It’s been a big year for Wungening in 2021!

We’ve moved into new areas, started new programs, and expanded existing programs – all in an effort to build towards our vision of a healthy, safe, strong and sustainable Aboriginal community.

Throughout the year, we provided support to 94,261 people through all our programs including Wungening Moort, AOD Support, ReSet, Wooree Miya Women's Refuge, ReSet Family Centres, and our Alliance programs.

Our move into the homelessness space has seen us deliver the Housing First Homelessness Initiative alongside Noongar Mia Mia, St Patrick’s, and Ruah. We also opened Boorloo Bidee Mia – a new hostel located in the Perth CBD providing culturally appropriate support to rough sleepers in Perth.

We launched Dabakarn Kadadjiny (Slow and Steady Learning) – a new research, evaluation, and engagement team to better inform all the work we do, making sure we are always providing the best service to our clients. In partnership with Curtin University’s National Drug Research Institute, we commenced a Homelessness Research Project to help us ensure the work we are doing in the homelessness space is both culturally appropriate and aligned to the needs of the community.

Our Wungening Moort program expanded its scope to include the Peel region for the first time, while an evaluation conducted by Social Ventures Australia highlighted the importance of the program: 'Families consistently emphasised that Wungening Moort service was strengths based and free from judgement'.

The evaluation also reflected on the importance of Aboriginal-led programs like Wungening Moort: 'Stakeholders consistently communicated the vital role ACCOs play in the service sector for Aboriginal families. In particular, stakeholders spoke about the importance of Aboriginal families having a choice in the market between non-Aboriginal mainstream services and Aboriginal services with the strong capability and capacity to deliver effective support.'

BeyondYJS – our youth justice program delivered with Centrecare and UnitingCare West – secured an additional 3-year contract to deliver its service.

We were chosen to lead and deliver a new Aboriginal Family Led Decision Making (AFLDM) pilot in Mirrabooka – a new and exciting initiative giving Aboriginal families self-determination over their own lives, which will help provide better outcomes for families.

And while we have been working to deliver our services to our clients, we have also been recognised for our hard work over the year. Our ReSet program was awarded for ‘Excellence in Social Housing’ by the Australian Housing Institute, acknowledging the work of our ReSet program in providing support for recently released prisoners. We were also named ‘Organisation of the Year’ by the Mirrabooka NAIDOC Committee, and nominated as a finalist in in the Indigenous Governance Awards.

And for the second year in a row, we're partnering with Mission Australia for the Christmas Lunch in the Park, to help feed around 1,400 rough sleepers on Christmas Day.

As big as our year has been in 2021, we look forward to an even bigger year in 2022, while still providing the same level of care and service that our community expects of us.