Leo Wassercug, WAYS Youth Services Treasurer reflects:
 1988 WAYS, Ebley St Bondi Jct |
2010 marks the 30th full year of operation of WAYS. WAYS is celebrating thirty years of service to our community. As the longest-serving member of the WAYS Mangement Committee, I've been asked to provide some perspectives on what WAYS means to me. I'll briefly review some of the key people, events and milestones that have occurred these past 30 years that have formed what WAYS has become.
Having grown up in this area, living successively in Rose Bay, Bondi Beach, Waverley and, since 1991, in Coogee, I've always felt it appropriate to put something back not only into my country but also the local community of which I am part. When I joined the WAYS Committee in September 1988, I could never have imagined that I would still be on that Committee all these years later. Nor did I foresee how successful WAYS would be. WAYS became, and remains, an important and pleasant part of my life.
In 1986 I was living on Warners Avenue in Bondi, opposite the Bondi Beach Primary School. A flyer had been put in my letterbox. "Are your kids at risk?" it asked. I didn't have any kids of my own but I was interested in the welfare of our local kids. This was the first time I'd ever heard of WAYS.
As the meeting was literally across the road at the school, I went along and met Steve Murphy, the General Manager. Steve was an Irishman with the proverbial Irish gift of the gab. He hadn't just kissed the Blarney Stone, he'd bitten off a whole chunk of it! At the end of his talk about local youth, I was inspired to volunteer my services to WAYS and left my contact details.
Unfortunately, I heard nothing more and WAYS slipped back into that part of the brain where all the things we're gunna do get stored.
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So when Michael Marx, the then WAYS President asked me to join the Committee, I already knew about WAYS and its good work and gladly accepted his invitation. I also laughed and told him my flyer story. WAYS had been founded in 1979 by a group of concerned local citizens headed by Bob Hately and Rob Griggs pictured left with the then MP for Coogee Ernie Page, and Paul Pearce the current MP for Coogee.
I also met Steve Murphy again and watched how he used his energy and pizzazz to make the most of minimal resources on behalf of "the kids". (Nothing's changed, i might add.)
About 6 months after I joined the Committee, Steve resigned, wanting to return to Ireland. That's how Russell King arrived at WAYS, back in 1989. As we expanded both our size and horizons, Russell was transformed from General Manager to CEO and he transformed the organisation into what it is today.
The connection with both Bob and Rob still continues. Bob retired after many years on the Committee but still makes himself available to WAYS for assistance and advice. Rob's wife, Lynne McGimpsey, works for WAYS now in our Education & Training Service.
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Commitment and continuity remains a strong point of WAYS and has greatly contributed to our success. Aside from Russell and myself, many other staff, Committee members, WAYS members and volunteers have been with WAYS for many years. This is particularly noteworthy for a non-profit charitable organisation in a sector marked by high staff turnover. Staff examples include Gordana Kundevski, Amie Pupuke, Shannon Elliot(all pictured left) Mark Raven, Marcelle Jordan, and Amanda Webster, all of whom have notched up over 10 years' service with WAYS in varying capacities. Amongst the Committee Members, those approaching 10 years' or more of service included Susan Bures, Bill Dickens, Bob Hately, Linda McDonald, Michael Marx, and Kerrin and Joe Ryan, Harl Mallam and Eve Wynhausen.
Volunteers too have exceeded the 10 year mark include Cesia Glazer, Josie King and Karen Stern while longstanding WAYS members include Robin Armstrong, Sally Betts, Ivor Findlay, Francine Esterman, Les Burroughs, Marie Mallam, Damien Babb, Damien Minton, John Meers, Joan Symonds, Sharon Dunsmore, Josie King, Thelma Thomson, Nancy Baker, Anthony Shannon, Janette McDonald, Edward Latimer, Pearl Martin, Jessica Bures and John Gilbert . My apologies if I've left anyone out.
All this is also evidence of WAYS's deep community roots and support. WAYS doesn't just serve the community but is an integral part of our community. This was highlighted in 1992 at a meeting of our local precinct committee which debated the proposal to build our Youth Centre in Wairoa Av. The vote was 103 for with 2 abstentions and no votes against.
Politics has also played a part in WAYS's success story. Not because WAYS has played politics or become involved in internecine political disputes. It hasn't. (There have only been three occasions in our 30 years when WAYS has ever made a public "political" point. All three directly related to WAYS's activities: when we were defunded as a specialist youth employment services provider by the Howard and Rudd governments in 1996 and 2009, and when the Carr government changed its mind on allowing us to purchase the old Bondi Police Station on Wairoa Ave for youth accommodation.)
As a charitable community organisation we do not believe it is our role to engage in politics. There are many other people and groups who can do that.
Rather the politics has come from the frequent and passionate representation and support from all sides of politics, all factions and all tiers of government. When we've needed advice or support from our local councillors and MPs, they've been there.
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WAYS stands for Waverley Action for Youth Services and initially got superb support from Waverley Council under the mayoralties of Barbara Armitage and Paul Pearce. Administrations come and go but the support of Waverley Council continues with the current Mayor, Sally Betts, having become a Committee Member of WAYS before she became Mayor.
 1994 WAYS opens in Randwick |
However, WAYS soon outgrew its Waverley roots and now services the community and particularly the youth in the triangle from La Perouse to Redfern/Waterloo to South Head. We cover all or part of the Local Government Areas of Botany Bay, Randwick, Sydney City, Waverley and Woollahra; the NSW electorates of Coogee, Heffron, Maroubra, Sydney and Vaucluse; and the Federal electorates of Kingsford-Smith, Sydney and Wentworth.
The "Eastern Suburbs" is usually stereotyped as the land of silvertails and toffs, an area that has no social problems or, if it does, then the residents can bloody well afford to pay for them! WAYS has sometimes suffered as a result in obtaining funding.
The South-Eastern suburbs that we service are a very varied and diverse area socially, culturally, ethnically and economically. Ranging from Alexandria to Zetland, they include Beaconsfield, Bondi and Bellvue Hill,; Daceyville, Darlinghurst and Double Bay; Rosebery, Randwick and Rose Bay; with a brace of Eastgardens and Edgecliiffs, Kensingtons and Kingsfords, and Maroubras and Matravilles in between. Youth problems like peer pressure, bullying and binge drinking don't go away because of your postcode.
Fortunately, internal politics within WAYS has been almost non-existent in 30 years. WAYS is a friction- and faction-free organisation. I don't remember the last time we took a formal vote on anything. The Mangement Committee sometimes has vigorous debates but operates by consensus. Our debates are driven neither by ideology nor personality.
One strength of the Committee is that it has been composed of people with a wide range of skills and backgrounds, most of them not from the community welfare sector yet all equally committed to helping our youth. The current Committee includes a CEO of another charity, a Children's Court Magistrate, a China business consultant (me!), a hospital administrator, a local government councillor, a media producer, a police officer, a project manager, a small businessperson, and a stockbroker.
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Our ethos never varies. WAYS is able to provide, on a consistent, long-term basis, a wide range of co-ordinated services which rely on a one stop shop principle. Our ethos is to act in a professional but "uncommercial" and caring way while providing as many services as we can as often as we can, given our resources. From drop-in and recreational facilities to education and training services to counselling, outreach, referral and advocacy, WAYS stands ready to help local youth. We try to address as many of the problems young people face as possible.
It must be emphasised that not all of our clients are "in trouble". Being able to drop into our Youth Centre for some supervised fun is something both the young people and their parents appreciate. Similarly, sitting in a school classroom learning how to deal with eg peer pressure or how to resolve conflicts with parents under the guidance of a trained youth worker is also a normal part of young adult life.
We are, and act as, a charity, not a business. We put our clients and youth in general first. That's why we're here at all. Scrambling for another dollar is sometimes difficult but doesn't hurt. Turning away a client in need is what really hurts. Our service philosophy is thus another factor that stands out in my mind as contributing to WAYS's success.
The welfare sector is chronically underfunded and WAYS is no exception in this regard. Having been Treasurer since 1992, I speak from first-hand experience. I'm lousy at many things but juggling for survival is a finely honed skill at WAYS. Some years are better financially; some are worse. After 30 years we are veterans in the community welfare sector. It's quaint to remember but my term as Treasurer goes back far enough to include computerising WAYS's accounts. I encouraged this gradually over two or three years as computers weren't something the welfare sector "did" back then.
 WAYS Staff team 2009 |
Another important factor has been the gifted leadership and management of our staff and Management Committee. Russell King, assisted by Amanda Webster, Karen Mclaughlan and Susie McCormack, have ably guided WAYS through thick and thin. Michael Marx's 13 year Presidency was outstanding and his successors such as Joe Ryan(pictured left) have capably continued WAYS's traditions.
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Significant events in WAYS's history include:
1979: Founding of WAYS1980: first full year of WAYS's operations
1988: Promise of our own purpose-built youth centre by Virginia Chadwick
1992: Move from Ebley St, Bondi Junction to Wairoa Av, Bondi Beach
1994: Opening of WAYS employment services programme
1994: Operning of Randwick Service
1996: defunding of employment services programme (refunded 1998)
1998: WAYS joins with Rabbi Kastel and David Krite to form Point Zero Youth Services
2001: Opening of the Bondi Junction office at Tiffany Plaza
2003: Opening of services in Maroubra and Redfern
2009 Defunding of employment services programme resulting in the closure of the Redfern office and temporary relocation of service offered in the Randwick LGA.
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I joined the WAYS Committee in the year before the Burdekin Report "Our Homeless Children" in 1989. Since then, the number of teenage homeless in Australia has more than doubled. Our outreach programme picks them up regularly at Bondi Beach. This is an indication that not every problem is soluble and of how much work still needs to be done.
Nevertheless I can look back at the first 30 years of WAYS as very successful. How do I know this? Our scandal-free track record of providing necessary services to hundreds of local kids a week for 30 years speaks for itself. The multi-generational nature of our clients also indicates the very important role WAYS has played in the lives of thousands of young people in our community. We have clients who are the children of previous clients; previous clients who became our youth workers; and even one previous client, Damien Babb. currently a Committee members. The strength of our community support and the loyalty of our staff are other indicators.
At a personal level, the fact that I'm still here and still enjoying it is evidence of what a pleasure it has been to work for WAYS throughout the years. Thank you for being allowed to serve my community.
To the next 30 years!
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