Community Message – Response to Canberra Times article 12/2/2015
Menslink is a non-profit community association that promotes the value, well-being and social participation of men, in particularly young men and boys, by providing appropriate and professional services with outreach activities.
As the recently elected Chair of Menslink I write this message to advise our community of an operational compliance matter the Menslink Board and organisation have been dealing with and unfortunately has now attracted media attention.
I was elected at the November 2014 AGM following the retirement of Peter Clarke after 4 dedicated years in the Chair.
The Canberra Times ran a story on Thursday 12 February regarding a breach by Menslink of the Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) legislation for conducting regulated activities with young people in 2014 which was reported to the Office of Regulatory Services.
The reported matter concerned a volunteer who worked with our staff when presenting the ‘Silence Is Deadly’ program to a number of local schools. The volunteer did not hold a WWVP card and the number of times he volunteered was in excess of the number allowed in the legislation, without holding a card. At no time were school students placed at risk due to this breach in WWVP policy by Menslink.
When the matter was reported to the Menslink Board in October 2014, they took immediate action to address the issue and consequently reported the breach to the Office of Regulatory Services and affected stakeholders.
The Board subsequently reported the matter to the membership of Menslink at the Annual General Meeting in November.
The Office of Regulatory Services received the final incident report in December 2014 and recently issued Menslink with an infringement notice.
Volunteers for Menslink are supported by a trained and highly capable team and work within a defined system of responsibility. This volunteer was accompanied by a staff member of Menslink at all times, along with staff from the schools involved in the Silence is Deadly Program.
The Board has implemented a review of Menslink policy and procedures to ensure there are no further breaches to this legislation.
As a community organisation, with 12 years of success working with young people, we are very disappointed this situation has occurred. Menslink will continue to advocate for young men, to encourage them to turn their lives around and to seek assistance if they feel they are getting into trouble.
We value the ongoing support of volunteers, sponsors and staff, as without it we could not help the young men and their families as we do.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Battenally
Chair Menslink Board
13 February 2015
Click here to listen to a podcast interview on the matter with 2CC’s Marcus Paul