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About Jesuit Social Services

Jesuit Social Services is a social change organisation working to build a just society, where all people can live to their full potential.

We ‘do’ and we ‘influence’. We accompany people and communities to foster and regenerate the web of relationships that sustain us all – across people, place and planet; and we work to change policies, practices, ideas and values that perpetuate inequality, prejudice and exclusion.

The work of Jesuit Social Services is informed by Catholic Social Teaching and our Jesuit tradition of respecting the preciousness of each human being, walking with the disregarded, and caring for the earth.

Programs

Jesuit Social Services provides a range of programs and supports to people in areas including adult and youth justice, mental health and substance abuse, long-term unemployment, harmful forms of masculinity and entrenched place-based disadvantage. Find out more about some of these programs below.

Support After Suicide

Support After Suicide offers counselling, support groups and online resources to support those who have lost a loved one to suicide. We are available in Victoria and New South Wales.

Over the past few years we have worked with Switchboard to develop LGBTIQA+ specific programs. These include the Let’s Talk About Suicide podcast and also an eight-week group program for LGBTIQA+ people bereaved by suicide.

We deliver training to health, welfare and education professionals.

Jesuit Social Services has delivered Support After Suicide throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria since 2004 and in New South Wales since 2021.

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Artful Dodgers Studios

Artful Dodgers Studios is a flexible and welcoming studio space in Collingwood where young people aged 15 to 27 years can create art and music with the support of experienced artists and musicians.

At Artful Dodgers Studios, you can:

  • take a short course
  • engage in one-on-one mentoring
  • drop in to the open-access studios to work on individual or collaborative projects.

Artful Dodgers Studios is a safe and inclusive space where all people are free to be themselves. We celebrate diversity and include people from all genders, religions, cultural and identity backgrounds, and circumstances.

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Community Connections Mentoring

Community Connections Mentoring connects young people who are living in or have lived in out-of-home care with a volunteer mentor from the community. Through lasting, positive and encouraging relationships with community mentors, young people are supported through their transition to independence.

Young people in care are matched with carefully trained and selected community mentors, who commit to the program for a minimum of 12 months.

Mentors provide guidance, support and encouragement to young people, to explore and work towards their aspirations and goals.

Community Connections Mentoring is a state-wide initiative in Victoria. Jesuit Social Services delivers the program across southern Melbourne and in the Bayside Peninsula area.

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Get involved

Work with us

We employ more than 380 staff members and 200 volunteers in Victoria, New South Wales and the Northern Territory. Working for us means going where hope is most needed. This work can be extremely challenging but highly rewarding.

We offer roles in diverse fields spanning social work and youth work (such as counselling, case management and outreach), community development, training and education, administration and business support, hospitality, marketing and communications, and fundraising.

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Volunteer

If you’re passionate about building a just society, then help us transform lives by becoming a Jesuit Social Services volunteer.

Volunteers are a fundamental part of what we do, making a highly valued contribution to our programs and service delivery.

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Policy, research and advocacy

Our impact

We demonstrate our transformative social impact across three spheres.

  • Individuals flourishing in a web of healthy relationships
  • Communities empowered to participate and create positive change
  • Hearts, minds and systems changed towards love and justice

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Policy, advocacy and research

Our advocacy, research and social policy work draws on our experience engaging with disadvantaged people, families and communities:

  • Advocacy – we build awareness of injustice and advocate for social change based on grounded research and experience
  • Research – we identify areas of unmet need, conduct and publish research and use our findings to advocate for change in keeping with our vision of ‘building a just society’
  • Policy – we regularly respond to social justice issues and produce a number of policy submissions and papers each year
Worth A Second Chance

Founded in 2018, Worth A Second Chance engages the general public in calling for a reformed youth justice system underpinned by principles of prevention, early intervention, and restorative justice, and shares a positive and hopeful narrative around young people in trouble.

Through stories, events, social media and action, Worth A Second Chance puts forward a vision for a youth justice system grounded in principles of early intervention, prevention, and restorative justice, which shows our community the possibilities for effective justice reform, and which ultimately contributes to more humane and effective youth justice policies and practices.

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Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum (CAPSA)

Jesuit Social Services and Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS Australia) co-convene the Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum (CAPSA) — a unified national network campaigning for the just and humane treatment of people seeking asylum in Australia, founded in 2013. CAPSA is supported by an advisory group of representatives from Australian Catholic organisations working to promote social justice.

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