Speech in the Legislative Assembly
26 October 2011
MR COE (Ginninderra): This evening, I would also like to talk about the wonderful work of Fusion Canberra. I had the great pleasure of attending the Friends of Fusion fundraising dinner last night.
Fusion is an international youth and community organisation with three part-time paid staff but 50 volunteers giving of their time on a weekly basis. With between 150 and 200 other volunteers involved throughout the year, the organisation manages 20 different projects and programs.
Fusion works to give disadvantaged and marginalised young people a purpose in the community and gives them the resilience to deal with adversity. This work includes breakfast clubs in schools, chaplains in two high schools, Wombat Wardrobe quality second hand clothing and book stores, sustainable living education, youth programs at schools, youth adventure day trips, and Aboriginal reconciliation work focused on an annual pilgrimage to Uluru for high school children from across Australia.
Co-located with their hub at the Carleton Street shops in Kambah is their largest initiative, their social enterprise called Wombat Wardrobe. This social enterprise, opened in May 2010 by Senator Gary Humphries with Steve Doszpot MLA present, has quickly become a community hub for Canberrans. With a great story in last week’s Canberra Weekly Magazine, it is no longer a well-kept secret. All proceeds from the enterprise go directly to support Fusion’s valuable and community work in Canberra, the Northern Territory and Africa.
Fusion successfully ran for 17 years a horticulture and gardening project at the Lions Youth Haven property in Kambah. This supported the unemployed, refugees, mentally handicapped, disabled and youth. While there they developed innovative food production techniques and successfully trialled a new exciting technology called aquaponics that grows plants and fish in a closed organic system which has very low water use.
Key staff of the organisation that I would like to acknowledge this evening are team leader Brenton Reimann; high school chaplains Alissa Holden, Nigel Doecke and Ben Davis; other staff Sarah Peel, John Brummell, Alf Blasch, John Mann, Kristel Wood, Jimmy Cheng, Claire Reimann, Lydia Sewell, Greg Ashford, Rick Oates, Sarah Oates, Marilyn MacArthur, Gillian Uhle, Jessica He, Mike Ashford, Sandy Schumacher, Lyn Waldron, Inta Gollasch, Louise Garrett, Trevor Schumacher; the Wombat Shop assistants Indi, Keira, Katie, Colleen, Lilias, Esther and Tracy; the breakfast club volunteers Florine, Sue, Debra, Hassa, Rachael, Bec, Amanda and Phil; and their peer leaders Mike Loberger and Isabelle Del Perez.
The following businesses also work in partnership with Fusion: Southside Lighting, a gold partner; Office Partners, Mitchell, a silver partner; Milestone Financial Services, Deakin, a bronze partner; Capital Chilled Foods, Fyshwick; Insitec, Fyshwick; and A1 Signs.
Churches and organisations that work with Fusion include: ACT and Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Unity College, Canberra; St George’s Anglican Church, Pearce; Lutheran Immanuel Community Church, Lyons; Chinese Methodist Church, Lyons; St Marys in the Valley Anglican Church, Calwell; Capital Edge Community Church, Erindale; Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade, ACT; 1Way FM Christian radio station; Canberra Chinese Christian Church; Youth with a Mission, Canberra; Ainslie Church of Christ, Anglican youth department of the diocese of Canberra and Goulburn; Scripture Union ACT; Tuggeranong United Football Club; and the Canberra Organic Growers Society.
I offer my congratulations to all involved and commend Fusion Canberra for the great work they do in our community.