Who we are
We are a community development and advocacy organisation.
We are proudly a volunteer-powered movement.
We humbly walk alongside vulnerable people facing adversity and injustice. They include:
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Children, young people and families
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Refugees & Asylum Seekers
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First Nations communities
We operate in three areas of impact:
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Community Development
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Youth and Children's Development
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Justice & Advocacy
Dignity
Through our presence with each other we cherish, respect and honour each story and the desire to experience the fullness of life.
Integrity
We hold true to the authentic call of our hearts in openness and transparency. We do what we say we will do.
Liberation
We understand that all of life has the right to contribute in peace and with hope.
Justice
Cultivating a deep awareness of the agenda of the world we desire and work for both social and ecological justice.
Our Values
Our Vision
Together, building communities
where people thrive and belong.
Our Mission
In the spirit of Edmund Rice, our community seeks to build authentic relationships, learning together about people's everyday experience of the world.
We are ordinary people understanding that our interactions and support for each other can create extraordinary moments of change for the common good.
Edmund Rice Community Services draws on the inspiration and example of Edmund Rice. He was a husband, father, philanthropist, educator, and visionary who was born in the 1760s in Ireland. In the two centuries since his death, Edmund’s example as a man of compassion, action, and faith has given life to a unique expression that has inspired thousands, like Edmund, to make the world a better place.
Edmund was a man who was driven to make his community a more equitable place, and actively worked to break generational cycles of poverty and disadvantage. His primary work was education, establishing schools that gave the most disadvantaged access to a liberating education that would set them up with the life skills they would need to succeed.
His style of gentle, grounded education drew others to join him in his mission. He has an extraordinary presence and desire to address unjust structures that held people back from living a full life. He was known to visit and sit with prisoners condemned to death in the cruel penal systems of 19th century Ireland. He established charitable trusts, orphanages, and built a reputation as a humble man of action and social justice. Edmund Rice remains the central figure in our identity and inspiration.