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Tibetan community honours Burdekin’s work

You may not know this but the Northern Beaches is home to one of the largest Tibetan communities in Australia. We are very proud to have strong connections to this community reaching back many years.

Recently two of our staff members, Shonette D’Cunha, Head of Client Services and Warren Welsh, Youth Housing Team and Environmental Officer, were guests of the President of the NSW Tibetan Community, Mr Nigan Gotsang.

Warren was officially acknowledged for his long term support of Tibetan youth and received a framed award. Our organisation also received an award for its approach to working with young people. What a wonderful acknowledgement.

Burdekin received awards for generous contribution and support for Tibetan Youth
Left to right – Warren Welsh, Tenzin Rabsel and Shonette D’Cunha

A huge thank you to one of our young tenants, Tenzin Rabsel, for the nomination. The awards acknowledge and recognise what the Tibetan community consider to be Warren’s and Burdekin’s generous contribution and support of Tibetan youth. We are so grateful for the recognition and love working with this wonderful community.

The home cooked traditional Tibetan biscuit snacks were magnificent as was our tea with yak butter, it was a special and uplifting evening.

Tibetans on the Northern Beaches, Australia

If you would like more information about the Tibetan community in Australia and in particular, Tibetans in the Northern Beaches, check out Community Northern Beaches‘ research project from 2019: A Journey From Tibet to Australia supported by the Northern Beaches Council, Settlement Services International’s Innovation Fund, and Macquarie University.

The Department of Health’s Northern Sydney Local Health District accounted for 1,300 Tibetans assisted through their services to July 2019, most of them residing in the Northern Beaches. Similarly, the Tibetan Community of Australia, Sydney, estimated 1,300 to 1,500 Tibetans residing in the Northern Beaches, a figure that matches information obtained from Community Northern Beaches Multicultural and Settlement Services, which registers an increase from 17 Tibetans in 1994 to between 1,300 and 1,500 in 2019.

Tibetan Community Award President of the NSW Tibetan Community Mr Nigan Gotsang, Warren Welsh and Tenzin Rabsel

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Volunteers Week 2021

National Volunteers Week 2021

It was a busy Volunteers Week 2021 for Burdekin!

Our Inner West Volunteer Co-ordinator Renee, our Northern Beaches Volunteer Co-ordinator Kerri and Kim , our overall Volunteer Coordinator participated in a thank you activity – National Volunteers Week (NVW) Cultural & Bush Tucker Walk 2021.

The theme of this years NVW was Recognise, Reconnect, Reimagine and as a way of saying thank you, STARS invited volunteers to either a morning or afternoon guided walk on the Cooks River. Darug Dharawal man and respected horticulturalist Terry Lennis guided the walk. Lunch was provided by Café Green House at Gough Whitlam Park.

Our Volunteers Celebrated National Volunteers Week
Volunteer Co-ordinators Renee and Kim celebrating National Volunteers Week 2021

Burdekin celebrated NVW for the first time, having launched our Volunteer Program during NVW 2020 this is really a special time to us. Our volunteer team celebrated and bonded over a meal and, of course, received certificates of appreciation.

Burdekin’s Mrs Jill Wrathall presenting volunteer Anna with a certificate of appreciation.

If you would like to know more about our Volunteer Program you can take a look at our dedicated pages:

Volunteer With Burdekin

Burdekin Skilled Volunteers

Our Current Volunteer Vacancies

Charitable community days and in-kind giving

Working Bees at our Inner West and Northern Beaches Properties

Giving comes in all shapes and forms. We want to highlight some of the contributions our amazing community of supporters have generously provided to us as in-kind giving, in other words donating time and goods.

What are in-kind donations?

In-kind donations may be physical stuff like furniture, clothes, necessities (food, toiletries), school supplies, equipment and the like or consist of donations in the form of professional expertise, skills and services such as legal services or property refurbishment, facility management and the like.

Community working bees make a big, practical difference to our work and to our young people – we have some amazing – we mean AMAZING – partners and organisations helping out.

The Property Industry Foundation (PIF) connects us with other organisations all the time to help alleviate child and youth homelessness. These organisations are across a variety of industries providing numerous services and products that will help services like ours to keep youth safe and secure.

Stanmore property working bee with Charterhall and Flick Macqueen Plant Designs

Staff from Charterhall and plants and pots from Flick Macqueen Plant Design helped us with a garden design at one of our Stanmore properties. Charterhall’s website says: “Our team are encouraged to give 1% of their time to support community projects.”

What an amazing ethos and the team did an incredible job. Take a look at some of the before, during and after photos below.

King Living

King Living have been donating the most beautiful lounges from one of their stunning ranges to one of our Stanmore properties. These pieces have gone into new homes for our young people and look amazing.

“We received the beautiful couch and dining table set on Monday which was assembled by two really lovely men. The Burdekin Association is truly grateful for the ongoing support both organisations provide. The houses we find automatically feel like homes with the quality of these items.” Matt, The Burdekin Association.

Bunnings

Ensuring fire safety in our properties is a priority for us and we must say a huge thank you to Bunnings Warringah Mall, who have donated fire safety products such as fire extinguishers, fire blankets, first aid kits and other fire safety accessories to reduce the risk of fire and keep our young people safe both in the Inner West and Northern Beaches.

We can’t thank these wonderful people enough, their commitment to helping us and the phenomenal work they have done not to mention the gorgeous furniture and plants.

BINGO Bins

The people over at BINGO Industries have been a huge support to The Burdekin Association by providing about  $10,000 – $15,000 worth of bins over the last year. The bins are being used to clean up properties….such wonderful support that we are really appreciative of.

We are always saying this but … it really does take a village and we are so lucky to have found ours! Thank you everyone for your precious time and donations.

If you would like to partner with us in any way and help us to solve youth homelessness please get in touch!

Charterhall – LinkedIn, Twitter and Youtube

King Living – Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Pinterest

Bunnings – Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube

Flick McQueen Design – Facebook and Instagram

BINGO Industries – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter

Bunnings and Taubmans Paints

Recently the wonderful people at Bunnings Warringah Mall and Taubmans Paints helped us with a very special project – The Burdekin Learning Space. We are thrilled to say that, at a property in North Head, we now have a classroom, therapy room and sensory room. Our young people are going to benefit so so much from this space where specialist education workers will provide trauma informed education. None of this would be possible without the kindness and generosity of community! Read more about our Learning Space and Education Specialists fundraising page here.

TaubmansFacebook and Instagram

IDAHOBIT 2021

LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion at Burdekin

International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) celebrates LGBTQIA+ people globally and raises awareness for the work still needed to overcome LGBTQIA+ discrimination.

Did you know that Monday May 17th marked 30 years of IDAHOBIT?

30 years ago – on May 17, 1990 – the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.

Here at Burdekin, we’re lucky enough to have an incredible, diverse, and accepting workforce. So, we stood together to celebrate, support, and show our pride of the colourful LGBTQIA+ diversity of our workplace by sharing a meal and a delicious rainbow cake!

Here are some snaps from the day! Big thanks to everyone who helped out, especially Matt for cooking up a fantastic feed!

IDAHOBIT2021

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Lifeline, Northern Beaches

Prof Brian Burdekin talks to Lifeline Northern Beaches Counsellors

Coordination between The Burdekin Association and Lifeline, Northern Beaches.

On the evening of 29 April, in response to a request from the CEO of Lifeline in the Northern Beaches, our Patron, Professor Brian Burdekin AO, delivered a major address to approximately 100 Lifeline counsellors as part of a special Professional Development Training.

Professor Brian Burdekin, AO Patron of The Burdekin Association
Professor Brian Burdekin, AO addressing Lifeline Counsellors

In his remarks, entitled: “Why we need Lifeline – and the essential contribution Lifeline makes to Australia’s well-being“, Brian outlined the progress which had – and had not – been made since his landmark inquiry as Federal Commissioner on: “Human Rights and Mental Illness” three decades ago.

Focusing on a number of critical areas affecting the mental health of our community – including, in particular, our young people, Brian indicated the urgent need for government to allocate more resources to mental health and the areas in which this had to occur. His speech, followed by questions, was part of Lifeline’s program of professional development training.

Lifeline Northern Beaches has proudly been serving our local community for more than 50 years
Justene Gordon, CEO The Burdekin Association and David Thomas, CEO at Lifeline Northern Beaches

We acknowledge the Aboriginal people of the Cadigal and Gayamaygal Clans. We acknowledge the Country on which we live, work, and gather as being Aboriginal land.

We acknowledge the lands, waterways and skies that are connected to Aboriginal people. We honour them and pay our deepest respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

We respect their rightful place within our communities, and we value their ancient cultural knowledge and practices.

Aboriginal Flag
Torres Straight Island Flag

We deeply respect that this will always be Aboriginal land and we will honour and follow the first peoples’ values in caring for the Country and for preserving their culture.

We deeply value that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the oldest living culture in the world and we will continue to work with their peoples and communities to ensure their cultures endure and remain strong.