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UnitingCare Board member Ian Airey was the driving force behind the inaugural Art from the Margins Exhibition which was held from 25 - 28 July at the Albert Street Uniting Church. 

An initiative of the Albert St Church and Wesley Mission Brisbane, in association with The Brisbane Festival 2008, the exhibition provided the opportunity for disadvantaged artists to display their work in a public space and to offer their work for sale. 

Ian, a Board member for the past seven years, was inspired to organise the event through his participation in the Albert Street Uniting Church “Servant Network” which is part of the Church’s ministry for homeless people. 

“On Sunday mornings I go down and have coffee with clients of the Ecumenical Coffee Brigade at Kemp Park in Brisbane and the idea for the exhibition came out of conversations I had with them,” he said. “I learned that there are many keen artists living with disadvantage and disability who have limited opportunities to exhibit so I decided to see what could be done.” 

The exhibition attracted 140 works from 64 disadvantaged or disabled artists. “This was a wonderful response and the quality of the work was really impressive,” Ian said. 

While organising a major exhibition would be a full time job for most people, Ian is actually fitting in this in his “spare” time from his professional work as a specialist anaesthetist in Brisbane. 

“This has been a very worthwhile initiative - the artists have really appreciated the opportunity of exhibiting their work and I believe the exhibition has succeeded in enhancing and enriching their lives which was the whole point of the exercise,” he said

UnitingCare Queensland board member Pam Spall (pictured left) will be pedalling from Bundaberg to Brisbane to raise funds for the Blue Care Centre, Ashgrove, in the 2008 Cycle Queensland nine-day bike ride being held from 30 August to
7 September. 

The event is being held to promote the many benefits of cycling as a healthy and sustainable travel option.

As a UnitingCare board member Pam knows about the great work that Blue Care does about Queensland, caring for more than 12 500 Queenslanders every day.

"I really like the way that Blue Care staff care for older people.  My mum (pictured centre) loves the social aspect of going to the Ashgrove Centre and she enjoys the singing and the friendly and welcoming atmosphere from both staff and volunteers," Pam said.

"Community services such as Blue Care face challenges with funding so it is good to be able to give something back," she said.

Pam's cycling buddy Shirley Watters used to work for Blue Care and so also knows that services like Blue Care make a real difference to thousands of people's lives every day.

To support this cycling mission you can forward your donation in an envelope to ‘Cycling for Blue Care’ C/- PO Box 80 Wilston Qld 4051.  Cheques can be made payable to Blue Care.  Include your name and reply mail address if you require a receipt.   If you want any more information about the ride email to : This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

From L to R Alan Lawson, Anne Cross, Jill Wilson, Linda Apelt and Prof. Llew Edwards

The UnitingCare Chair in Social Policy and Research, established in partnership with The University of Queensland, was launched at a ceremony on Tuesday 3 June at Customs House, Brisbane.  This is the first time the UQ School of Social Work and Applied Human Services has established a Joint Chair with a non profit organisation. 

This important position demonstrates a clear commitment by UnitingCare Queensland to build research capability to deliver improved outcomes for the people served by UnitingCare agencies, and to better influence social policy.

Anne Cross, Chief Executive Officer UnitingCare Queensland, said that the importance of evidenced based research in shaping the future development of UnitingCare Queensland’s service delivery agenda could not be underestimated.

“The development and implementation of a clear research agenda will enable us to better understand the complex and changing needs of the thousands of people that we help each year and to better tailor our services to meet those needs,” she said.

“We will seek to invest in research that will result in practical outcomes by informing what services we provide across our agencies in the future and how these can provide the best outcomes for our clients.”

The inaugural incumbent of this prestigious role, Professor Jill Wilson AO, has a strong national and international profile as a researcher and as an academic in social work and human service practice. Until recently she was Head of the School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences at The University of Queensland.  With these credentials, and her association of more than 30 years with the health and community services of the Uniting Church, including ten years as Chair of the UnitingCare Queensland Board, Professor Wilson is extremely well placed to lead and pursue an innovative research and social policy agenda on behalf of The University of Queensland and UnitingCare Queensland.

“It is a great honour to be the first incumbent in this key position,” Professor Wilson said.

“UnitingCare has taken a clear and innovative lead in the non-profit sector in establishing this Joint Chair with the University of Queensland and in planning to develop a research framework that will ensure that the organisation manages its sustainability into the future by providing services that are responsive and relevant,” she said.

Guest of Honour at the ceremony was  Director-General, Department of Communities, Linda Apelt, who spoke about the position and its alignment with the state government’s social policy agenda.

UnitingCare Health is one of only 10 organisations in Queensland, out of 99 throughout Australia, to achieve an Employer of Choice for Women citation this year.
Awarded annually by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace agency the citation recognises organisations for achieving “outstanding outcomes for women”.

This year six new prerequisites were introduced to the selection process which “raised the bar” in achieving employer of choice status.  These included a minimum of six weeks paid maternity leave after 12 months of service; the ability for female managers to work part-time and the percentage of female managers being at least 27 per cent of the industry average.

Each year, UnitingCare Health cares for around 100 000 patients in its five hospitals (the Wesley, St Andrew’s War Memorial, Sunshine Coast Private, St Stephen’s Maryborough and Hervey Bay) situated around Brisbane and regional Queensland. 

With a workforce of more than 3 500 the organisation has focussed on developing business practises that encourage flexibility in areas such as rostering practices and part-time work and that foster a good work/life balance for staff members.

“We have a strong commitment to providing assistance to our employees who have young children and also those who are caring for elderly family members – a growing trend in our organisation,” Richard Royle, CEO UnitingCare Health, said.

“Flexible work practices are essential as an employer of choice – we rely on our staff to deliver an outstanding service and in return we endeavour to make it as easy as we can for them to come and work for us.

“We embrace diversity and value the contribution that every one of our employees makes to our organisation,” he said.

Director of EOWA Anna McPhee said that Employer of Choice for Women status have moved beyond simply writing policies.

”For these organisations creating equity is about changing culture, changing expectations, breaking down the outdated myths about women and finally valuing the massive contribution women make to the workplace whether they are working part-time or full-time, working from home or in the office, starting their careers or nearing retirement,” she said.

In congratulating UnitingCare Health, an agency of UnitingCare Queensland, Anne Cross, CEO of UnitingCare Queensland said that this achievement demonstrated the absolute commitment that the organisation has to equity for women in the workplace.

“In achieving this recognition for the sixth consecutive year, UnitingCare Health has clearly demonstrated an ongoing commitment to creating a workplace which provides employment choice for all our staff and in particular the many women who work in our hospitals,” she said.

A report by the Centre for Social Justice for UnitingCare Queensland This report launched during Anti-poverty week 2006 has been written to identify the dimensions of spatial disadvantage in Queensland and to inform the future service delivery and research work undertaken by UnitingCare Queensland. Please click on the link below to download the report or click on heading above for chapter break down.

A Scan of Disadvantage in Queensland (2.5 MB) Full Version