3 February 2015

How your Christmas gift made a difference

Posted in Uncategorized


During November and December last year, you may have received a letter or email, asking for your support for chaplains.

We needed your help to cover unexpected chaplaincy costs. Following the High Court ruling, the Federal Government made an administrative change – so, the National School Chaplaincy Programme is now funded by the Commonwealth, but delivered by the states and territories.

Although it sounds like a minor change, it actually meant that more than 800 schools had one week to re-apply for a chaplain.

We needed to raise $205,000, by the 31st of December, so we could:

  • Put in place 837 new contracts with schools who had to re-apply for funding
  • Issue 620 revised contracts to our chaplains in line with the government’s required changes to the chaplaincy programme
  • Relocate a number of chaplains to new or different schools as the government announces which schools will receive funding
  • Start recruiting and training for chaplains in newly-funded schools

You helped us raise $224,456 through the Christmas Appeal, beating our $205,000 target! The whole team here at SU QLD is blown away by your generosity – thank you so much!

The additional money you raised will be put towards supporting chaplains over the coming months, as we finalise the recruitment of new chaplains and ensure they are well supported in their roles.

Jenni Dobbin, our Head of Field, said the response from schools during the re-application process has been encouraging. “It was a very easy, quick process and with only one week to apply, it was amazing to see how quickly our principals acted to secure a chaplain,” she says.

“Of our original schools, 837 schools (including ACT) were successful. We have gained seven new schools – four in the ACT and three in Queensland.

“An extra 91 schools applied for government funding for an SU QLD chaplain, which is an incredible affirmation of the community’s support of chaplaincy. However, none of these were successful for 2015 due to limited funding.

“We currently have 66 vacancies, the majority of which we hope to fill by the end of February,” Jenni says.

Queensland’s Department of Education, Training and Employment – together with the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and Independent Schools Queensland – will review the selection process for chaplains in 2015. The outcome of this review will be communicated to schools towards the end of the year, and they’ll be considering the opportunity for all schools to reapply for funding for the 2016-18 school years. We’ll let you know the outcome of this review.

If you are interested in becoming a chaplain, visit https://www.suqld.org.au/morehands.

Thanks for your incredible generosity! The funds you donated were put straight to work, and thanks to you, hundreds of Queensland schools have started the year with a school chaplain. Thanks!



SU QLD

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