Founded in 1984 on the lived experience of Stan McCormack, the Australian Community Support Organisation (ACSO) has grown to be a long-term partner of choice for government and industry to help break the cycle of people repeatedly entering the justice system. In 2024 ACSO celebrates 40 years of critical social and health services to the Australian community. Our core purpose is to prevent unnecessary incarceration. We achieve this by ‘living and breathing’ the organisation’s vision 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

These important words guide the values, culture and actions of our employees, leadership team and Board of Directors. We cross the boundaries and barriers of the different community and health sectors to connect people to the right support. Our work creates outcomes and positive social impact through integrating support for mental health, forensic disability, alcohol and other drug treatment and social housing. These services span the entire justice continuum from prevention, diversion to rehabilitation. Importantly ACSO’s work focuses on supporting people with complex needs. We are inclusive and our work is informed by evidenced practice and lived experience expertise.

The past 12 months has been a time of opportunity, innovation and challenge.

Opportunities

• We have expanded a new Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) treatment service in the Illawarra Region of NSW, through funding from the Department of Health to establish an AOD Hub in Shell Harbour.
• We have received funding from the Commonwealth Government Department of Home Affairs for the first time to establish new clinical support services in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for people recently released from Immigration Detention Centres. The new Reintegration Pathways Program is being delivered in partnership with Life Without Barriers and Settlement Services International.
• The successful recommissioning of the Community Support Program for a further 4 years for the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, providing intensive community support for people subject to Post Sentence Orders. ACSO has partnered with Aboriginal Controlled Organisation, Dardi Munwurro to deliver culturally specific services for the Community Support Program.
• The recommissioning and expansion of the Forensic and Assessment Counselling Team (FACT) through Court Services Victoria. Delivering AOD treatment for people referred from the Court Integrated Support Program (CISP) across 20 court locations in Victoria.

Innovation

• With investment from the ACSO Board and the Victorian Government, we have successfully implemented a new innovative Microsoft Azure ‘Secure Data Lake’ or Enterprise Data Platform (EDP). ACSO’s EDP will enable client and contract data to be transformed, joined together and will generate a first generation whole of ACSO client data set.

Challenges

• Not unlike many other community agencies, ACSO has experienced significant budget challenges associated with increasing costs of operating, compliance and regulation. These challenges have resulted in a budget deficit for the FY2024 year, which required careful management and reduction of some expenses to ensure the future financial sustainability of the organisation.
• At the May State Budget, the Victorian Government announced a wide range of funding reductions across the community, health and social care sectors. Along with other agencies delivering crucial community mental health supports in metropolitan Melbourne, ACSO was initially impacted with cuts to 28 jobs across regional Victoria. After a short but intensive and effective advocacy campaign ACSO partnered with agencies NEAMII and EACH to have these cuts reversed by the Department of Health. However, these programs have only been contracted for a further 12 months, we hope the Victorian Government continues to fund these successful mental health programs at a time when it is clear they are needed.
• ACSO’s delivery of Specialist Forensic Disability Accommodation (SFDA) is co- funded by the NDIA and Victoria Department of Families Fairness and Housing (DFFH). Since Victoria transitioned to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in 2016, the funding and service model for ACSO’s SFDA continues to raise significant concerns that impact our service delivery. Funding from the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) continues to be inconsistently applied to ACSO’s clients, often due to their support needs requiring both disability and forensic management. As the NDIS Review outcomes and new legislation unfolds over the next few years, we are hoping that there is a resolution to this issue.

A new Strategic Plan for ACSO’s future: 2024 -2027

Early in 2024, the ACSO Board designed a new strategic direction for the organisation. A key feature will be to enhance and expand ACSO’s deep capability in responding to people with enduring complex needs – requiring specialist support and navigation across social and health sectors. We will build on our successful programs that integrate across the mental health, AOD, Justice, housing and homelessness, disability and family violence sectors. People with multiple complex needs continue to experience barriers in accessing services and levels of direct support or intervention that do not meet their needs; these poor service outcomes often result in higher rates of incarceration.

ACSO’s strategic objective for the next three years is: “The provision of high quality, integrated services for people with diverse and complex needs. We will create safe and effective solutions that reduce harm and create better connected communities”. This objective is directly aimed to try and ‘shift current justice policy from an incarceration focus to ‘diversion and prevention’, continuing to expand our work in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales.

Importantly the strategic plan places our clients at the centre of the organisation’s future. More resources have been committed to embedding the expertise of lived experience to enable our future growth and the design of services that are measured by their impact on clients, the community and government. We have also committed more resources to embed culturally, diverse and inclusive practice across all levels of the organisation. This includes creating authentic and meaningful partnerships with First Nations communities.

We extend our appreciation to the ACSO Board, Executive Team, employees and stakeholders for their ongoing commitment to the organisation’s vision – A community where everyone has the opportunity to thrive, and prison is truly the last resort. We also acknowledge the significant contribution of Board members Jane Hall who retired in 2024 and welcome Sue Lloyd who is based in Queensland and brings a depth of capability and experience in employee safety and workplace relations.

ACSO’s gender pay gap has been steadily reducing over time, particularly in the last four years. This shows that our current gender equity strategy and policies are working, and genuinely making a difference for our team members. The most recent data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reports that ACSO’s average total remuneration gender pay gap is 1.1% and the median is 3.2%. There’s still work to be done, but we’re on the right track.

We are very proud of the positive and inclusive culture we have built at ACSO, which is evidenced by the results of this year’s annual employee engagement survey – 85% of our employees participated with 71% positive engagement. These results are not accidental and reflect similar data from the last seven years.

On behalf of the ACSO Board, Executive Team and our employees, we are proud to share our 2024 Annual Report with you.

Warm Regards