Hello to our wonderful Edmund Rice Camps Community!
We hope you and all your loved ones are safe and well.
Much has happened in the ERC office over the past few weeks and we want to update you with what is going on.
Firstly, as I'm sure you've expected, our September camps can not go ahead due to the ongoing COVID situation in Victoria. We are disappointed with this outcome as I expect you are too, however we do maintain that the safety and wellbeing of our volunteers and participants is our first priority. Over the past few weeks we have engaged in deep consultation with our volunteers, referral agencies and our risk committee to discuss what our options are for September programs, and looking ahead at what is realistic to plan for in the coming months. Our consultation highlighted that any form of face-to-face engagement is what our community needs and at this stage we are planning a return to face-to-face programs for late 2021. We will keep you updated as we continue to explore our options. If you have any thoughts or ideas regarding this please get in touch.
In other news, last week was National Child Protection Week. Our staff engaged in some professional development and attended seminars to ensure our commitment to the safety and wellbeing of children is unwavering and embedded in every aspect of our organisation. We're looking forward to sharing our learnings with you over the coming months.
On Thursday we acknowledged R U Okay day and shared some resources to assist in starting a conversation. We are a community that is great at supporting each other. We practice it every day on our programs. We embed this value into our calendars and programs with PF breaks, PF sessions, PF buddies and our 1:1 ratio! RU Ok? Day is a great reminder to check in on our friends, family, other Eddie Ricers and ourselves and ask R U OK?
There are some excited things happening for our Volunteers over the next few months, in place of our usual Volunteer Development Program. Personal development, learning, refreshing, conversation and social events are being added to the Volunteer Calendar shortly.
As always, please reach out if you have any ideas, queries, concerns or just for chat,
Have a great week!
Warmest Regards,
Suzannah & Amy