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June 2022

Prevention through Connection - In Action

Last month we successfully conducted our first Handicraft Markets, saw more connections activities commence like yoga and painting, and held two more fortnightly off-pay week Coffee and Banjo Breakfasts at Dirty Boots Café. The scuba diving camp concluded a few days ago and was a raging success. The Queensland Government initiative to put a legal service into our Home Base has been most welcome by the veteran community. And through all that, we celebrated National Volunteer Week and one of our volunteers made it into Townsville's Top 30. Operation COMPASS is working hard in the background with #CheckYourMates BBQs post-ANZAC Day being very well received with some heart-warming feedback. We launched the Black Dog Institute Report yesterday and the Grants Support workshops were very well attended - we'll have more of them for the community this month. We host our first outdoor Movie Night this month and participate in the Lamberts Produce Cook-Off on 4 June. The Transitions Expo is on 8 June and we will be there to support transitioning veterans' families. We'll have a visit from the Royal Commissioners on Friday 17 June before the RC starts in Townsville the following Monday (20 June). And our big event for June is the Anniversary Open Day on 25 June. In July we'll be naming a hut after a 101-year-old WWII veteran doing the honours herself and Townsville's Coolest Book Fair is on again bigger than the first with almost 10,000 books this time. In the background we are working on Operation NAVIGATOR to better prepare serving veterans for the inevitable transition now that we have a commitment from the Federal Government to find that project; we've enhanced our smartphone app again and now have a supporters coin that we'll launch at the Open Day. We also have our fingers crossed for Counterpoint and Phorm Architects to win the Architects Award for their design of Oasis – please vote (link in the ONtarget below). Home Base for the Veteran Community in Townsville is getting busy averaging 1000 members of the veteran community using the facility every month and that’s not at capacity yet. Our employment coordination program is also getting stronger and connected to all who help, especially the employers joining our recently formed Veterans Business Alliance.

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