"How are you going to halve child poverty in Brisbane?"

WMQ Anti-Poverty Week Panel 2022
October 20th 12:00pm on Zoom
Please register here for free. We will email the Zoom link prior to the event.

Confronting the complex issues of poverty, our panel, drawn from those with lived experience and industry leading experts, will discuss housing, food, and healthcare. How on earth can we meet this challenge? What are the big and little ideas that just might help us get there.

Host:
Dr Janice McRandal, Director the cooperative, Wesley Mission Queensland

Janice McRandal is an academic who researches public issues, politics, and philosophy. She is the director of the cooperative, a centre for public research that was founded by Wesley Mission Queensland. Janice’s passion for social justice sees her providing safe space for community discussion, lived experience sharing and advocacy.

Guest Panellists:

Liz Cameron-Smith
Chief Executive Officer, Foyer Foundation

Liz Cameron-Smith is a social innovator working to unlock new possibilities for the future of our society and planet, recently appointed as CEO of the Foyer Foundation.

During her 13-year chapter at PwC Australia, Liz led PwC’s corporate responsibility team on a journey to channel its impact towards homelessness and housing affordability, launching The Constellation Project as a bold, cross-sector effort to end homelessness in a generation. She founded The Impact Assembly, a PwC venture that brings together unlikely combinations of people, resources and insights to drive change on systemic social and environmental issues.

Jasmin Lind
Manager Housing and Homelessness, Wesley Mission Queensland

Jasmin Lind has worked in the community services sector for over 20 years, predominantly with young people in the housing space and also parenting, education, training and community events.

From 2009-2020 Jasmin managed Wesley Mission Queensland’s Logan Youth Foyer which focusses on providing young people opportunities to progress in their life goals. The program offers affordable housing, connections to earning and learning, social and community support and wellbeing programs.

Jasmin is currently the Manager for Wesley Mission Queensland’s Housing and Homelessness services which are located across SW and SEQ, all of which connect people to resources and opportunities to improve their personal circumstances.

Moroni Pugh
Manager, Crisis and Emergency Relief, Wesley Mission Queensland

Moroni Pugh has degrees in Psychology, Counselling and Social work/policy as well as currently studying towards a MSW/MMHP. He has worked in the field since 1988 in health, mental health, education, Child Safety and Youth Justice as well as various community agencies within the sector. In addition he has extensively volunteered for over three decades in community development, mental health, education, consumer/lived experience; Prisons; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community health and education and within his own Maori community in Qld at the local, State and National level. He currently manages the Wesley Mission Queensland Brisbane Relief Hub where the Community Meal and Emergency Relief Services provide support to those in need through the provision of food parcels, script vouchers, intensive one on one casework and financial resilience counselling as well as medical, counselling and Social support clinics.

Jess Sager
Young person at Logan Youth Foyer Support Service (LYFFS)

Jess is a 19 year old who lives at LYFFS. Jess has a strong passion to help anyone who is in need. Jess enjoys putting smiles on people’s faces utilising her great sense of humour and aspires to be a youth worker in the near future. Currently Jess takes pride in her job as a team member at her local Woolworths store. Jess very much enjoys music, making people's days and is always on the hunt for her next goal to achieve!

Morteza Fruzande
Foyer Graduate and Volunteer

Morteza Fruzande is a Chairman’s Elite and Marketing Executive for a Logan based real estate. Morteza was introduced to Wesley Mission Queensland
in 2012 where he gained access to housing, opportunities for further education, training and employment, social and community connections and wellbeing programs. He has also excelled as a professional athlete, representing Australia and coaching others in sports. His mission is to actively engage with and give back to the local community.