Anglicare Australia launched its State of the Family Report earlier this week to mark the start of Anti-Poverty Week.  This year’s report Paying Attention and this year’s theme explores the mission which underpins the work of Anglicare.

The essay entitled ‘The Power of Story’ features the staff, clients and programs of Anglicare Tasmania.  The essays challenge us and they seek to provoke us to take action.

Kasy Chambers, Anglicare Australia’s Executive Director reports:

“Paying Attention is a set of essays that explores how Anglicare agencies respond in new ways to the needs of their clients; and in answering that question, the importance of their mission – their faith inspiration – as the base of that relationship”

“There is growing inequity in our society, with some of the most marginalised Australians seemingly viewed as less deserving. In today’s tight fiscal and political climate, these are the people at risk of permanent exclusion.

“Our six essayists articulate so well the Anglicare network story of how and why we are prepared to take the time to invest in people, and how that is a part of building a stronger society.

“Many of the programs our writers describe, for fathers who are prisoners in gaol for example, or personal health plans for people living with drug issues or mental ill health, have no guarantee of success,” she said. “However, our agencies deliver them because they have a purpose – a commitment to engage with or stand alongside everyone – rather than because these are people who ‘deserve’ it”.

See State of the Family Report here.