Journey Outreach

Healing Day at Kinglake West on Sunday 31st May 2009

A team of volunteers from Journey Outreach will be joining with other health practitioners for a Healing Day at Kinglake West on Sunday 31st May, 2009 to offer emotional support to those who were affected by the devastating Victorian bush fires in February 2009. The practitioners will be at the Kinglake West Hall for the day and will be offering support by way of processes, conversations, books and DVDs at no cost.

Journey Outreach has received a grant from the Victorian Government Department of Planning & Community Development to assist in printing flyers and advertising the emotional support that is available to those directly affected by the bush fires.

There has been such an outpouring of support to those directly affected by the fires, and Journey Outreach is joining in the reaching out to offer emotional support.

Some Journey practitioners have already donated their time in assisting children and adults who have experienced the loss of their homes and all their possessions. Those helped to date have expressed their gratitude for the help given.

Recently, a team of practitioners from all over Australia came together to work with Get Real International in running a Bushfire Support Day for Teens. The day was extremely successful with all the Grade 6 children from the Chum Creek Primary School attending together with children who used to live in Flowerdale and Toolangi. The event was run at the CJ Dennis Hall in Toolangi, which was kindly donated by the Toolangi community.

In addition a team of volunteers ran a Bushfire Support day for younger children at Christmas Hills Primary School. Most of the children on this occasion were from the Dixons Creek Primary School. The day was held during the school holidays and helped the children deal with the emotional issues which arose after the fires. Some of the children had been evacuated from their homes during the fires, and some had also lost their homes and possessions. All are now back at school and reports from the parents after the Journey Outreach event have been very positive.

For information on Victorian Bushfire Support, contact the Journey Outreach office on (03) 9723 0922 or email info@journeyoutreach.com.

For more information or to volunteer call (03) 9723 0922.

Brochure for the event ... Download The Journey Kingslake West

Westville Prison - Department of Correctional Services 2007 update

This project was initiated in 2006 providing Journeywork to female inmates at Westville Prison.  In 2007, with a committed team of 4, the project expanded into other areas of the prison.

Journey processes, both individual and group, were provided to 37 inmates aged between 15-69 years old with sentences from 2 years to life.  The majority were sentenced for murder followed by robbery and fraud.

The team overcame many challenges such as getting access to prisoners, staff strikes forcing prisoners to be 'locked down' in their section and scheduling sessions with prisoners having little free time.

The greatest mindset change was that of realizing they were not themselves a victim.

The work at the prison has been so successful that the team are now working on completing the Quality Assurance Applications so that Journey Outreach can become a Service Provider to the Department of Correctional Services Westville in the rehabilitation of offenders.

22 offenders at the start of 2008 have requested to participate in The Journey programme so the team have already included them in the programme.

School Evaluation - KwaZulu Natal, South Africa 2004

This evaluation was conducted by a team of researchers, fieldworkers and translators. The evaluation was initiated by The Journey as part of its pilot study. The evaluation reported here focused on the Pilot Project that commenced in March 2004 and ended in October 2004. The central thrust of the evaluation remained with the task of ascertaining learners’, educators’, parents’ and principals’ perceptions on learners and educators’ satisfaction and achievement.

The learning goals of The Journey programme encompass academic development, social awareness and life skills, the development of broad competencies such as problem solving, critical thinking and communicating.

Click the link to download and read the full report ... Download 2004_kzn_school_report.pdf