President Report.
To our valued members,
our community
and our stakeholders,
As I write this, Victoria is gradually emerging from yet another COVID-19 lockdown. For my part, I hadn’t anticipated that we would spend a large part of 2021 living with the same restrictions we faced in 2020. But, despite the ongoing challenges of working from home and limits on face-to-face engagements with our community, HRVic has had a highly successful year – thanks, of course, to the hard work and dedication of our exceptional CEO, staff and volunteers.
This report details this work and I invite you to explore the many projects and activities undertaken by the team at HRVic throughout the 2020-2021 reporting year. In these pages, you can read about the great achievements in each of our core programs – PAMS, Health Promotion and the Peer Networker Program, DOPE and DanceWize – as well as our new projects, PATH-Ex and FUSE.
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The work undertaken by our staff demonstrates their commitments to realising HRVic’s mission, values and strategic goals.
We work to advance the health and dignity of, and social justice for, people who use drugs in Victoria and we do this via four strategic goals: Engagement with our community to reduce injection- and drug-related harms; Adaptation within HRVic to enable continuous improvement in our work; Alignment of our services to ensure our work meets the needs and priorities of our community in changing environments; and Influence through developing and maintaining key partnerships with other stakeholders who share our goal of improving the health and well-being of people who consume drugs.
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While I acknowledge and thank all our staff and volunteers, I want to specifically recognise two staff members who left HRVic this year: Stephanie Tzanetis, our long-serving DanceWize Program Director, who has taken up a leadership role at AIVL (our national peak organisation) and Leora Robertson, our similarly long-serving PAMS Service Officer, who chose this year to take
a well-earned retirement. Steph and Leora have made extraordinary contributions to HRVic and to the community we serve. We thank them for their exemplary service and wish them well in their future endeavours
On behalf of the Board and HRVic, I also want to thank our valued stakeholders and partners. We could not achieve our strategic goal of influence without your generous participation and we look forward to continuing and further strengthening these important relationships and collaborations in the coming year.
We are also deeply grateful and extend our sincere thanks for the respectful and productive relationships we continue to enjoy with our funders in the Department of Health and the generous support they provide that enables our work addressing the multiple issues that impact on the health and well-being of people who use drugs.
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Finally, I also want to acknowledge and thank my fellow Board members.
From living rooms, kitchens, home offices, work offices, cars and public transport, our Board members participated in monthly zoom meetings to fulfil the governance responsibilities they took on when they committed to joining the Board– ensuring HRVic stays focused on its purposes, meets its funding obligations, manages risks and complies with financial and legal requirements. The generosity, expertise and professionalism of our Board members meant it has been a pleasure and a privilege for me to Chair our meetings where we come together to support the invaluable work of HRVic.
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Sadly, this year we farewell three of our wonderful Board members, who are stepping down from the Board to pursue other opportunities. We say our goodbyes to: Emily Lenton, who has served five years on the Board, taking on the role of Vice-President for the last two years; Joël Murray, who has served four years on the Board, taking on the Treasurer role for most of those years; and Gab Bennett who has been with us for three years. I sincerely thank them for the time they have generously given to the Board and to HRVic, and also for the support they have given to me as President. Each of them brought to the Board a wealth of knowledge and skills, the sharing of which has been of enormous benefit to HRVic. They will be greatly missed, though we do hope to continue to work with them into the future.
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Of course, the bitter-sweet of farewelling Board members is that new people come onto the Board and I look forward to welcoming and working with the new and the continuing Board members in the coming year.
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It’s been my honour to serve as President of the Board of HRVic throughout the 2020-2021 reporting year and, along with my fellow Board members, to support the work of this outstanding organisation, our excellent CEO, Sione Crawford, and our incredible, highly skilled and dedicated staff and peer volunteers. Based on its many successes this year, I can assure you that the organisation is in a strong position to meet emerging challenges and opportunities and achieve its important mission.
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Robyn Dwyer
President, Harm Reduction Victoria