Frontier Services

Frontier Services

1. FRONTIER SERVICES –

A NATIONAL AGENCY

1.1 Frontier Services is a national agency of the Uniting Church in Australia, with responsibility for ministry and community services in remote areas of the continent.

1.2 It is the successor to the Australian Inland Mission of the Presbyterian Church, the Federal Methodist Inland Mission, and the National Home Mission of the Congregational Union of Australia.

1.3 It is a public benevolent institution and a registered charity, providing its services on a not-for-profit basis, as an expression of Christian compassion and concern.

2. INTERIM MANDATE

2.1 The interim mandate of Frontier Services, approved by the Assembly Standing Commit-tee in July 1998 asks us

To support synods, presbyteries and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress in developing, staffing and equipping the Church for ministry and mission in remote areas of Australia, particularly through the provision of a broad range of human services;

To enable the Uniting Church in Australia to consider how life within remote Australia shapes understanding and articulation of the gospel of Jesus Christ;

To act, within its own life and through the ministries and services it provides, to promote reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in remote areas of Australia;

To identify need and where necessary propose new national services, consulting with synods, presbyteries and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress about them and their implementation and identifying and negotiating appropriate funding sources;

In co operation with other Assembly agencies, to address issues of social justice which arise within remote areas;

To develop ecumenical relationships, pastoral planning and co operative action with other Christian communions working in remote areas;

To raise funds within and outside the Uniting Church for the work of Frontier Services beyond that raised by the Assembly budget allocation;

To develop and provide to the Assembly Standing Committee appropriate policy recommendations and guidelines for the Uniting Church Frontier Services

3. THE MISSION OF FRONTIER SERVICES

3.1 The mission of Frontier Services is:

To nurture and grow community and individual life in remote areas, through services and relationships which overcome the dis-advantages of distance and reflect faith through action.

4. FRONTIER SERVICES’ VISION

4.1 Frontier Services’ vision is that:

In the remote areas of Australia –

Reconciliation will become reality

Hope will replace anxiety and despair

Development will benefit the community, and

Everyone will have appropriate access to human services.

5. HIGHLIGHTS OF 1997-2000

5.1 Over the past three years, Frontier Services has:

maintained 16 patrol ministers in the field, across an area of approximately 7,500,000 sq kms. Ministers visited over 15000 remote families and hundreds of communities of all kinds;

acted on recommendations of the Patrol Development Report, especially to improve connections and relationships with Synods and Presbyteries;

developed an increasingly co operative working relationship with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC);

together with UAICC (SA) inaugurated the Mobile Aboriginal Patrol, and with UAICC (WA) established the Western Desert Community Development Project;

played an increasing role in advancing and advocating for Reconciliation;

assisted in negotiations for the replacement of the sacred stone above John Flynn’s grave at Mt Gillen;

significantly extended its aged care services, and established respite services in the Northern Territory and in South Australia;

maintained its nursing services in Queensland and South Australia;

maintained 3 Student Group Homes in Queensland;

extended its Remote Area Families Services (RAFS) to cover all of outback Queensland;

established the Remote Family Care Service to provide 3 weeks of in-home care to families with children under 5 and without access to mainstream services;

continued to provide and to expand a range of community support services including Home and Community Care Services, Family Support Services and Community Support Services;

renegotiated more relevant service provision arrangements for the Community Settlement Services in WA;

adopted a new Strategic Plan;

appointed a Community Services Manager for Queensland & SA;

sought to recruit a National Development Manager;

appointed an Associate National Director to support the patrol ministry;

adopted the Interim Mandate of the Assembly (July 1998);

farewelled Reverend Brian Smith and appointed Rosemary Young as National Director.

6. ACTIVITIES AND ACTION

6.1 Patrols

Frontier Services Patrol ministers are often the only source of spiritual support and confiding trust for isolated families and those who work in the outback. Over the past three years, padres travelled about 1,000,000 kms a year, to bring solace and companionship to over 15000 families.

6.1.1 Structural changes in the inland are playing havoc with people’s lives. As services and communities contract, so the demands on those who remain increase, bringing eventually an intolerable burden to bear on family and community. Increasingly those upon whom the responsibility for the continuity of community falls are the clergy, and they are relied upon for support, wise counsel and friendship by those who continue to live in the bush.

6.1.2 The social and psychological results of these changes have been described in numerous reports but some manifestations are particularly poignant. For instance, while most city Australians know that youth suicide increased by 71% over the last three decades, few know that in rural and remote Australia teenage boys currently take their lives at 12 times the rate of city boys, and teenage girls in the bush at 5 times the rate*.

6.1.3 The increased stresses experienced by those in remote communities are making considerable demands on the pastoral and counselling abilities of patrol ministers – and emphasis is being placed on upgrading their skills to assist them in dealing with these issues.

6.2 Reconciliation – Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress. Three years ago Frontier Services and UIACC set about developing a dynamic working relationship. There has been pleasing progress. Aboriginal members have joined the Frontier Services Reference Committee and co-operative arrangements have paved the way for joint work in South Australia and Western Australia, with more to follow.

6.3 Reconciliation - Negotiation, Advocacy, and Practice

No recent event more profoundly symbolised the hopes and possibilities of Reconciliation than did the re-dedication of Reverend John Flynn’s grave at Mt Gillen, near Alice Springs in September 1999. On that day, after three years of extensive negotiation between 14 parties, the huge stone above Flynn’s grave was returned to its traditional owners, the Kaytetye and Warumungu peoples at Karlukarlu, and replaced by a stone donated by the Arrernte people, from a local sacred site.

6.3.1 Reconciliation that day was affirmed between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, between the Uniting Church and three groups of Aboriginal traditional owners, between the traditional owners themselves, and between Flynn’s family, the Arrernte, the Kaytetye and the Warumungu peoples. Frontier Services played a prominent role in the sometimes delicate negotiations, advocated the return of the Karlukarlu stone and welcomed the offer of the Arrernte stone as a replacement. The Service of Dedication at Mt Gillen was led by Reverend Brian Smith, then National Director of Frontier Services.

6.3.2 Development and training have commenced for patrol ministers in cross-cultural work and the growth of relationships which will lead to reconciliation, notably at the Shared Future Retreat held in Adelaide in January 2000. Simultaneously, Frontier Services is working to ensure that its services to Aboriginal people are provided in culturally appropriate ways. For instance, training courses for carers of Aboriginal people have moved from formal institutional environments to local communities where, typically, discussion based training might now be conducted in the open air environments of the people who are to be cared for.

6.4 Aged and Community Care

Frontier Services is now the largest provider of residential aged care services in the Northern Territory, and provides other aged care services throughout the outback. In 1997 Frontier Services took over the management of the 40-bed Chan Park Aged Care Facility at Palmerston NT and is now preparing to rebuild that facility on a greenfields site with increased capacity.

6.4.1 Frontier Services has maintained its operation of Old Timers in Alice Springs and built a new administrative centre and a 20-bed low care facility, Flynn Lodge. We continue to maintain 43 cottages on the Old Timers Site and to support their residents.

6.4.2 Aged care services have continued at Pulkapulkka Kari in Tennant Creek, Rocky Ridge in Katherine and Marlgu Village in Wyndham. Significant upgrading has occurred at both Pulkapulkka Kari and at Rocky Ridge.

6.4.3 At the time of preparation of this report, all our facilities in the Northern Territory are finalising their preparations for accreditation and Marlgu has already been accredited!!!

6.4.4 Home and Community Care (HACC) Services, which allow the elderly and younger people with a disability to remain independent in their own homes, continue to expand at Kunnunurra, Wyndham, Mount Isa and Andamooka.

6.4.5 A Carer Respite Centre and associated Dementia Respite Service were opened in Alice Springs in 1997, and we now provide Carer Respite services to Roxby Downs and Andamooka in association with the Adelaide Central Mission.

6.4.6 The Territory Older Persons Support Service in the Northern Territory is a Commonwealth initiative which provides support for those with dementia and who are at risk of being excluded or otherwise prevented from accessing appropriate services.

6.4.7 The Veterans Community Development Project which commenced in 1998 was completed in 1999 and identified services available to veterans in the Territory and recommended to the Commonwealth means of filling gaps identified in service provision.

6.4.8 Training for carers of people with dementia has also been an important program over the past three years, much of it in cross-cultural settings with Aboriginal people.

6.5 Health Care

Frontier Services’ remote area nurses continued to provide primary healthcare and to deal with injuries and trauma at clinics in Andamooka, Marla, Mintabie, Birdsville and Bedourie.

6.5.1 Advanced trauma training has been provided for all staff. The Primary Clinical Care Manual developed by Queensland Health and the RFDS has been adopted as protocol and Queensland staff trained and accredited as isolated practitioners.

6.6 Remote Area Families Services (RAFS)

RAFS mobile teams provide much needed support for isolated parents and children who have no other access to child care advice and support, across a huge area of Queensland. They provide expert childhood development advice, and socialising activities for children. New teams were established in North Queensland in 1998 and Emerald in 1999. RAFS now operates across an area of 1,000,000 sq kms. The teams serve 1500 families with 2500 children on 1000 properties. No other such service is available to these parents.

6.7 Remote Family Care Service

Established just 3 years ago, the Remote Family Care Service provides in home care for families who have at least one child under 5 and no access to mainstream services. Approximately 15 full time carers are employed to provide care for 3 weeks at a time.

6.8 Student Group Homes

Frontier Services also maintained its Student Group Homes in Atherton, Charleville and Mt Isa. These homes–away–from–home, run by dedicated houseparents, are provided for children from isolated properties and communities, who would not otherwise be able to continue their education.

6.9 Community Services in Western Australia

In the East and West Pilbara regions, Community Settlement Services have continued to support migrants settling there, isolated not only by distance but by cultural differences and language, and the Karratha Occasional Care program provides support for young families.

6.9.1 At Meekatharra, the Murchison Financial Advocacy Program is focussing on the needs of young people in that community, seeking to provide a sound basis for their future.

6.10 Frontier Services operating budget of $13 000 000 per year allows us to provide these services. Last year, this comprised approx-imately 70% Government funding and the balance was raised from other sources.

7. STRATEGIC PLAN

7.1 Frontier Services has adopted a strategic plan for the next 5 years. It includes the following key strategies:-

7.1.1 Agent of Access: Frontier Services will, as a primary focus, seek to identify need; identify appropriate responses including, if necessary, services and providers, and link people in need to appropriate responses through quality relationships.

7.1.2 Service Provision: The secondary role of Frontier Services as a major provider of services will strengthen the access role. In turn the access role will shape the provision of services.

7.1.3 Expansion of Ministry: These two roles warrant an expansion of ministry in terms of numbers, cross-cultural training and team roles including Aboriginal members and ecumenical co operation.

7.1.4 Reconciliation: Frontier Services will be further engaged in covenanting and an exemplar for reconciliation in its many service roles.

7.1.5 Recruitment and Training: Our vision of hope and development will be realised by providing Frontier Services staff with additional training in such disciplines as: counselling, cross cultural understanding, computer literacy, and com-munity development.

7.1.6 Communication: A critical success factor for Frontier Services is a program that provides and maintains good communications using appropriate technology.

7.1.7 Public Relations: Frontier Services does not enjoy good recall in key sectors of the community. A corrective program is needed to produce badging consistency. Regular image surveys of major stakeholders will inform fund raising and public identity programs.

7.1.8 Fundraising: Professionally directed cam-paigns are needed to raise funds from traditional donors and new sources The funding base will be broadened and future targets will include the corporate sector.

7.1.9 Shared Future: Frontier Services is mandated by the Assembly to act within its own life, and through the ministries and services it provides, to further reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in remote areas of Australia. The Assembly Standing Committee has also requested that Frontier Services expand its role as an agent of reconciliation in the isolated parts of this country; explore ways in which indigenous people can participate in the development of its progress and services, and to report to the Assembly on progress made.

7.2 We have taken the first steps in a long process. The next involve training for patrol ministers in cross cultural relationships and reconciliation; developing specific initiatives for reconciliation through patrol ministries; identifying best practice and further improving practices in the delivery of services in a cross cultural setting, and developing processes for full participation of all members on the Frontier Services Reference Committee.

8. FUTURE COSTS

8.1 It will cost approximately $14 million per annum to maintain Frontier Services’ current level of services over the next three years. It will cost more to meet any additional needs implied by our mandate, and the extension of services that should flow from our Strategic Plan.

8.2 We will continue to ensure that adequate Government funding is provided for those services which we provide under service agreements. However funds for the vital work of our patrols, which are our most significant cost centre, and to support our other extensive community service programs must continue to be found by Frontier Services - and the Church.

8.3 In an increasingly competitive market, fundraising is becoming more and more of a challenge. Nevertheless, Frontier Services intends to raise its donation, legacy and sponsorship efforts to achieve higher targets than the 10.5% of total income we raised last year. The appointment of a National Development Manager will assist in meeting this goal.

9. 21^ST CENTURY FRONTIERS

Frontier Services is one of the most extensive services providing support to Australia’s vast rural and remote heartlands.

Frontier Services’ vital work is unseen and unknown by most Australians and by many within the Church. This is not surprising as bush and city have never been as far apart as they are today.

Frontier Services seeks to raise awareness of the spiritual and social challenges of life in remote Australia.

Frontier Services territory is some 7 500 000 sq kms, of rural and remote Australia, or about four fifths of the continent.

Outback people have compelling and specific needs, many attributable to the human consequences of rural recession, some to the effects of the restructuring of the national economy, all exacerbated by the particularity of isolation. Inland Australians live in some of the biggest distances on the planet.

To the people of this vast territory, Frontier Services provides some 60 services – spiritual support, aged care, respite care, nursing services, family support, child care, counselling, and social welfare.

Frontier Services is an agent of spiritual support and social service.

These services are vital. In most cases, if they were withdrawn, it would be difficult or impossible for replacements to be provided.

Even today, many people living in the outback cannot obtain adequate basic services, or services of the quality and frequency most city people take for granted. Frontier Services works both as a provider and as an advocate for equitable availability of services for outback people.

Frontier Services is an agent of access.

Frontier Services works in places where the memories and legacies of the collision between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures are experienced daily. Reflecting the mandate of the Assembly, Frontier Services actively promotes cross-cultural co-operation and works at many levels in pursuit of Reconciliation. Frontier Services plays a strong role in advancing and promoting Reconciliation wherever and whenever it is able.

Frontier Services is an agent of change.

10. A SHARED FUTURE

10.1 Australia has recently been forced to give some thought to the issues confronting rural and remote Australia. Politicians and the media are beginning to highlight, and occasionally to sensationalise, the problems of the inland. For the first time in decades, the bush vote is critical to political power. While this lasts, we can expect to see an improvement in understanding and the implementation of new programs of support and adjustment to address at least some of the disadvantages of increasing isolation.

10.2 There is an attendant and predictable danger however, that the general community may begin to tire of the bush, or worse, begin to resent, however unfairly, the flow of funds and programs to rural and remote Australians. The signs are already evident. Many city Australians together with country people, with their own legitimate needs, protest at what they perceive to be indulgent and inequitably generous funding.

10.3 In February 2000, retrenched textile workers in Victoria invited the Prime Minister to tour the suburbs of Australia, and to give as much attention to urban Australians as he was giving to rural and remote area Australians. The clear implication was that the bush was getting more than it deserved. A joint Report of the Property Council of Australia and Australia’s Lord Mayors in February 2000, stated that there was a danger that Government policy was being sidetracked by regional pressures, and will seek to put the nation’s urban areas back onto the map. The Report also – and reasonably, calls for a partnership between city and bush in which the needs of each are reasonably addressed. Nevertheless the motivating factor is the sense that the bush is getting too much attention. This, before any major long term programs of adjustment have evolved!

10.4 The danger for Frontier Services is not the waning of political attention to the bush, but the loss of public sympathy and the interest of the Church community, whose support is vital to our work.

10.5 For Frontier Services, there are a number of challenges in all this.

10.6 First, we acknowledge that there is as much social and spiritual need in cities as there is in the bush.

10.7 However, we assert that for many remote and rural Australians, there are considerable inequities in the availability of and access to services – all exacerbated by the unique factors of isolation and distance.

10.8 We must continue to provide to the Assembly, to Synods, congregations and the wider community of the Church information about how the bush is faring, irrespective of popular opinion and the waxing and waning of political and media interest. The decisions the Church community makes to support the work of Frontier Services can then be made against a background of knowledge.

10.9 We need to show our own people how fair are our requests for funding – and that they are appeals to provide equality – or near equality - of services to fellow citizens.

10.10 We will need to show the wider Australian community that the support we seek for outback people is not so much a charitable gesture as an act of social justice. Few remote Australians expect exactly the same number or level of spiritual and social services as city people. They regard that as unrealistic. But they do expect a certain minimum level, sufficient to make them feel safe and secure, and to nurture their families, and they are entitled to do so. Such expectations are generally regarded as rights of all Australian citizens, irrespective of their geographical location, or whether they are Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal.

10.11 For some years, Frontier Services has characterised the inland, not so much as a frontier, but as a heartland. The concept of heartland makes all Australians equal. It counteracts the notion that the services we provide are from the strong to the weak; that our services are a disempowering act of charity. On the contrary, they are an act of social justice, in which Frontier Services, as an agency of the Church, seeks to provide remote Australians with reasonable access to basic services that they could not otherwise receive, and which are equivalent to the same services provided to city people.

10.12 The concept of heartland also reminds us that remote and rural Australians are givers too, to all Australians, making their contributions to the economic, social and cultural life of the nation, - and always to our sense of identity.

10.13 Our challenge, the frontier for the new century is the connection of city and rural and remote Australians through greater awareness of the contributions each makes to the other, and by supporting each other – towards a shared future.

10.14 Our challenge, the new frontier, is the growth of respect and understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to achieve reconciliation – towards a shared future.

Frontier Services stands ready to face these challenges.

11. MAP OF PATROL MINISTRY

(see Attachment 1)

11.1 Patrol Ministry

Burke and Wills Patrol

Cape York Patrol

Centralian Patrol

Cunnamulla Community Development

Project

East Pilbara Patrol

Eyre Patrol

Flinders Patrol

Forrest Patrol

Gascoyne Patrol

Jabiru Patrol

McKay Patrol

Mobile Aboriginal Patrol

Murchison Patrol

Parkin Sturt Patrol

Tennant Barkly Patrol

West Coast Patrol

Western Desert Community Development

Project

11.2 Community Services

Health Services

Andamooka Community Health Centre

Andamooka Community Support Service

Bedourie Nursing Service

Birdsville Clinic

Clarice Megaw Health Centre - Mintabie

Marla Clinic

Family Services

Children’s Services Program – North Queensland

North Queensland Rural Family Support Service

Remote Family Care Service

Remote Area Families Service - Charleville

Remote Area Families Service - Emerald

Remote Area Families Service - Longreach

Remote Area Families Service - Mount Isa

Remote Area Families Service - North Queensland

Student Accommodation

Atherton Student Group Home

Charleville Student Group Home

Mount Isa Student Group Home

Aged and Community Care

Chan Park – Palmerston

Old Timers – Alice Springs

Fred McKay Day Centre

Cottages

Flynn Lodge

Rocky Ridge

Pulkapulkka Kari

Tennant Barkly Community Support Service

Marlgu Village

Carer Respite Centre

Dementia Care

Tennant Barkly Outreach

Territory Older Persons Support Service

Andamooka Community Support Service

Community Services WA

Kununurra Home and Community Care

Wyndham Home and Community Care

East Pilbara Community Settlement Service

West Pilbara Community Settlement Service

Karratha Occasional Care

Murchison Financial Advocacy

Administration

Sydney

Perth

Darwin

Brisbane

11.3 Frontier Services Reference Committee

Ms Barbara Abley (Vic)

Reverend Anne Amos (Vic) Chairperson

Pastor Norman Baxter (SA)

Reverend Shayne Blackman (Qld)

Reverend Meg Evans (Qld)

Mr Keith Fagg (Vic)

Reverend Ngulunduruwuy Garawirrtja (NT)

Reverend Sealin Garlett (WA)

Reverend Colleen Grieve (Tas)

Reverend Gale Hall (NT)

Reverend Dorothy Harris-Gordon (NSW)

Pastor Bill Hollingsworth (Qld)

Mrs Enid MacDonald (Qld)

Mrs Jill Monks (WA)

Mr Vince Ross (Vic)

Ms Rosemary Young (National Director)

Dr Bruce Walker (NT)

11.4 Executive Staff

Rosemary Young National Director

Stephen Reddish Finance and Administration

Manager

jon Watson Associate National Director

Sharon Davis Manager – Care Services

(NT)

Neville Campbell Regional Manager WA

Marina Izatt Community Services Man-

ager (Qld and SA)

Rosemary Young

National Director

* Australia’s Young People – Their Health and Welfare; Report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 1999

ATTACHMENT 1

MAP OF PATROL PADRES