President’s Foreword

The 20/21 financial year was one that started in the midst of a pandemic but I’m pleased to report that we’ve emerged stronger delivering 23,377 occasions of service to 7890 individual clients.

Starting solely as a marriage counselling service more than 7 decades ago, Relationships Tasmania Australia (RA Tas) has evolved to the needs of our community, and as the pace of societal change continues to accelerate, we’re planning ahead for emerging challenges including the impacts of early access to pornography (and the effect this can have on relationships), as well as social media and online gaming addictions amongst others. We’re also trialling new evidence-based service models and therapeutic approaches while still staying laser focused on delivering to the needs of different communities within Tasmania.

As part of evolution, we’ve seen a stronger RA presence on social media with more dedicated resources (of which an increasing number of Tasmanians are utilising as a first point of contact) as well as a refreshed web presence. A new advert to connect with Tasmanians in need has been produced with thanks to our friends at Relationships Australia NSW and gives a touching insight into the breadth of relationship challenges faced in the community and the opportunity for our organisation to “reshape lives, one relationship at a time”.

…Presidents and CEO’s of all states and territories of the Federation came together in February 2021 to plan an enhanced structure to encourage more collaboration and co-operation especially as new opportunities arise with more online services.

Speaking of collaboration, the Presidents and CEO’s of all states and territories of the Federation came together in February 2021 to plan an enhanced structure to encourage more collaboration and co-operation especially as new opportunities arise with more online services. In the spirit you would hope to see from a relationships organisation, discussion was robust and co-operation has been high to identify a new National Charter to make it easier for cross border collaboration.

This year we were delighted to welcome Sarah Sealy to the Board as Southern Representative who brings considerable legal expertise with areas of interest including workplace relations, dispute resolution and risk especially within the health sector. We also welcome back Emma Lovibond after a relatively short leave of absence for the birth of Amos and we thank James Hipwood for standing in as Treasurer and Chair of the Finance and Risk Committee during that time. Additionally, we have also benefited great from Clinical Psychologist Dr Sarah Dawkins participation in the RA Tas Clinical Governance, Quality and Practice Improvement Committee, which has allowed an enhanced level of analysis including trends and issue management to be reported directly to the board.

I’d like to sincerely acknowledge the absolute professionalism, dedication, deep knowledge and genuine care that our Board Members bring to each meeting and when called upon out of session.

When I was approached about my interest to become a Board Member of RA Tas, our CEO at the time Mat Rowell told me it was a well organised, skills-based board. I expected that statement to be tinged with a level of exaggeration to encourage me to agree. But it was no exaggeration. I’d like to sincerely acknowledge the absolute professionalism, dedication, deep knowledge and genuine care that our Board Members bring to each meeting and when called upon out of session. Whilst this is a volunteer board, every member adds meaningful value and contributes to their full ability. This is underpinned by ongoing best practice in governance and a high level of administration support to allow efficient strategic oversight and input. A special thanks to Vice-President Wendi Key and to Lucy Apps, our Executive Officer at RA Tas, for her administrative and logistics support to ensure that each Board Member (and myself) are able to be focused on adding value.

Finally, I’d like to express the thanks of the Board to Dr Michael Kelly on his first full year as CEO, to the Leadership Group for their ongoing dedication to setting the bar high, as well as every staff member who have lived our values and dedicated themselves to enriching the lives of Tasmanians.

Rick Marton