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Training and education are acknowledged routes into employment, but they also entail risks of contemporaneous financial loss, and economic and social insecurity. This paper explores the specific risk of homelessness among apprentices and trainees, drawing on a survey conducted in South Australia in 2013. Housing has been largely overlooked by studies of the wellbeing of apprentices and trainees, and by explorations of the drivers of attrition rates that continue to plague Australia's training schemes. The data examined here reveal the high proportion of income that trainees spent on their housing; home moves motivated by the desire to reduce rental or mortgage payments; and a small proportion of learners who experienced periods of homelessness. Closer statistical analysis reveals that apprentices and trainees with past experiences of homelessness were disproportionately likely to be pursuing courses in retail and personal services, or in transport. They were also likely to be receiving Youth Allowance or AUSTUDY payments. We recommend better recording of apprentices' and trainees' housing situations and greater use of administrative data to improve our understanding and reduce the incidence of homelessness among this population.

Background Studies revealed that supporting residents fulfilling self-determination is positively associated with their health, wellbeing and quality of life. Cross-cultural care poses significant challenges for nursing home residents to fulfil their self-determination in control of own care and maintaining meaningful connections with others. The aim of the study was to compare factors affecting residents fulfilling self-determination in ethno-specific and mainstream nursing homes. Methods A qualitative descriptive approach was applied to the study. Culturally competent care and person-centred care were employed as guiding frameworks. Individual interviews or a focus group with residents and family members were conducted to collect data. Results In total, 29 participants participated in the study. Three main themes were identified: communicating needs and preferences; mastering own care; and maintaining meaningful relationships. Each theme includes sub-themes that detail similarities and differences of factors affecting residents fulfilling self-determination in the two type nursing homes. Findings indicate that residents from both types of nursing homes experienced challenges to communicate their care needs and preferences in daily care activities. Moreover, residents or their representatives from both types of nursing homes demonstrated motivation and competence to master residents’ care based on their individual preferences, but also perceived that their motivation was not always supported by staff or the nursing home environment. Residents’ competence in mastering their care activities in ethno-specific nursing homes was based on the condition that they were given opportunities to use a language of choice in communication and staff and the nursing home demonstrated culturally competent care for them. In addition, ethno-specific nursing homes showed more recourse to support residents to maintain meaningful relationships with peers and others. Conclusions Culturally competent care created by staff, nursing homes and the aged care system is a basic condition for residents from ethnic minority groups to fulfil self-determination. In addition, person-centred care approach enables residents to optimise self-determination.

Background Reducing loneliness and enhancing quality of life (QoL) are key public health priorities. However, limited empirical research examines the impact of community-based interventions on both loneliness and QoL. This study employed a single-group pre-post design to evaluate the South Australian pilot intervention, the Community Connections Program (CCP), assessing its effects on participants’ self-reported QoL and loneliness. Methods Individuals referred to the CCP pilot completed an interviewer-led survey at both intervention intake and completion. QoL was assessed with the Assessment of Quality of Life – 6 dimensions tool (AQoL-6D). Loneliness was assessed with the Campaign to End Loneliness Tool – 3-item measure (CtELT). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired sample t -tests. Results Data from 195 adults who completed both data collection points were evaluated. AQoL-6D improved from intervention intake ( M  = 57; SD  = 16) to completion ( M  = 66; SD  = 13) ( t (194) = -9.73, p  <.05; d  = 0.62). All six dimensions of AQoL improved, with the greatest increase in scores occurring for mental health , relationships and coping (results were statistically significant at p  <.05). The largest within-group effect size was found for the dimension of mental health ( d  = 0.8). Participants’ overall feelings of loneliness significantly decreased between pre- ( M  = 6.7; SD  = 2.99) and post- ( M  = 4.4; SD  = 2.00) intervention measurement ( t (186) = 10.50, p  <.05; d  = 0.90). Conclusions Participants of the CCP pilot intervention reported significantly improved QoL and reduced loneliness at program completion. The CCP shows promise for the ability of community-based interventions to reduce loneliness and improve QoL for individuals disconnected from their communities and local health and support care services. These findings have implications for the development of programs that facilitate place-based, person-centered connections as important drivers of public health and wellbeing.

Australia’s social housing sector is under great pressure. Actions to improve social housing sector capacity and responsiveness have occupied the minds and endeavours of many policy makers, practitioners and scholars for some time now. This article focusses on one approach to challenges within the sector recently adopted in a socio-economically disadvantaged area within Adelaide, South Australia: transfer of housing stock from the public to the community housing sector for capacity and community building purposes (the Better Places, Stronger Communities Public Housing Transfer Program). The discussion draws on evaluative research about this northern Adelaide program, which has a deliberate theoretical and practical foundation in community development and place-making as a means for promoting and strengthening social inclusion, complementing its tenancy management and asset growth focuses. Tenants and other stakeholders report valued outcomes from the program’s community development activities—the focus of this article—which have included the coproduction of new and necessary social and physical infrastructures to support community participation and engagement among (vulnerable) tenants and residents, confidence in the social landlord and greater feelings of safety and inclusion among tenants, underpinning an improving sense of home, community and place. Consideration of program outcomes and lessons reminds us of the importance of the ‘social’ in social housing and social landlords. The program provides a model for how social landlords can work with tenants and others to (re)build home and community in places impacted by structural disadvantage, dysfunction, or change. The article adds to the literature on the role of housing, in this case community housing, as a vehicle for place-making and promoting community development and social inclusion.

Anglicare SA's Living Beyond Suicide program (LBS) is a postvention service which partners with crisis services such as the police and ambulance who attend each suicide in South Australia and who provide families with an immediate link to the service. LBS workers visit in the hours and days after the suicide, companion survivors through post-suicide processes, and provide a vital link between families and the community. The support given is practical and based on a family's needs. It is also based on evidence which suggests that postvention services are important in mitigating the negative effects of grief and suicide contagion. Despite the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in suicide statistics, LBS is signifi cantly underutilised by Aboriginal people. The aim of this research is to investigate how programmes such as LBS can be made more accessible and appropriate for Aboriginal people so that all people in the community have the opportunity to access the service should they experience bereavement through suicide. The project constitutes the beginning of a 'both ways', asset-based dialogue, and seeks to enhance the service's capacity through dialogue with Aboriginal stakeholders, whilst investigating the potential of the service to augment the capacity of Aboriginal people and communities to live beyond suicide. To this end, the research here gathers information from a number of Aboriginal people who have been bereaved by suicide, and Aboriginal service providers who work with people who have been in this situation. It asks whether or not there is a need for a service such as LBS for Aboriginal families and communities and, if so, how the current programme could be modifi ed to make it more accessible and/or appropriate for Aboriginal people. Overarching those service specifi c questions, the project investigates the potential utility of predicating social service provision on a process of 'walking together'.

Social inclusion has been adopted as an important policy principle by the Australian federal government. As such, the concept merits a timely and critical scrutiny, given that it is one which links to some potential practices, manifestations and consequences which are problematic from a social justice point of view and which raise questions about the nature and quality of citizenship. By way of engaging with the idea of social inclusion, this paper revisits that notion of citizenship in order to propose a case for non-coercive, non-impositional and affirmative approaches to welfare. Such approaches offer positive directions in term of social justice outcomes and principles, self determination, and the rights of citizens to the freedom to function in a manner which expresses the way they choose to be. The article revisits notions of Mutual Obligation and articulates a more progressive notion of citizenship than one offered through the idea of social inclusion. It deploys a refashioned concept of reciprocity which shifts the locus of social responsibility away from populist notions of good citizenship and back towards good governance. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

South Australian (SA) food charity recipients’ perspectives were sought on existing services and ideas for improvement of food assistance models to address food insecurity. Seven focus groups were conducted between October and November 2017 with 54 adults. Thematically analysed data revealed five themes: (1) Emotional cost and consequences of seeking food relief; (2) Dissatisfaction with inaccessible services and inappropriate food; (3) Returning the favour—a desire for reciprocity; (4) Desiring help beyond food; and, (5) “It’s a social thing”, the desire for social interaction and connection. Findings revealed that some aspects of the SA food assistance services were disempowering for recipients. Recipients desired more empowering forms of food assistance that humanise their experience and shift the locus of control and place power back into their hands. Some traditional models, such as provision of supermarket vouchers, empower individuals by fostering autonomy and enabling food choice in socially acceptable ways. Improvement in the quality of existing food assistance models, should focus on recipient informed models which re-dress existing power relations. Services which are more strongly aligned with typical features of social enterprise models were generally favoured over traditional models. Services which are recipient-centred, strive to empower recipients and provide opportunities for active involvement, social connection and broader support were preferred.

In the wake of the culture wars and a clash of ideologies and visions around Australia's national identity, this article examines the Rudd Labor government's position within that debate around social identity and social policy. The article offers a provocation to the Labor federal Member for Port Adelaide and Parliamentary Secretary for Health, The Hon Mark Butler MP. That provocation highlights Labor's past insufficiencies in the culture wars, and underscores the centrality of issues of national identity in the ideas debate. The provocation then questions how these issues are evolving under the Rudd Labor government as it moves through its first term. Mark Butler offers a broad ranging response, detailing his perspective on how Labor is navigating these issues of national identity and social policy, and putting these perspectives into historical context. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

The ability of older people to express their spirituality is an important component of aged care. Spirituality is not specifically religiousness although, for some, religion offers a means for spiritual expression. This paper aimed to explore what constitutes spiritual life for residents in three residential aged care facilities in South Australia. The findings of the research demonstrated that the majority of older resident participants defined spirituality as 'connection/s'. Three unexpected results of the study became obvious during analysis, reported here as 'loss', 'adaptation' and 'they're busy'. It is offered here that these adjustments enabled participants to compensate for their losses.

Purpose Though qualitative evidence of social impact exists for disability-inclusive social enterprise, there is a dearth of quantitative economic impact on their social impact. This study aims to address this gap and investigate the appropriateness and usefulness of social return on investment (SROI) methodology in this context. Design/methodology/approach Primary data was collected from people with disabilities, their families, staff at the parent company (an Australian Disability Enterprise [ADE]), social investors and other key stakeholders (n = 17). The study was also informed by the literature and a steering group to provide expert opinion when no other data existed to inform estimates. Sensitivity analysis was performed to check the robustness of the analysis. Findings Social return was estimated at $1.47–$2.65 for every $1 invested (over 3 years) and $8.48–$12.63 (20 years). Some forecast assumptions significantly impacted upon final ratios and need to be tested. How SROI ratios are received by social investors, the ADE sector and government remains untested. However, the political climate suggests ADEs adopting social enterprise models will be well received if they can deliver, and demonstrate through robust measurement, sustainable open employment opportunities. Originality/value Few studies exist that estimate the social impact of social enterprises supporting open employment of people with disabilities. At a time when ADEs (sheltered workshops) have been heavily criticised for providing repetitive, menial work for top up wages on welfare payments, the outputs from this research may provide valuable data to an ADE sector in transition as well as social investors and policy makers who increasingly require robust measurement of impact.