Team Connect
Team Newsletter November/December 2020
Message from CEO As we reach the end of a very turbulent and difficult year, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your efforts, your resilience, and your ability to adapt to the challenges that have come your way. The year has been tough, and I appreciate the sense of weariness and change fatigue, however I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved this year in the face of adversity.
Changing stories this festive season Angel was bullied all through school, and eventually she gave up and dropped out of both mainstream and flexi-schooling. Disengaged, suffering from low self-esteem and mental health issues, and struggling to interact socially even with her peers, Angel’s future was extremely uncertain.
Perhaps due to the year that was and the changes that have been implemented, we are emerging in a stronger, more streamlined, and more focused way and I look towards 2021 with optimism and a renewed sense of purpose of who we are and what we do to support young people and our communities across Queensland.
“The schools I was going to I was getting bullied most of the time and they did nothing about it. So, I kind of just gave up with school. And I wanted to get into TAFE but I didn’t know how to. I didn’t know where I needed to go or what I needed to do,” said Angel.
Please allow me again to congratulate and welcome Associate Professor Cassandra Cross as our new Board Chair, who has officially commenced in the position following our Annual General Meeting last month. As the organisation’s first female Board Chair with an accomplished academic background in crime prevention, we welcome her leadership as we strengthen our program delivery and enter the next phase of our growth.
Angel, like thousands of young Queenslanders at risk and vulnerable, had nowhere to turn. If it hadn’t been for a PCYC Queensland staff member, who saw her at a local skate park and encouraged her to attend the local PCYC club, Angel’s story could have been very different.
Phil Schultz Chief Executive Officer
Angel grew up in a low-socioeconomic area and with limited opportunities, little support and no way out, the pressures of life post COVID-19 meant that Angel was destined for a path of destruction and uncertain outcomes.
“I thought my life was not going anywhere. I just sat there in dark and just wasn’t going anywhere in life, and PCYC helped me get out of that zone.” PCYC Queensland provided a safe environment for Angel to develop trust and relationships and build confidence in herself. The staff empowered her to strive for her dream of one day becoming an early education teacher, and provided a safe place to study and learn, without fear of being bullied. With the support of the staff, Angel enrolled in a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education at TAFE.
Building safer, healthier communities through youth development
pcyc.org.au