The past five years have been a time of significant upheaval in the community sector, and for the communities we serve more broadly. TaskForce is a larger, more diverse, and more professional organisation. We’ve more than doubled in revenue and in our number of staff, and this has meant that we can deliver better, more targeted programs. The next three years provide an important opportunity to secure what we have built and deepen our impact, making a difference to more people.
Our strategy 2022-25
Outcomes
For the communities we serve, we want
1. Demonstrable outcomes
that directly address challenges and realise opportunities for our clients; that increase awareness and access to our services; and that provide evidence of the impact we make.
For our organisation, we want to be
2. Stronger at scale
enabling us to grow our size, footprint, and reach; influence funders and systems; and strengthen and support our team.
Strategic focusses
1.1 Integrated service and system
that means our wraparound service model is helping our clients achieve their goals; that means we have in place process, practice and culture that creates pathways and helps our clients navigate within our services and beyond our own doors.
2.1 Growing and resilient organisation
that means we can invest in resources for longterm sustainability; that means we can reach more clients and can think longer term with our funding and choices.
1.2 Measurable impact
that means we have the framework, processes, and culture to capture and translate data on how and where we make a difference; that means we can understand our existing strengths and where we need to focus; that means we are always putting our clients’ outcomes at the centre of what we do.
2.2 Recognition and relationships
that means our brand is known and understood within our community and sector; that means we can develop and maintain high value relationships that help our clients and support our business model; that means we have the position to positively influence funding decisions that strengthen TaskForce and benefit our clients.
1.3 Access and engagement
that means more of our diverse community can reach us, in the times and the way they need us; that means our clients, community and partners understand and can realise the value we offer.
2.3 Resourced, supported and prepared
that means we have the workforce capacity to meet demand; that means we have the systems and processes in place to deliver what we need; that means we are continually investing in the experience and capabilities of our staff to respond to the needs of our clients and community.
Over 7,000 people supported
8 TaskForce sites in Victoria
370,000 hours of support provided by 120 staff
Clinical support for almost 3,500 people
Over 3,900 people supported with education and training
Professional development training delivered to almost 600 government and community sector workers
4 revised principles and 4 updated organisational values as part of our 2022–2025 strategic plan
Over 30 programs but 1 wraparound model of care
President report
“A new strategic plan will chart our course for the next three years during which TaskForce will continue to strive towards helping realise the potential in people, supporting healthy lives, relationships and communities.”
CEO report
“While our new venues in Frankston and Cranbourne had slow beginnings due to lockdowns, they are now becoming key hubs in our TaskForce geography. They have provided expanded regional bases for our operations and are very quickly at capacity as our business grows. These hubs provide a terrific opportunity to grow our wraparound service model with the capacity for multiple and diverse programs and partners co-locating at one site.”
Our impact
Our participants
“Working with TaskForce I felt at home. The staff were able to listen, understand my culture, and support me to make a plan to solve the issues I was going through in a very friendly, compassionate way. Despite my troubled history they did not judge me, but encouraged me to focus on the new person I am.”
31%
are 25 or younger. Over half are younger than 35. Only 12% are over 50.
54%
are women, 43% are men, and 1% are gender diverse.
3%
are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.
5%
identify as LGBTIQ+.
66%
are born in Australia, 12% in Sudan or South Sudan, 4% in India, 2% in Afghanistan, and 16% in other countries.
84%
have high English language proficiency, 14% have some, and 2% have little or none.
45%
have between 1 and 8 dependent children, with an average of 2.4 children for every parent.
35%
attend for alcohol and drug treatment, 58% for education and employment and 7% for family services.
65%
have current or prior AOD use.
51%
have mental health needs, though only 57% of these are engaged in with mental health supports.
23%
are victim survivors of family violence. 40% of women are victim survivors compared to 9% of men.
11%
are perpetrators of family violence – 19% of our male clients and 4% of our female clients.
35%
are involved in the justice system.
10%
are either homeless or in short term housing (including emergency accommodation and rooming houses).
50%
are either engaged in education or employment, while 47% are disengaged from education and/or employment.
14%
are engaging with more than one TaskForce program (for example alcohol and other drug and employment support).
Our impact - Alcohol and other drug services
Youth (12-25)
- 92% were born in Australia, and 99% spoke English at home. Only 8% were from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This speaks to an overall lack of cultural diversity in the Bayside region compared to the South East, but may also represent a failure of the system, or more work needing to be done at TaskForce, to properly engage with diverse communities
- 80% were voluntary clients while only 20% were forensic clients, that is mandated clients including those on bail, youth justice orders, and community
corrections orders - 65% reported a diagnosed mental health condition – interestingly this was slightly higher for our male clients (68%) than our female clients (55%). The most common diagnosis is mood/affective disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder. This emphasises the need for a wraparound model of care that addresses all barriers including mental health and AOD misuse, and speaks to the necessity of the ongoing government reform of the sector
- 36% recorded a history of abuse or maltreatment – these numbers were consistent between men and women
- 28% were victim survivors of family violence, while 6% were perpetrators
- 25% of our female clients were victim survivors of family violence, making up the vast majority of victim survivors
- Male clients accounted for 100% of family violence perpetrators
- 50% recorded cannabis as their principle drug of concern, followed by only 16% each reporting methamphetamine and alcohol
- 28% also reported cannabis as a secondary drug of concern, compared to 27% for methamphetamine and 16% for alcohol
- 62% either successfully completed treatment, changed treatment type, or transferred to a different service
Adult (26+)
- 90% were born in Australia, and 99% spoke English at home
- 5% of our Frankston clients and 3% of our Bayside clients were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people
- 75% were voluntary clients while 25% were forensic
- 62% reported a diagnosed mental health condition. The most common diagnosis is mood/affective disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder
- 20% of our Frankston clients and 14% of our Bayside clients had previously attempted suicide or self-harm
- 11% had skeletal injuries or problems, 9% had chronic pain conditions, and 7% had acquired brain injuries
- 25% recorded a history of abuse or maltreatment
- 25% were victim survivors of family violence, while 14% were perpetrators
- A significant number had child protection involvement. Interestingly this differed quite significantly between regions – 46% in Bayside versus 33% in Frankston
- 40% recorded alcohol as their principle drug of concern, followed by 25% reporting methamphetamine
- 40% of injecting drug users had tested for blood borne viruses, but only 8% were willing to test again, and only 10% would test for sexually transmitted infections, speaking to poor health literacy and high risk-taking
- 63% either successfully completed treatment, changed treatment type, or transferred to a different service
Program spotlight: ResetLife
There’s a buzz in the air at the TaskForce Youth Hub today. Two people are graduating from the ResetLife program. Their certificate and graduation teddy bear – with messages of encouragement from other participants – lie ready, and donuts and pizza are on the way. The other members of the program are chatting and playing pool and it feels more like a party than a day rehabilitation program.
Our impact - Education and employment
Almost 4,000 people participated in our education and employment programs this year, and Cockatoo Community House reopened its doors to the community to deliver a full year of programs.
MyWay, a partnership with Inner Melbourne VET Cluster (IMVC), helped 368 jobseekers in its first year, with 144 achieving employment placements. 25 of these have already been in their new roles for over six months.
AfriCareers, a partnership with with Afri-Aus Care and Centre for Multicultural Youth, helped 216 jobseekers, with 92 achieving employment placements. Over 95% of the people that we’ve helped place into work are still in these roles, and 22 of these have already been working for six months.
This year we also grew our training services, releasing a full year of programs to support government agencies, other health and community organisations, and anyone else wishing to build their skills. We delivered professional training to almost 600 people, including several inter-state opportunities.
Program spotlight: AfriCareers and MyWay
A job interview is in progress at the South-East Melbourne Jobs Fair. TaskForce has invited a local employer to speak with the jobseekers we’ve just met and who have registered for our Jobs Victoria Employment Services (JVES) programs, AfriCareers and MyWay. Our participant exits the interview with a big smile – after looking for almost a year he’s been offered a job on the spot. Six months later his new employer won’t stop raving about his work.
Our impact - Family services
This year, our family services and family violence teams supported over 1,000 clients, with significant outcomes achieved for them and their families. Our outcomes include family reunifications, recovery from drug and alcohol misuse, successful exit from the justice system, and families supported to address any other barriers to healthier lives, relationships, and communities.
U-Turn
U-Turn is TaskForce’s innovative men’s behaviour change style program for male perpetrators of family violence who currently or historically have misused alcohol or other drugs.
21 men participated this year, with a 67% completion rate for the program. Although this is lower than last year, it is still highly successful for programs working with clients of this complexity.
In addition, we provided support to 18 affected family members, primarily partners/ex-partners of the male program participants.
Living Free Project
The Living Free Project is a cross-sectoral, place-based, multi-layered approach to responding to female identifying clients at risk of or in early contact with the justice system. Living Free delivers comprehensive, individual and family wraparound support for participants in Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula, as well as group based interventions for priority cohorts.
Equally important, Living Free works to build capacity across police, education, health, community and legal sectors to improve identification and response to the cohort, and actively engages in advocacy and policy reform.
Of our Living Free clients:
- 80% of our younger cohort (aged 10–17) were known to have childhood trauma related to parental drug use, family violence, mental health, death or sexual abuse
- 66% of our older cohort (18 and above) were homeless or in unstable accommodation at the time of referral
- Only 12% of those 18 and above had care of their children. 100% had current or prior Child Protection involvement
- 82% of clients 18 and above reported current or prior problematic AOD use – 11% were known to have AOD service involvement when referred
- 57% self reported poor mental health – 29% were engaged with MH support at the time of referral
- 57% self reported family violence concerns either current or prior – only two of these women were engaged with family violence supports on entry
Through the support of Living Free, the girls and women in the program were able to achieve incredible outcomes.
- 90% of participants were involved in no further offending during engagement with Living Free. Only two participants were remanded, and both were supported by TaskForce on bail and remained in the community
- None were sentenced to imprisonment
- 38% increase in the older cohort accessing AOD specialist services
- 29% increase in participants 18 and above accessing mental health support
- 62% of the younger cohort disengaged from education/training/employment were re-engaged at closure or remain in the program with a goal to re-engage
- Of the 27% of our younger cohort who had been couch surfing or in unstable accommodation, 41% were closed with stable accommodation and 41% remain actively engaged with Living Free
- Of the 66% of our clients 18 and above who were homeless or in unstable accommodation, 65% secured stable or transitional accommodation and 14% remain actively engaged with the program
Program spotlight: Living Free
Lisa Abbott, TaskForce’s Executive Manager Social Impact and Growth, was born and raised in Frankston, and is passionate about the project she helped establish with TaskForce to help the local community.
“Before we started Living Free in Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula, girls and women were falling through mainstream systems like education and health and into contact with police. Young women were experiencing significant barriers in navigating complex systems such as alcohol and drug and mental health and presenting to court for offending related to these wellbeing needs.”
TaskForce is based on the lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people and recognises their continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders both past and present.