Bonnie’s RAP
Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan 2019-2021
View on ISSUU here.
Download a copy here.
Our Promise
RAP stands for Reconciliation Action Plan and we are immensely proud of ours. It’s been a long time in the making, and we are so grateful to have had the guidance of community leaders, Norma Burrows from Liverpool Council, and Delphine Leslie from South West Sydney Local Health District. Both Norma and Delphine have worked with us over the past couple of years to guide the process. All Bonnie’s staff were included in the thinking and planning. As you will see if you look through our plan, it definitely reflects a promise from all of us.
Our RAP marks the formalisation of our commitment to keep working on strengthening relationships, opportunities and respect for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
It is a business plan of large and small activities that we commit to achieving over the next two years.
We will be formally accountable to our RAP Working Group, including our external RAP Advisors, and to Reconciliation Australia for fulfilling our commitments. By publishing the RAP on our website, as a living timeline, we also hope to be accountable to YOU.
We understand that the journey to reconciliation with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters is a journey that is premised on the generous tolerance and patience of these communities, as well as on our willingness to work hard and determinedly in the demonstration of our commitment to social justice for our First Nation’s People.
Please come on the journey with us by keeping up to date with our RAP implementation process – the path to Reconciliation is the way for all of us.
The Bonnie’s RAP Timeline
Timeline
Timeline 1
March 2017: The vision starts taking shape. Project Worker Lucy Pedrana begins developing a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) with Mary Eates, an advisor from Liverpool Women’s Health Centre.
Timeline 2
May 2017: New hands at the helm. Lucy leaves Bonnie’s and Catherine Mellors comes on board and continues the work to create our RAP.
Timeline 3
16 May 2017: Bring it on. The first meeting of the newly formed RAP Working Group (WG) is held with Norma Burrows (Liverpool Council), Delphine Leslie (South West Sydney Area Health) and some of our staff here at Bonnie’s.
Timeline 4
30 May 2017: Everyone in. Bonnie’s holds a RAP information session with all staff to obtain everyone’s input as well as sending out a survey.
Timeline 5
2018: It’s a group think tank. Several drafts of the RAP are completed and shared with the RAP Working Group, the Board of Directors and all staff and then sent onto Reconciliation Australia.
Timeline 6
September 2018: Welcome! Karen Beetson, a prominent local Aboriginal leader, joins our Board of Directors.
Timeline 7
23 January 2019: Almost there. A final draft of our RAP text is tentatively supported by Reconciliation Australia.
Timeline 8
3 April 2019: Keeping everyone involved. A RAP Information Session led by Catherine Mellors is held for all of our staff.
Timeline 9
11 April 2019: Celebration. Our RAP is launched alongside a Bonnie’s Aboriginal Art Project to celebrate our achievement.
Timeline 10
May 2019: Regular meet ups. Our RAP WG starts to meet quarterly to monitor and report on our RAP’s progress. The RAP WG consists of a balance of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal representatives:
Norma Burrows (External RAP Consultant)
Del Leslie (External RAP Consultant)
Tracy Phillips
Catherine Mellors
Donna Stevenson
Ranjani Tharmaratnam
Timeline 11
27 May – 3 June 2019: Reaching out. Bonnie’s staff joins the Liverpool Council’s Sorry Day Event. We also organise a successful Reconciliation Week event: a nature walk and lunch where Bonnie’s staff, clients and local Aboriginal women’s groups are invited to learn more from an Aboriginal woman about local native plants.
Timeline 12
May 2019: Review and update. Our policy for Welcome to Country and Acknowledgment of Country is reviewed and amended, based on new information received about cultural protocol.
Timeline 13
May 2019: Offer more. A Cultural Leave Day is approved by our Board. The new Cultural Leave policy entitles Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, or staff with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family members, to take one cultural leave day per year, to attend Aboriginal cultural events.
Timeline 14
May 2019: Learn more. We send out a staff, client and stakeholder survey to gather feedback about barriers to participation in cultural activities such as Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week. And to let more people know about our RAP.
Timeline 15
May 2019: Join together. We partner with Liverpool Women’s Health Centre’s Aboriginal Health Promotion Worker to plan an Aboriginal Women’s Healthy Relationship Program.
Timeline 16
June 2019: Collaborate more. A workshop, to design an Aboriginal English service brochure was facilitated by Only Human. Senior members of our local Aboriginal community and Bonnie’s staff attended and together we developed a new approach guided by their insights: Do you need an Aboriginal specific brochure at all? What are other ways to show Bonnie’s inclusivity towards all women? Exciting new thinking all round.
Timeline 17
July 2019: Partner Up. We become a partner agency, offering sponsorship to Liverpool Council for their 2019 NAIDOC events. We also partner with a local Aboriginal women’s group, Sistas4Sistas, to host an internal NAIDOC Week event. They lead a two-day basket-weaving workshop for everyone at Bonnie’s. More baskets coming!
Timeline 18
July 2019: Cultural Competency training, with staff from the Liverpool Women’s Health Centre, for all of us here at Bonnie’s.
Timeline 19
August 2019: Time flies. It’s the second quarterly review for our RAP working group. We get a chance to discuss and reflect on our RAP commitments and achievements to date.
Timeline 20
August 2019: Healthy milestone. We finalise the Aboriginal Healthy Relationships Program with Mary Goslett (Aboriginal clinical psychologist and psychotherapist) who will lead the 7-week program for Aboriginal women in September 2019.
Bonnie Support Services Ltd is an ACNC Registered Charity.