support Inner and Outer Gippsland consumers was a privilege. We support this program by actively referring appropriate consumers who would benefit from this specialist program.
raised to support consumers
across our services
This year, our tax appeal received an overwhelming response from our generous donors and supporters tripling our fundraising goal. These funds go toward urgent and lifesaving supports for the many consumers in need across our services.
In November 2022, a team of 20 trekkers led by AFL legend and Windermere Ambassador Matthew Richardson successfully concluded our Cape to Cape Trek in Western Australia. The campaign nearly doubled our revenue target, raising vital funds for our early intervention school-based program Kids on Track.
During the year, Kids on Track returned to Victorian primary schools in the southern Melbourne region. The program educates grade 5 and 6 students on real-world topics and issues and addresses at-risk and difficult behaviours. The eight-week program delivered in conjunction with Victoria Police ensures that young people stay on track and are empowered to make positive choices.
Our annual Christmas appeal, Merry Mission, returned to its usual format with COVID-19 restrictions behind us. We were once again able to hand over physical gifts and helping hampers to families we have been working with across southeast Victoria.
Our Redress Support Program which was implemented in July 2022 supports individuals who have experienced historical sexual abuse in Australian institutions such as orphanages, churches, hospitals and schools.
Trained in trauma-informed practice, our specialist team is well-placed to help individuals seek assistance and compensation through the National Redress Scheme. During the year, our support workers offered victims survivors a single, confidential point of contact to provide a free support service. This includes identifying next steps based on needs, advocacy and assistance throughout the application process and emotional and practical support.
During the year, we:
As the Facilitating Partner for Communities for Children (CFC) Cranbourne we support Community Partners to provide activities and services for children 0 – 12 years and their families in the Cranbourne area.
Along with emerging themes across the community, we funded activities across our four main priority areas of:
We were delighted to work with a number of new Community Partners this year being: Wellsprings for Women, SELLEN, Cranbourne East Primary School and the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency in addition to Anglicare Victoria, Uniting Vic Tas and Relationships Australia Victoria.
Our Community Partner activities included playgroups, parenting programs, young parent support, school engagement, an in-school activity, homework club and community sessions for parents/carers supporting their children's wellbeing at home.
During the year, Windermere has worked on self-assessing against the Rainbow Tick Standards in readiness for first-round external accreditation in November 2023. Rainbow Tick focuses on ensuring organisational systems are safe and inclusive for the LGBTIQ+ community. In addition to Rainbow Tick, we will be assessed against the Human Services Standards (6th round) and the Quality Improvement Council Health and Community Services Standards (6th round). These standards focus on the quality, safety and effectiveness of service delivery and corporate systems.
Windermere is proud to be working towards compliance with the 11 Child Safe Standards. These standards define systems and practices to keep children and young people safe in their connections with Windermere. A comprehensive self-assessment has been completed, which has informed the development of an action plan. The plan is guiding improvements, including the development of a child-friendly compliments and complaints system.
Our Frankston-based Early Learning Centre, set adjacent to Monash University Peninsula Campus, has been a valued part of Windermere for ten years. It offers a combination of early childhood care and kindergarten in a high-quality learning environment.
During the year our programs were enriched by the placements of Monash University Early Childhood Education, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy students and Early Childhood Education students from Deakin University, Chisholm, Swinburne and several other Registered Training Organisations. We also provided placements for Vocational Education students at our local high schools.
To ensure we could support our children’s development we also liaised with allied health practitioners and engaged Inclusion Support at the Centre. We enriched our children’s experiences with regular community walks and consultation with experts including a behaviour therapist, yoga, wellbeing practitioner and Koorie Engagement Support Officers.
We also worked to enhance the ELC community’s sense of connection by improving our family newsletter and providing more regular updates on StoryPark, an app used for family communications.
Additionally, we were pleased to welcome current families and members of the community to a free information session about kindergarten and school readiness. We greatly value our relationships with local schools and have been delighted to continue to build on these relationships, supporting our kinder children to be ready for their transition to primary school.
We continued to contend with staff shortages, which were reflective of sector-wide workforce challenges.
In late June 2023, Windermere announced a review into whether we could continue to operate as a sole Early Learning Centre service and a difficult decision was made to cease operations at the Centre due to persistent sustainability and viability issues by December 2023.
Our Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) has now expanded to five local primary schools, with three new schools onboarding during the year. We were also delighted to introduce an exciting and varied school holiday program which featured a range of incursions and special activities. Our holiday program also welcomed both children from our OSHC programs as well as the wider community. Additionally, we refined our booking systems to make them more streamlined and responsive to our families' needs, improving their consumer experience.
When ten-year-old Eliza was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes her parents, Bryce and Tracy, swiftly embraced the challenges of managing her lifelong condition. Eliza herself took on the task of monitoring her blood glucose and self-administering insulin injections.
When school holidays approached, Eliza's desire to join a holiday care program presented a challenge. The care programs Bryce and Tracy approached lacked diabetes management training and awareness. As an employee of Monash Health, Tracy, was well-placed to organise training for staff and educators. However, coordinating it proved difficult and it looked as though Eliza would have to miss out on the fun and activities of a holiday program. That’s until they reached out to Windermere.
Windermere welcomed Monash Children's Hospital's training to ensure Eliza's safety. In addition to the online training sessions to understand various aspects of diabetes management, Tracy also held an onsite session for staff focused on administering insulin injections.
For Bryce and Tracy, Windermere's willingness to go the extra mile was invaluable.
“Just knowing that there are organisations like Windermere willing to go the extra mile so our daughter can attend their program and be in safe hands, means a whole lot,” says Bryce.
Many of the families we work with face complex challenges and have needs that impact their wellbeing and safety. During the year we continued to provide a range of services to strengthen and protect vulnerable families while using our PCF model to build their capacity to face day to day challenges. In response to consumer needs we also recruited an additional four full time roles.
We are delighted to begin a partnership with Monash Health providing integrated family services within the Children’s Health and Wellbeing Local. The Children’s Health and Wellbeing Local has been established from recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. These hubs will offer a responsive and integrated system of treatment, care and support that are tailored to the experiences of infants and children, supporting families with children aged 0-11 years experiencing developmental, behavioural and emotional challenges. These supports will not require a referral or a diagnosis before access. The Locals will take a ‘one-stop shop’ and ‘whole-of-family’ approach to supporting infants and children with emotional and mental health, and developmental and physical health challenges. These hubs can provide assessments for a range of conditions, including autism, and will enable those who need it to access publicly funded paediatricians, psychologists and psychiatrists. This model has been developed to include support from Community Health, Family Services Support and Mental Health.
A mum of five children, Nora has sought services from Windermere intermittently, for herself and her family since 2014.
As a teenager, Nora had experienced sexual abuse until she left home at the age of 17. After establishing her own family, she often struggled with her past trauma and emotional triggers. She would fall back into familiar patterns of turmoil and alcohol use.
Determined to make a change, Nora reached out to a range of services including art therapy which helped her find release and healing. In the final step of her journey, Nora turned to Windermere.
“The icing on the cake was when I ended up with Windermere. This time I was in a better head space,” she explains.
Nora’s Support Worker helped her set goals and offered practical support and a listening ear.
“She would talk me through goals, ask how I was going to achieve them and prompt me to take the next step,” she says.
As Nora often prioritised the needs of the family over herself, her support worker helped her find space and bring the focus back on herself.
“If I had not progressed with a goal, she would enquire about it, probe what was holding me back and how to avoid that from repeating,” she explains.
One of the goals that Nora set for herself was to lose weight and improve her diet. Windermere extended assistance to help her access a gym and develop better eating habits.
At the end of her sessions, her support worker offered both practical and emotional support to help Nora continue her progress.
“I gained my wings and I needed to keep flying. We revisited my initial goal setting and added a tick to every single goal. It felt amazing to know that I had everything in place to carry on and that momentum hasn’t stopped.”
We are proud to be proactively making a difference for our staff. The launch of Windermere’s Employee Values Proposition in September 2022 highlighted our flexible ways of working, the option of a nine day fortnight for full time staff, paid parental leave, wellness leave, amendments to our dress code and a range of other benefits.
During the year we continued to research and develop a comprehensive capability framework, which will allow us to identify the skills knowledge and behaviours needed to build the core capabilities in our teams to achieve our organisational objectives.
In parallel with our Capability Framework we also provided three intensive leadership programs for our senior and middle leadership as well as staff identified as ‘emerging leaders’.
The Capability Framework and Employee Values Proposition have added importance as we continue to operate in a challenging recruitment environment. In particular our efforts this year focussed on attracting and retaining experienced allied health practitioners and early childhood education and care workers.
In early 2023 we conducted our Windermere biennial staff survey which seeks feedback from our staff on our processes, systems, rewards, recognition and supports as well as overall satisfaction levels. We were very pleased to see a growth in feelings of engagement and connection with our organisational values since 2021 when the previous staff survey was completed. We were delighted that employee engagement was in the top decile with a score of 86%.
Windermere runs three leadership programs to promote employee learning and development, namely Adaptive Leaders, Transformational Leaders, and Emerging Leaders. Jenny Field, Program Coordinator of Counselling, shares her experiences as a participant in the Transformational Leaders program.
What does being a leader mean to you?
My primary aim as a leader is to support individuals to help them grow and be the best they can be. We are an organisation that deals with consumers with very complex backgrounds and it’s important to support staff who are helping those consumers.
How has this course helped you meet your goals so far?
The course has allowed me to think about the macro and micro skills in leadership. I’ve enjoyed learning about having difficult conversations. While we can always be positive and enjoy work, we do need to address any barriers.
Do you have any learning highlights from the course that you’d like to share?
I am new to leadership, which can be a little isolating. This course has helped me get to know other leaders in the organisation and recognise that they face similar challenges as I do. It’s a relief to know that I am not alone.
Was there a topic or subject that resonated with you the most and why? Understanding that in management uncomfortable aspects are part of the role. Being compassionate while still holding someone accountable is something that I’ve found challenging, and the course has helped me sit with that discomfort.
How important is professional development to you?
In my view it’s non-negotiable. Any organisation that you work for must be committed to professional development. We can never stop learning. Ongoing development helps staff feel secure and promotes positive mental health and staff retention.
Would you recommend this program to your colleagues?
I absolutely recommend this program. It has been an amazing opportunity to reflect on and learn what it means to be a leader. Being around other leaders and learning certain skill sets together help to create consistency of practice right across the organisation. It has also given me more confidence and helped me psychologically.
Our finance team focused on improving productivity and financial reporting, including optimising Accounts Payable and streamlining gift card distribution. They also played a key role in selecting a new CRM system for Windermere.
After concluding the Consumer Experience (CX) research project during the year, we formulated an action plan to enhance the consumer experience across our services. We also optimised our external communications to achieve better consumer engagement and draw more meaningful metrics. This included launching regular Family Day Care email newsletters for families and educators and the NDIS onboarding email series covering the consumer journey.
The NDIS onboarding emails series registered over 70% open rate which sits well above industry standard and serves as a validation of our efforts to improve the consumer experience.
We also developed our internal communications strategy to better reach and engage with our staff. As a result, we introduced our staff newsletter “Windermere Wrap” to share important information and updates about our organisation. Windermere Wrap was well received among staff achieving high open rates with the highest being an impressive 97.4%.
In 2022-2023, our NDIS services continued to show steady growth across Plan Management, Support Coordination and Early Intervention Therapy Services.
To strengthen our highly skilled and growing workforce, we increased systems of support for our staff through enhanced workplace practices to drive an overall positive culture. This has led to a significant boost in staff morale, which was made evident through our pulse survey results. The collective commitment to support our teams has in turn translated to better outcomes for those we support, as demonstrated through the favourable consumer feedback we have received during the year.
In April 2023, we attended the Melbourne Disability Connections Expo with a view to enhance community engagement and build relationships across the disability sector. Windermere was among 200 exhibitors featuring NDIS service providers, Allied Health, Plan Management, Support Coordination, Early Intervention and Therapy Services and more.
Seven years ago, Michael sustained a brain injury that altered his way of life and his ability to function independently. Michael uses a wheelchair at all times and has dystonia, a neurological disorder that causes repetitive movements, and impaired speech.
Despite these many challenges, Michael continues to maintain an active lifestyle with the support of those around him including his mother Kristina. All Abilities Basketball, weightlifting and leg work at the gym, hydrotherapy, speech therapy and exercise physiotherapy fill his weekly calendar.
Two years ago, Michael and Kristina turned to Windermere for Support Coordination services and since then, he has been able to improve many aspects of his life. As an when required, Michael’s Support Coordinator Suzanne engages new services for Michael, prepares paperwork for NDIS plan reviews, conducts research on new equipment and coordinates with Occupational Therapists to assess equipment.
“A lot of the stress has been taken off me as Suzanne deals with it all and works within budget,” says Kristina.
Recently, Suzanne was able to help Michael acquire dynamic seating for his wheelchair to alleviate friction caused by his repetitive movements. Similarly, a muscle mat for Michael’s gym has helped him raise himself up on his knees. Suzanne also helped Michael have a higher railing installed for his bed to prevent him from falling off while sleeping.
“As Michael travels to visit his family outside of Victoria, Suzanne also helped us get a high-quality mobile shower commode that can withstand his dystonic movements,” explains Kristina.
In this way, Support Coordination plays a key role in Michael’s life and helps him overcome many challenges.
“Michael has advanced in leaps and bounds in the last couple of years, and that has a lot to do with Windermere and Suzanne,” says Kristina.
The Mighty Munchers program is designed to address a range of feeding difficulties in children and help them develop a balanced diet. During the year, the intensive program shifted to six weekly sessions aimed at children aged three to five years who may have fussy eating tendencies or feeding difficulties due to sensory issues or impaired oral motor development.
The program aims to work with children from an early age recognising that improved diet has a flow on effect on other aspects of development including learning outcomes and cognition. “We aim to educate children in this younger demographic about the importance of healthy dietary intake not only to meet the predetermined NDIS dietary goals but to also develop healthy eating habits,” says Senior Dietitian Emma Jettner, who runs the program together with Occupational Therapist, Georgia Presutto.
Integrating food play principles consistent with the SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) approach, the program also considers possible barriers to eating such as fine motor skills development for using cutlery. Working on repeated exposure and eventual acceptance of foods within the five main food groups, the program focuses on fruits and vegetables as they are typically the two main food groups known to present the greatest challenge.
While a fun and engaging environment and repetition are important aspects for progress, peer modelling during sessions further supports positive outcomes for children.
“We have noticed great success in food acceptance when families are able to support play-based activities and implement them in the home environment,” adds Emma.
Each weekly group session runs for 45 minutes and at the conclusion of the six weeks parents can continue with one-on-one food therapy sessions and parent support as required.
In 2022-2023 our recovery support programs retained and expanded its services significantly.
Our recovery response to previous events, including Bushfires (2019, 2020) and Storm (2021) established our credibility as a key recovery support provider. As a result, Windermere was identified as the “go-to” provider to respond to the October 2022 flood event.
The devastating October floods not only impacted whole communities but also significantly challenged local support services. Windermere was able to step in and deliver a statewide intake and triage response.
We nearly tripled our recovery workforce, mobilising support workers through methods such as secondments and the use of locums, demonstrating our agility as an organisation.
This increased capacity allowed us to reinforce the statewide response by taking up the majority of the ongoing recovery support cases and providing a tailored trauma-informed response.
We also continued our work in bushfire and storm recovery support as we received further extensions to continue these services
In 2021, Yarra Ranges was the epicentre of one of the most devastating storm events in Victoria’s history. Families were left displaced and devastated and Windermere was called upon to provide recovery support.
During the storm, Marcia's 20-year-old daughter Willow experienced a near miss when a large tree branch fell through the roof where she had been sleeping. They were left in fear for their lives because emergency services couldn't reach them due to the severity of the storm. After the storm, Marcia had to deal with bureaucratic obstacles in accessing funds to rebuild their lives. Relief finally came when Macia and Willow came into contact with Windermere.
The family had already suffered a great loss prior to the storm as a reckless driver had robbed them of a loving father and husband. The memories of him tied to their home were also swept away in the storm.
In the face of all these difficulties, they found in Tracey an empathetic ear and much-needed advocate. Tracey dealt with the insurance company to ensure they received adequate payouts. She linked the family with financial services and provided them with vouchers to regain household items.
Tracey also offered emotional support for Marcia through psychological first aid, weekly phone calls and a journalling group. With Tracey’s encouragement, Willow took part in speaking events to share her lived experience. Her bravery in sharing her story to help others earned her the Young Citizen of the Year Award at the Yarra Ranges Council’s 2023 Australia Day Awards. Tracey provided referrals to Marcia’s 16-year-old son as well to help him cope with the loss. The family is now on a path to recovery and has settled into their new home.
“To have Windermere was like a light at the end of the tunnel and made it a lot easier for us to move on. Tracey is one of the most compassionate people I’ve ever met, and it was validating to know that we weren’t alone,” says Willow.
After the Victorian floods in December 2022, senior citizen George suddenly became homeless when the rising flood waters destroyed his house, his car and all his belongings. George had no other choice but to move from house to house to live with different family members across Victoria.
He was soon out of accommodation options as his family struggled to cope. When George was referred to Windermere’s Flood Recovery Program he was homeless, emotional and overwhelmed.
Windermere arranged emergency accommodation for George, to give him some much-needed stability. His recovery support worker spent substantial time with George lending a listening ear to establish a rapport with him. George eventually began to express his feelings of deep hopelessness and suicide.
His recovery support worker carried out a risk assessment, reached out to the local GP for a mental health review and referred him to Rural Health Connect for free counselling.
Through these supports George was able to access therapy tools to build resilience and knowledge of the effects of trauma.
To reduce his isolation, his recovery support worker arranged welfare visits while he remained in emergency accommodation. As George was left in the dark about the rebuilding of his home, the Windermere support worker made enquiries on its status and reached out to a financial counsellor through Anglicare to find much-needed answers.
His support worker continues to advocate for George and is engaging with the insurance company to secure funds for accommodation and the rebuilding of his home.
As the mobility of our workforce increases, so too does our reliance on our technology and we have focussed on ensuring we are continuously strengthening our technology infrastructure.
The rollout of the Microsoft Intune cloud based technology across our workforce has allowed all our teams to access data remotely, efficiently and securely. Our telephone system has now been completely upgraded to Microsoft Teams, allowing for more flexibility and efficiency. We also rolled out upgrades to 177 staff mobile phones and 155 computers during the year.
An important focus has also been to identify potential risks to our IT systems and data so that we can reduce and manage these risks. This has included the completion of a vendor risk management tool and the development of security awareness training for our staff. Migrating our critical servers to the cloud based Azure system has also allowed us to increase our data security.
To support our long-term interactions with our consumers, it is essential to have a comprehensive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. An internal working group comprehensively reviewed our organisational-specific needs for a CRM and identified Salesforce as our provider. Plans are now being developed to roll out and integrate our new CRM.
We have always recognised that our workplace, its environment, infrastructure and facilities play an integral role in facilitating the work we do. This has led us on a six-year journey of planning and refurbishment to deliver purposeful and welcoming spaces at our Narre Warren site.
From the internal demolition stage that commenced in 2021 through to occupancy in mid 2023 we were able to operate our full range of services via a combination of accommodation options including City of Casey leased rooms, space in a neighbouring community organisation and our Pakenham office at the Toomah Community Centre. In consultation with our service teams and consumers we created safer spaces for our staff and our community.
Our updated premises feature:
Since the launch of our Welcoming & Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan in the previous year, we have continued to focus on its implementation and have so far completed 36 of its 53 actions.
These actions contribute to our aspiration of becoming a truly diverse and inclusive organisation by ensuring culturally safe environments for consumers and employees. The strategy places particular focus on those who have experienced discrimination and lack of equity which informed our four priority areas namely, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the disability community, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities (CALD) and the LGBTIQ+ community.
We are currently delivering mandatory training in these four priority areas, and more than 80% of permanent staff have already completed LGBTIQ+ training. Once training on inclusive practices and language was well underway, we rolled out the Pride Progress flag across our internal and external communications.
During the year we also introduced new policies such as the Diversity and Inclusion policy for consumers and employees, Workplace Adjustments policy and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural and Ceremonial Leave policy. We also updated our Paid Parental Leave and Service Delivery policies. These improvements further served to enhance employee and consumer well-being and drive our workforce agility.
In continuing our commitment to our action plan, we also commenced working toward our Rainbow Tick Accreditation and developing our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RRAP).
Windermere is proud to manage the venue hire space at Toomah Community Centre, Pakenham in partnership with Cardinia Council. The Centre offers competitively priced spaces for meetings, functions and consulting suites as well as an on-site Café. Discounts are provided to community groups and not-for-profits.
During part of the year, we were also delighted to share some of our office space with The Orange Door, which provides support for people experiencing family violence. Toomah was also temporarily the site of our head office while our Narre Warren office was being refurbished.
With the removal of COVID-19 restrictions, we have been delighted to see interest in venue hire also reviving. This means we have now been able to meet the venue hire needs for an increasing range of different parties, including community groups, schools, training organisations and businesses.
Thank you to each and every one of you who have supported our events for over a decade. The funds raised have allowed us to continue our work to support and strengthen our community.
The continued integration of a Continuous Practice Improvement System has allowed us to use evidence to improve our practice and systems to better support the needs of the families we work with by gaining deeper insights into what they experience and what their challenges may be.
The Continuous Practice Improvement System compiles data into quick-glance dashboards. Drawing on our previous experience of introducing the dashboards to our Integrated Family Services team we have now begun the implementation and utilisation of data dashboards for our homelessness and family violence service areas.
We know that family adversity has established long-term negative impacts on the health and well-being of families and their children across their lifetimes. Adversity increases the risk of a range of serious impacts including anxiety, depression, suicidality, obesity, cancer and heart disease.
Adverse childhood impact can include maltreatment, such as physical or sexual abuse and household dysfunction, such as parental mental illness. Adverse community environments can include factors such as housing affordability, poverty and discrimination.
Data provided by our dashboards allows us to gain greater insights into our consumers and ultimately better meet their needs. It also provides us with the ability to share these insights with other organisations and government so we can all be more responsive to needs.
Our data indicates that of the adults and children who receive family services supports from us:
After experiencing significant disruptions to our Mums and Bubs program during Covid, this year’s emphasis has been on revitalising and enhancing our support framework. This reinforced our ability to support young mothers facing homelessness often as a result of family violence.
We were able to give young mothers the tools and guidance to find stability, achieve safety and transition into ongoing accommodation. Our mentoring sessions continued to empower them by developing their confidence in parenting while guidance on cooperative living and education on conflict resolution equipped them with essential life skills. This ensured a secure and positive living experience within the Mums & Bubs house.
During the year, the program shifted to data-driven measures aligning with the PCF to facilitate a more consistent assessment of our impact. While this is currently at the early stages of implementation, it serves to meet our strategic objectives of improving consumer experience through better use of data.
Five-year-old Ryan is a happy young boy with a promising future ahead of him. That’s thanks to his determined young mum Claire who sought help from our Mums & Bubs program when Ryan was only a few months old.
Claire had grown up in a poorly kept home in the absence of parental guidance or support. At age 18, she gave birth to Ryan and arrived at Mums & Bubs to find safety from severe family violence. When Child Protection Services intervened during her initial period of stay, Mums & Bubs worked to have Ryan safely returned to her care allowing Claire to continue her residency. Once settled in, Mums & Bubs organised mental health support and a referral to Queen Elizabeth Centre (QEC) to address sleep and settling issues. Mums & Bubs also provided mentoring on parenting skills and tackling everyday tasks.
Since leaving the house, Claire’s troubles continued. Her partner suddenly passed away leaving her a single mum of three young children. Although her life journey was closely following her mother’s, Claire could reach out to Mums & Bubs for guidance. Today she lives independently in a new rental with her three children and feels confident that she is a better parent. Ryan’s graduation from kinder marks a new beginning and a promising end to the generational cycle of trauma.
“I’m so proud of myself. I do everything on my own and they are happy kids. I did all of that,” she says.
*Details changed to protect privacy
For over two decades, our Victims Assistance Program has been providing vital supports to consumers who have witnessed or experienced a violent crime. Our deep understanding of the practice framework and long-term expertise in victim support was recognised, as this year we were successful at tender; we secured a new contract period for our existing programs in the Southern Metropolitan and Gippsland regions and expanded into new regions in the East and West metro areas.
This large-scale expansion presents opportunities to raise our profile in the not-for-profit sector and develop new partnerships. We also established a Victims Response Unit to facilitate an innovative centralised intake across the four VAP regions enabling us to provide a rapid and streamlined response to victims of violent crime.
Earlier in the year, our VAP Gippsland team relocated from Morwell to new office premises in Traralgon in response to consumer preferences and to better suit our flexible ways of working.
When Riley was out with her friends, a chance encounter with a stranger placed her directly in harm’s way. She was held captive, assaulted and robbed of all her money and possessions. When she finally escaped with her life, she reported the crime to the police.
Although Riley’s perpetrator was apprehended, Riley fell pregnant as a result of the sexual assault. She made the difficult decision to keep the pregnancy due to her strong beliefs.
When Riley was referred to Windermere’s Gippsland Victims Assistance Program, she had no means to support herself and had nowhere to turn. To make matters worse, her due date was fast approaching and she was struggling to find suitable accommodation. She had sought temporary refuge with a relative who couldn’t support her for long. Without a place to call home Riley risked losing custody of her newborn baby.
As Riley was not in a family violence circumstance, her options were limited. Her support worker exhausted every avenue and her diligence finally paid off. Through a contact in a service in regional Victoria, Riley’s support worker found a suitable apartment soon to be available in a refuge. The Windermere support worker secured it for Riley just in time; a day after moving in, Riley went into labour and delivered a healthy baby girl.
Today, Riley and her baby are safe and receiving the care and support they need. Windermere continues to provide support linking her with legal services to help her access financial assistance as a victim of crime. This further support will help with ongoing counselling and relocation costs when needed.
*Details changed to protect privacy
In 2022-2023, we took necessary steps to give educators more access to training to drive their development and improve their experience and service in early education and care.
To further support educators in marketing their business, we drew insights from educator surveys to refine our methods of training and workshops.
As a result, we have initiated steps to develop online video training while also continuing with face-to-face training, based on request. This would give our educators access to training and development in formats that meet their needs.
We have also commenced planning online modules for our onboarding process to deliver a more efficient and streamlined experience for educators. Changing the way we use technology for training as well as onboarding serves to improve the employee experience for our educators.
During the year, we adapted playgroups to include Bush Playgroup in our Family Day Care programs to foster community connections and connections to land and nature for our educators and their families. We also focused on projects geared toward developing staff knowledge and understanding of Child Safe Standards to further enhance our Family Day Care service.
Aimee Keays began her career as an educator in long day care, but since joining Windermere to run her family day care business, she hasn’t look back. The laidback environment of her home in Langwarrin means calmer children and more opportunities for one-on-one interactions.
“I am able to provide better quality care for each family and I have more time to spend with my own children,” she says.
Aimee takes in children as young as three months all the way up to kinder age with a limit of four children at a time. This relaxed small group setting offers benefits such as reduced incidence of illness and the ability to place siblings together.
The flexibility of Family Day Care extends to busy parents as well. Parents having a busy morning can drop children off in their pyjamas and let them get ready at Aimee’s. Children get to enjoy spontaneous activities including those that foster cultural inclusivity such as sharing recipes or learning a key word from another language. Structured activities keep little ones occupied throughout the day and a typical day covers both indoor and outdoor experiences.
The children love going to Aimee’s family day care so much so, that according to one family, “it’s like going to an auntie’s house or a friend’s house” for their child.
“I love that I get to form lasting bonds with the families. Sometimes I run into them after many years and they still remember me,” she adds.
Donations
Raised
Gary Castricum – Chair
Alane Fineman – Vice Chair
Mark Findlay – Treasurer
David Sagar
Malcolm Bailey
Rod Wiedermann
Dr. Janine Pickering
Kelly Dickson
Elke Gjergja
George Selvanera
Service & Enterprise Risk
Committee
Finance & Audit Committee
Remuneration & Succession
Advisory Committee
Narre Warren Capital Works Advisory Committee
Each of the sub-committees are comprised of external and internal members with appropriate expertise or qualifications.
We are doing more, thanks to your support!
Carl Strachan OAM
Don Moyes
Jason McLeod
Carl Strachan, OAM
David Parkin, OAM
Matthew Richardson
Windermere continues to maintain a strong financial position ensuring organisational sustainability and ongoing commitment to providing effective and quality services to our community’s most vulnerable individuals.
In line with our vision of “do more and do it better”, we continue to invest in strategic projects with the objectives of further strengthening our organisation’s position with improved systems and processes to build resilience and prepare for future challenges.
Our current year’s strong financial result is driven by continuing support from our funding bodies, robust financial management and steady demand for our Fee for Service programs. Our competent workforce and engaged Board and Committee members further contribute to our strong financial position. We are confident in our ability to continue delivering valuable services to our consumers and the community.
Windermere offices are located at a number of sites across South Eastern Victoria.
Contact us for more details:
Phone: 1300 946 337 • info@windermere.org.au