Discussions on redress

knowmore News It’s always a pleasure to welcome the delightful Prue Gregory to Tuart Place when she’s in Perth, and we were very pleased to see Prue again when she called by in March this year.

Prue, Principal Solicitor with knowmore Legal Service, provided an update on knowmore’s work supporting survivors to understand their legal rights regarding redress. knowmore provides free legal assistance to people taking part in the National Redress Scheme.

During her visit Prue also flagged the opening of knowmore’s Perth office, which we are pleased to say is now up and running. Details on page 5.

8 25 March 2019: Prue, 3rd from right, receives a warm welcome at Tuart Place

Winter Warmer 2019

We celebrated this year’s Winter Warmer on a suitably cold and blustery day in July.

Guests enjoyed an absolutely delicious roast lunch, followed by one of our mega-raffles with beautiful items made by the Krafty Ladies and two of Ian Donaldson’s very popular handmade windmills. The third annual ‘Have a Go’ Talent Show was also a roaring success – who knew we had so many talented performers among us?! Thanks to Mary and Ann for their great work selling raffle tickets; Vera for her excellent raffle calling; Mike Carroll for expertly MCing the talent show; and everyone who helped out on the day.

Tony Pavia and Alf Zammitt at the 2019 Winter Warmer event

All the best Fira

Shafira (Fira) Jumantara was an intern with Tuart Place through UWA’s McCusker Centre for Citizenship in the second half of 2018 and also came back to volunteer with us again this year.

Fira has now completed her Master of Strategic Communication at UWA and is heading home to Indonesia. Good luck Fira! We wish you all the best in whatever you do in life and really appreciate your help at Tuart Place.

National Volunteer Week has been celebrated by Volunteering Australia for 30 years, as a way of acknowledging the generous contribution of volunteers to the community.

Tuart Place has an amazing group of more than 50 volunteers, and National Volunteer Week seemed the ideal time to say thank you.

More than 35 volunteers were able to attend our Volunteer Appreciation event on 22 May 2019, and each was presented with a certificate of appreciation, badge, and a small gift. The brief formalities were followed by a delicious buffet lunch, with lots of fun and socialising.

Congratulations to Tuart Place Program Coordinator Jo Hocking on organising such a successful event, funded by a National Volunteer Week Grant from Volunteering WA (supported by Lotterywest).

Once again, a sincere thankyou to all our volunteers. You really do make a World of Difference.

Transactional Analysis workshop

In June 2019, two participant Board members - Lyn McLaughlin and Ann McVeigh - were sponsored to attend a weekend workshop run by renowned Transactional Analyst Jan Coleman. The focus of the course was understanding relationships with self and others. Many thanks to Lyn McLaughlin for this report:

When Susy asked me if I was interested attending this course I wasn’t at all sure, but after some thought, I figured “why not - we can never stop learning”, so I gave it a go.

After the first couple of hours with some apprehension I really started to enjoy it, also the other people in the group were warm and great to listen to and learn from. Jan Coleman, our teacher, made us all feel at ease, and she certainly knew how to make a serious course enjoyable and easy to listen to.

Other people have noticed a change in me, and while sometimes old habits re-appear, I notice what I am doing and can stop to gather my thoughts.

I must say that Jan Coleman is the world’s best teacher, and I would definitely recommend this course to others.