Catholic Social Services Australia Award winners 2011

	Award Presenters Ms Cate Sydes (CSSA Board Member & CEO of Marist Youth Care) and Mr Tony Davies (CSSA  Board Member & Director Centacare Port Macquarie)
	The Perkins Award Mr Oscar Modesto Ramirez, CatholicCare Parramatta collecting the Perkins Award on behalf of award winner Mr Ray Reid.
	Excellence in Service Award Deputy Executive Director of Kolbe Cottage, Ms Brooke Rule, accepting the award for excellence in service won by Kolbe Cottage Respite Service, Centacare Adelaide.

The 2011 Catholic Social Services Australia Awards were presented at a Breakfast held at Parliament House Canberra in the presence of around 45 Federal politicians and 45 representatives of Member Agencies on Wednesday, 12 October 2011.

The CSSA Awards are a regular feature of the annual calendar and seek to highlight the tremendous work that our agencies do and the outstanding people who work in our services.

Two awards were presented this year:

The Award for Excellence in Service (Individual) – The Perkins Award was won by Mr Ray Reid, Senior Professional Consultant and Former Director of Centacare Parramatta.

Under his leadership marriage and counselling services expanded and additional funding was secured for relationship education, pre-marriage education, problem gambling counselling, family support and pregnancy counselling.

In 1996 Ray won a Churchill Fellowship to travel to the United States and Canada to interview experts on the impact of clerical abuse on church communities. His report, ‘Pain – Hope – Healing – looked at how to assist church members when their leaders are involved in sexual abuse.

Mr Reid writes on social work practice and Catholic social teaching, advises the social work faculty at the Australian Catholic University and lectures in social work. Throughout his working life he has continued learning and studying and was recently awarded a Master of Arts in Philosophy.

Ray’s award was collected by Oscar Modesto Ramirez, a colleague at CatholicCare Parramatta. Ray is currently overseas.

Award for Excellence in Service (organisational) – won by Kolbe Cottage Respite Service

Kolbe Cottage provides respite care for families in South Australia who have a child with an intellectual disability. The service is this year’s winner of an award that goes to the program that is most successfully meeting local community need.

Seeing unmet need in their community, Centacare Adelaide established Kolbe Cottage to provide care on weekends and school holidays for children and adolescents between five and 18 years of age with intellectual disability.

As mother Danielle said in support of the award nomination: “My daughter has learned to socialise, become more independent, make new friends, become a ten pin bowling fanatic and explore new foods all in an environment where she is supported by genuinely caring, compassionate and professional staff who go above and beyond.

Deputy Executive Director of Kolbe Cottage, Ms Brooke Rule, accepted the Award.

The full copy of the speech is available here.

CSSA acknowledges the generous sponsorship contribution from Catholic Church Insurances (CCI) who have supported this important event for many years.