Our stories

Building a just society means elevating everyone by supporting all people to reach their full potential. Every success story is crucial because none of us can flourish, until we all do.

Players and dodgers
- 26 October 2015
Jesuit Social Services Artful Dodgers studio staff and participants recently teamed up with loyal and longtime supportive community group the Gertrude Players, for a night of live music, laughs, dancing and trivial pursuit. ”Trivia & Tunes 90s Rock” was held at the Collingwood Town Hall and attracted more than 300 patrons and…
Great Australians Gala Dinner
- 16 October 2015
Jesuit Social Services was proud to welcome more than 300 guests to the National Gallery of Victoria’s Great Hall on Saturday night for the second annual Great Australians Gala Dinner. The event featured a who’s who of Australian identities from the worlds of politics, sport, entertainment, academia and law including Gold Logie winner Daryl Somers,…
Anti Poverty Week (October 11-14)
- 12 October 2015
The symbol of anti-poverty week to which we are accustomed has come to be the gathering of CEO’s of large companies sleeping out for a night. It is an encouraging image of a concern by people whom life has privileged for those who are disadvantaged. It also speaks powerfully of our common humanity. This year…
Time to end the Pacific Solution
- 5 October 2015
Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO, Jesuit Social Services board member, has called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to close Australia’s offshore detention facilities. Addressing the Melaleuca Refugee Centre in Darwin on 29 September, Brennan said there is no longer an excuse for “maintaining the chamber of horrors” that is the Pacific solution at Nauru and…
Learning life skills
- 16 September 2015
A graduation lunch was held last week for participants who completed the BOSS (Building on Skills and Strengths) Certificate 1 in Education for Adults at the Holy Eucharist Primary School in St Albans, where the program was conducted. The program, run by Jesuit Community College, is designed to improve literacy, numeracy and employability skills whilst…
World Suicide Prevention Day
- 10 September 2015
Suicide is usually a very solitary act. But its solitariness doubles its effect on other people. Family members and friends are devastated that the person they loved has so definitively broken off their relationship. The breaking of this relationship, too, can affect the way in which they relate to one another. They can retreat into…
PM's refugee intake announcement
- 10 September 2015
[written by Andy Hamilton SJ for Eureka Street] The Prime Minister’s announcement that Australia will accept 12,000 refugees from Syria, in addition to the capped intake, deserves an unqualified welcome. It is a generous decision and a welcome demonstration of leadership. For those of us who are concerned with people who seek protection from persecution…
For those who've come across the sea
- 9 September 2015
The 2015 Social Justice Statement of the Australian Bishops, For those who’ve come across the seas, is a must read. It tackles a difficult topic – over seventy per cent of Australians approve of the harsh measures taken to repel people who seek protection from us, and both parties support these measures. It comes at…
World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
- 1 September 2015
Churches have always been good at naming days and weeks. We need to think only of Christmas and Easter, Advent and Lent, and saints’ feast days by the dozen. So it did not make the news when Pope Francis added another day to the calendar. So when Pope Francis made September 1 an annual day…
What price life?
- 28 August 2015
Last week, Mr Elferink, the Northern Territory Minister for Health, was interviewed by the ABC. According to the report, he argued that the money spent on the health of the elderly, and particularly on those in the last year of their lives – a million dollars for each person – would be better spent on…

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