Retired officer presented with new pioneering award
- simoneworthing
- Aug 12
- 3 min read
BY FAY FOSTER AND SIMONE WORTHING
The first presentation of a new award for pioneering in Salvation Army social work, the James Barker Award, was made recently to Territorial Envoy Ronda McIntyre, a retired Salvation Army officer living in the Clarence City region of Tasmania.
“The award is named for James Barker, who pioneered many of the social services that The Salvation Army around the world is involved in today,” said Colonel Winsome Merrett, Chief Secretary.
“He and his wife Alice were sent to Australia in 1882 to take command ‘in all the colonies of the Southern Seas’. Concerned that the men he had met in prison would have no place to stay on exit and would return to a life of crime, James commenced the Prison Gate Brigade, establishing a home to house these men. With his wife, he also established rescue homes for women in both Australia and New Zealand.”
Seeing the need for change
When The Salvation Army’s new emergency relief model, Doorways, was introduced in 2015, Ronda was already thinking of ways to break away from traditional methods of delivering material aid. People were caught up in poverty and despair, especially generational poverty. There had to be a better way to break the cycle.
The pivotal moment for Ronda came when a mother brought her 15-year-old daughter to a Salvos centre and asked staff to sign her daughter up for ‘welfare’.
“That was a real moment, a realisation that we’re really not doing justice to the opportunities we have by working on the current model,” said Ronda. “There are so many human resources available, and God expects that we do more than that.”
The new Doorways model, which Ronda was instrumental in developing, emphasises the need for individual assessment of clients. “We were seeing people in absolutely challenging situations, and didn’t have resources to do an adequate assessment,” said Ronda. “It was a lifestyle and income assessment. That was changed to a case management model.
“A person comes in … they’ve lost their job or had a family breakdown. We need to be able to assist that person quickly and well enough to help them out financially, then move them on to family case management, financial counselling, or relevant services; move them on to development, so that they can create goals and move forward.
“Under the old model, where people could only be assisted once every three months, they often became dependent on that aid. Under the new model, where clients are case managed to help them address their problems in a holistic way, breakthroughs are happening.”
Supporting people through community
The lady who came in to sign up her 15-year-old daughter had struggled with substance abuse and had taught her children how to shoplift successfully. After case management, this lady and her children became involved with a Salvos community. The next time the mother asked her daughter to shoplift, she said she couldn’t do it because she was now a junior soldier.
“The integration [into the Salvos community] is the difference between new and old models,” said Ronda. “They have people in the church being Jesus to the people that come in, and it’s not hard, if we do it and do it well, to get a response.”
“Ronda is one wonderful lady, a real hero of the faith,” said Salvos Commissioner Miriam Gluyas.
“And pioneering is just as important today as in James Barker’s time. We had – and have – some brilliant pioneers. We are a ‘full salvation’ movement. We love transformation of body, mind and soul, ‘one life at a time with the love of Jesus’. The needs are great. When we are the movement that God has called us to be, there is an incredible transformation. And now for the next group of pioneers to rise. Can’t wait.”
