top of page

Frontline workers feel less ‘alone’ through new online support group

  • Mar 3
  • 2 min read

 

Salvation Army community workers will benefit from a new initiative operated by the Integrated Mission and Rsoucing Department.
Salvation Army community workers will benefit from a new initiative operated by the Integrated Mission and Rsoucing Department.
BY LAUREN MARTIN

 

A new Community of Practice (CoP) for Salvation Army corps-based community engagement workers across Australia is filling a need for pastoral care and ideas sharing in the space.

 

The CoP is being coordinated by two streams within the national Integrated Mission and Resourcing department.

 

Around 30 community workers from across Australia joined the first 90-minute online meeting, which discussed how the community of practice would operate and which topics would be most helpful for upcoming discussions.

 

“This is a place to discuss challenges, share wins, learn from one another, and grow in confidence,” said CALD Community Engagement National Lead Nuria Gonsalves, who co-facilitated the meeting alongside Local and Integrated Mission Specialist Narelle Gurney.


“None of us are meant to do this work alone. This is not just a meeting, this is a network you all belong to, we all belong to.”


Nuria Gonsalves is the CALD Community Engagement National Lead.
Nuria Gonsalves is the CALD Community Engagement National Lead.

One participant, Lawrence Besant (pictured above left) from Villawood Salvation Army, agreed, saying, “We can become very isolated in this work because it’s very complex … [For me,] I need the wider community, I need that space to be able to say, ‘This is really hard.’ We can’t do it by ourselves.”

 

Discussion in smaller ‘breakout rooms’ enabled participants to share directly with one another, and feedback received in the wider group afterwards showed that those who attended were excited to learn from one another, share ideas, and discuss strategies for community engagement and resources.

 

One participant said, “We are working on how to make our SAL Connect card distribution less transactional and more relational.” Other participants shared their experiences of frontline ‘fatigue’ and strategies for managing it.

 

The Community of Practice is open to all Salvation Army community engagement workers and will be held every two months. A Microsoft Teams chat group will be open between sessions for participants to share challenges, ideas, and resources.

 

“This community of practice is the group I didn’t realise I needed,” said one participant at the end of the session, “Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this amazing group of people.”

 

Any community engagement workers interested in joining the CoP can contact:

bottom of page