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Annual Report
Local communities are empowered
We worked to make sure the voices of our sector and community
were heard by government and Queensland communities.
Provide a connection between the community and the government so that local voices are heard.
Gold Coast Homelessness Network: QCOSS is an active partner in the Gold Coast Homelessness Network (GCHN), working to deliver the Service Integration Initiative and to end homelessness on the Gold Coast. As Regional Care Coordinator for the project, QCOSS works closely with the network to enhance engagement between services on the coast – encouraging collaboration and building the sector’s capability to create a more holistic response to homelessness.
In 2022-23, the GCHN delivered the annual Gold Coast Homelessness Symposium. Themed "Connecting Communities", it was attended by 120 representatives from across the community services sector. In June 2023, following advocacy from the GCHN for greater investment into locally based food aid, The Gold Coast Food Hub was launched. The food hub provides much needed infrastructure for the storage, distribution, and coordination of food aid in the region.
On Country program evaluation: QCOSS evaluated the On Country program for the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs (DCYJMA). The On Country program is designed to prevent young people from reoffending. It connects justice-involved First Nations young people with First Nations adults, Elders and Traditional Owner mentors who transfer cultural knowledge to their mentees.
Across Mount Isa, Cairns and Townsville, 38 people were interviewed, while a further 22 First Nation community members participated in a community forum in Mount Isa during December 2022. As a result of the QCOSS evaluation, the program received ongoing funding.
Customer Impacts of Cashless Public Transport: This QCOSS report, commissioned by Translink, investigated how stopping cash transactions for public transport tickets during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted bus, train and ferry users in South East Queensland.
The findings were supported by a QCOSS survey of 35 frontline community service sector workers and 103 community members who either used or had used public transport. QCOSS also conducted four focus groups with clients of community service organisations.
Barriers to accessing electricity rebates: This QCOSS report, commissioned by the Department of Energy and Public Works (DEPW), gathered evidence on the barriers limiting uptake of the Electricity Rebate by Health Care Card (HCC) holders, and provided potential solutions to improve uptake.
QCOSS conducted semi-structured interviews with energy retailers, government stakeholders and community service organisations. The report also drew on results from the Australian Community Sector Survey and a QCOSS consumer cost-of-living survey with over 500 respondents.
Empower people and organisations to tell their stories
Frontline Hero profiles: Workers on the frontline of community services across Queensland are the heart of our sector. In 2022-23, more than 30 sector heroes opened up about their career paths, career challenges, motivations and joys outside of the workplace for our Frontline Hero profiles. The profiles were shared across our social media channels and in our member newsletter.
Raise the Age media training: QCOSS ran Raise the Age media training for community service sector organisations who work with young people in Townsville (March 2023), Cairns (April 2023) and the Gold Coast (May 2023). Together, the three workshops had 26 attendees.
Town of Nowhere Campaign profiles: We were grateful to those Queenslanders experiencing homelessness who gave us permission to film them telling their stories and build awareness of our state’s housing crisis through their Town of Nowhere campaign profiles. Brett, Upendo and Kristin put human faces on a staggering statistic; currently 300,000 Queenslanders have unmet housing needs.
