Publications

Posted 01-03-2021
Lotus Support Services Disability Royal Commission Newsletter Jan/Feb

In 2020 the team here at Lotus Support Services (LSS) began our new mission with the opening of new offices in West End, Brisbane. Counsellors dedicated to the Disability Royal Commission were appointed in Lotus Place in Townsville and Rockhampton and a small team began work here in Brisbane. The Disability Royal Commission pressed ahead with their hearings via ZOOM and by the end of the year they had released an excellent Interim Report summing up their findings and identifying the gaps in services and processes that are out-dated and intrinsically disadvantageous to people living with disability.

Posted 01-06-2020
Housing First: A roadmap to ending homelessness in Brisbane

A permanent end to homelessness in Brisbane can and should be a reality, but no single organisation can achieve this in isolation. This 2016 Roadmap provides a practical action plan for government and non-government agencies, businesses and individual citizens to work together, so a permanent end to homelessness is a reality.

Posted 25-02-2020
Young Mothers for Young Women Caboolture Service Evaluation

An evaluation of the first twelve months of operation of Young Mothers for Young Women Caboolture (YMYWC). The service, which opened in May 2018, is funded by the Queensland Government to provide a community-based integrated health and family support service to pregnant and parenting young women, their children and partners where appropriate.

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During the evaluation, health and human service professionals, including YMYWC staff, identified that young mothers and their families have a diverse range of needs for which a service response is required. These needs include access to: housing, financial support, antenatal and postnatal care, health and mental health services, effective responses to intimate partner violence (IPV), parenting information, and opportunities for developing peer and community networks.

Posted 06-12-2019
Shared Strength: Parents taking their place at the table
After more than ten years of advocacy, the Family Inclusion Network (FIN) South East Queensland has delivered on the Hon. Minister Di Farmer’s desire to hear directly from parents.
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The ‘Shared Strength’ document summarises the advocacy journey, and features some parents’ answers to the question “What is the most important feedback about the child protection system that you would like to give?”. Deeper detail, in fact dozens of pages of direct quotes from parents are available in the full transcript of parents voices 2018–19.

‘Shared Strength’ also commemorates the significant commitment - in 2019 - to a permanent Queensland Parent Advisory Committee of parents, the Minister, and Department of Child Safety.

Posted 10-05-2019
How Government investment in housing can boost the economy

"Insecure housing has a range of detrimental impacts, and is associated with poor physical and mental health, poor education outcomes, reduced social connectedness and social participation and is both a cause and effect of insecure employment. Taken together these factors have, in part, driven significant rises in homelessness since 2001."

An article published as a partnership between The McKell Institute and PwC, May 2019.

Posted 01-04-2019
Hope Street Cafés: Using Social Enterprise to Provide Training, Employment + Social Inclusion

This is an independent evaluation of the training, employment and social inclusion programs undertaken through the Hope Street Café initiative of Micah Projects (which includes two cafes: Hope Street Café and Hope on Boundary Café) undertaken by Associate Professor Ingrid Burkett, Co-Director, Yunus Social Business Centre, Griffith University.

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The evaluation includes references to both the process and outcomes of the Hope Street Cafes in relation to:

  • creating pathways towards economic participation, particularly for people who have been excluded from the labour market for long periods of time;
  • creating opportunities for social inclusion and participation, growing social capital in the two locations through fostering community engagement in and around the Cafes;
  • using a social enterprise model to not only create outcomes, but also build on-going viability and sustainability into revenue models that can contribute to innovative programs and initiatives at Micah Projects.
Posted 06-03-2019
Getting to Proof Points

Getting to Proof Points: Key learning from the first three years of the 'Built for Zero' initiative.

A Report by Community Solutions on how end veteran and chronic homelessness in the USA, March 2018.

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Built for Zero (formerly Zero: 2016) is a rigorous national change effort working to help a core group of committed communities end veteran and chronic homelessness in the USA. Coordinated by Community Solutions, the national effort supports participants in developing real time data on homelessness, optimising local housing resources, tracking progress against monthly goals, and accelerating the spread of proven strategies.

Posted 30-11-2018
Lotus Times Special Edition - November 2018

A Special Edition of the Lotus Times to mark and record the National Apology to Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse as presented by Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten.

Posted 31-10-2018
The Poverty Trap Impacting Older Women

Presentation by Natasha Doherty, Partner, Deloitte Access Economics at the 'Women and Poverty' Forum, October 2018.

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“Poverty is not caused only by individual circumstances, but also by major inequalities built into the structure of Australian society. Some of the main causes of this inequality and poverty are access to work and income, education, housing, health and community services”.

Source: Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) (2011). Poverty and its Causes. Poverty Report Update, page 8.