Exploring the Art of Life Page 1 New Postal Address for Compass:

PO Box 585 Palmwoods, Qld, 4555

Newsletter - December 2010

In This Edition

From the Service Manager, Jan

Movember

Awards Night

Christmas Market

From David’s Desk

Dear Families and Friends of Compass Education and Training,

Firstly I’d like to congratulate our Trainees on all their hard work and achieve-

ments throughout the year. Staff have been busily preparing and writing up

progress reports for the last Semester (coming out end of January 11). It’s a

great opportunity for us to stop and reflect on the changes. Often the steps

are small but never insignificant! One of my great pleasures during November

was being at Caloundra during the weekly Aikido Training session. There were

plenty of small and steady improvements—but some huge ones as well. As I

sat and watched, the joy was clear in the faces and bodies of those Trainees

who had worked so hard to overcome their own personal challenges and fol-

low the guidance of their Trainers and the example of their peers, and are

now able to join in in more meaningful ways. We’re looking forward to pro-

viding an opportunity for families and friends to come along and see for

themselves during the first quarter of next year—at Palmwoods also...

There’s plenty of news to report as always—see following pages for photos

& stories from the Awards night and Markets. AND... Members of Palm-

woods Training Unit will be joining the Farm team at the end of January—as

will Trainer Andrew Diggines while Carla will continue at Palmwoods. Jane

Covey has moved with her family back to her hometown of Wollongong. As

planned John Tornabene who has been at Caloundra last quarter will join the

farm team. We have been working with prospective staff candidates for his

replacement for some time and will welcome them in the next newsletter.

Ross Tzvetkov who has been off with an injury for the past term is now hale

and hearty and we are pleased to announce that he will be coming back as

part of the Palmwoods team where there are new developments we can tell

you more about after the holidays. We have a number of recent school

graduates joining us as Trainees at both Palmwoods and Caloundra in Febru-

ary—and we look forward to welcoming them. If you’ve been checking the

web-site you will have seen a fresh new look that will make navigating (and

updating) it a breeze. 2011 planner calendars showing all holidays, and spe-

cial events for next year are out now and being emailed or posted to you this

week. They will be available on the web-site soon also.

Finally, I’d like to say a special thank you to the Caloundra Sharks Jnr Rugby

League club at Caloundra who generously housed us for the market, and the

last week of term while Council undertook work on part of our Caloundra

venue. Have a fabulous Christmas—we’ll see you next year. Cheers, Jan

Date Claimers

Monday 10 January 2011 Return to Compass Wednesday 26 January 2011 Australia Day Holiday Monday 31 January 2011 Staff Training Day Wednesday 2 February 2011 New Intake groups commence Thursday 14 April 2011 Break Up Day for 1st Quarter Monday 2 May 2011 Labour Day Holiday Wednesday 4 May 2011 Compass recommences Thursday 5 May Mothers Day Market

Wishing all of our valued families and

friends a Merry Christmas and a

Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year

Exploring the Art of Life Page 2 New Postal Address for Compass:

PO Box 585 Palmwoods, Qld, 4555

Advocacy Remember that you are able to bring

along an advocate or support person

to any meeting that you have with

Compass.

An advocate is someone who is there

to support you or represent you and

your interests in circumstances where

you feel that this additional support is

required.

Please ask us if you need more

information or assistance with

organising for an advocate.

Continuous Improvement Plan

We at Compass are committed to

ongoing service improvement.

If you have a suggestion about how

we can improve our service, please

write your suggestion on one of our

Service Improvement Suggestion

Forms which are available from the

office, any of our centres or on our

website: www.compassinc.org.au and

we will carefully consider every idea.

MAROOCHYDORE

Need to check dates for the holidays —or a special event? Annual planner

calendar is available 24/7 at www.compassinc.org.au

Movember Thank you to all the Mo Bros and Mo

Sistas who participated in this year‟s

Movember appeal to raise funds for

men‟s health.

Compass Boyz raised over $600 this

year. On behalf of the team, thank you

to all the family and friends who

generously supported our fundraising

efforts.

Australians have led the world in

fundraising efforts, having raised over

$21 million, closely followed by

Canada and The United Kingdom.

Awards and Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven…

Compass celebrated our 2010

Awards Night in style at Crowne

Plaza Pelican Waters on Saturday

27 November .

MC John Stokes from ABC Radio

guided a capacity crowd of two

hundred young people, family

members, friends and sponsors

through the dinner and awards

ceremony and then rocked the

night away on the dance floor.

The special guest Elvis Presley (aka John

Fogwell from Velvet Waters) brought the

house down and tears to more than a few

eyes as he serenaded Meghan, a young

lady with Down syndrome with „Love

Me Tender.‟

The annual event is becoming a highlight on the

social calendar where family and friends can get

together to celebrate the achievements of young

people with disabilities as they take up valued roles

in our community.

Compass is renowned for its

innovative education, training

and vocational programmes.

Elvis 2

(Norm) and

Amy

Henzells CEO Geoff Coleman

and wife Michelle with

David Dangerfield

Entertainer Lara Jane & Aasha and

Aidan Dangerfield of Mask Events

Elvis and Meghan

2011 Achievement Award winner, Glen with

proud family, Denis, Rita and Gary

A packed Dance Floor….

Exploring the Art of Life Page 3 New Postal Address for Compass:

PO Box 585 Palmwoods, Qld, 4555

Compass Christmas Markets Compass got into the swing of Christmas on Thursday 2nd

December with its Market Day held at the Caloundra

Rugby League Clubhouse in Central Park.

Several hundred shoppers made

the most of the opportunity to

fill their stockings with all

manner of great gift lines all

handmade by young people

with intellectual disabilities

working at Compass.

There were Christmas cards, wrapping paper, jewellery,

mobiles, business card holders, pen holders, drink coasters,

hot pot stands, paintings, book holders and much, much

more.

This year‟s Market shoppers enjoyed live entertainment

from the Sophisticats and Lara Jane, as well as magic

shows from Magic Mitch and CJ the Impossible, and face

painting from „Michelle the Creative‟.

The Market Day also included several other stallholders with food, coffee and a

range of complementary goods, and Compass thanks them for their participation.

Staff from ANZ Nambour also volunteered their assistance again with setup,

helping man some stalls with the trainees and packing down again at the end of

the day.

Deputy Mayor Tim Dwyer and Compass CEO David Dangerfield

presented awards to several trainees and staff members as well as

Disability Services‟ Rowena McKerris (Staff Member of the

Year) and Hot FM‟s Troy Deighton (Community Support Award).

Cr Dwyer again confirmed his support for Compass to

become lead tenant in the recently vacated Caloundra Shelley

Park United Soccer Clubhouse. This is very exciting for the

young people of Compass Caloundra and their families.

Sporting Wheelies Qld CEO, Ray Epstein, has also expressed

his organisation‟s support as they work with Compass to

develop sporting opportunities for people with disabilities in

this area of the Sunshine Coast.

Exploring the Art of Life Page 4 New Postal Address for Compass:

PO Box 585 Palmwoods, Qld, 4555

What a big year this has been for Compass. As we approach the end of our 19th year and our 8th as a

disability service provider, it seems to me that we‟ve managed to cram in even more activity than

usual. This year we exceeded 50 families at the 3 centres, have held our first Charity Golf Day

fundraiser, our second Awards Night and our umpteenth Market Day. We have successfully

negotiated our third external audit with a glowing report from the auditors and wonderful,

supportive feedback from trainees, families and staff. We can all take real pride in the service

Compass provides. The auditors again expressed admiration for the education, skill based training

and vocational pathway and the evidence that this model has assisted our young people to genuinely

reach for their dreams. They were very complimentary of our innovative use of technology in the

way we manage the complex lesson planning, assessing and reporting requirements of our system.

We also received favourable comment on our emphasis on „smart recruitment‟, staff development,

the resources we direct to that and the retention rate / level of dedication that ensues.

The landmark development this year has been the establishment of the Compass Farm. I was

reminded by an old colleague that it is 25 years since I first vocalised this as a goal. I am very

happy that the Compass families and families of young people with disabilities in this region in the

future will have a „home‟ where certain support principles will be enshrined.

We have had 13 applicants at this stage for 2011 however matters have been complicated by

diminished funding per head for this year‟s school leavers. I am personally very disappointed in a

system that can produce such a result while there is massive government waste all around us.

Knowing the personal toll this takes on families and young people makes it all the more difficult to

reconcile.

I‟d like to take a moment to thank you - the parents - for all your efforts, your support, your

patience and your regular kind words. A Mum asked me recently what my motivation was for

setting up this service and I was a bit stuck for an answer. Then at the Market Day a gentleman

whom I hadn‟t met before (he was running the food stall) approached me and said “Who are you – I

watch them (the trainees) and they like you so much – why do they like you so much?” And I said

“it‟s because they know I like them very much too!”

Have a wonderful Holiday and a Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing you all in 2011. David