About Us

About the Edmund Rice Centre

The Edmund Rice Centre is involved in a range of projects and activities across the four areas of its operation in research, community education, advocacy and networking. The Centre's objectives are to:

• Conduct and encourage research into the causes of poverty and inequity in society, especially with regard to youth and Indigenous Australians.
• Promote teaching that supports awareness, understanding and action in the areas of justice and community issues.
• Promote experiential learning activities through organised and reflective immersion programs in Australia and internationally.
• Encourage the development of skills in advocacy and social action.
• Facilitate liaison and networking opportunities amongst agencies involved in social justice and community education activities.

In enunciating the vision behind the Edmund Rice Centre's work, director Phil Glendenning has adapted the thoughts of writer David Hollenbach, who in his work Claims in Conflict outlines three 'strategic moral priorities':-

As Edmund Rice Centre we wish to work together to strive for a world in which:

1. the needs of the poor take priority over the wants of the rich;
2. the freedom of the dominated takes priority over the liberty of the powerful; and
   
3. the participation of marginalised groups - and of the marginalised earth itself - takes priority over the preservation of an order which excludes them.

In 2002 Br Philip Pinto cfc, international congregational leader of the Christian Brothers whilst speaking at a Christian Brothers school in the US, enunciated the key philosophical underpinnings - within the tradition or charism of Edmund Rice - upon which the Edmund Rice Centre has been founded.

You could become involved in the Centre's work:-

• by volunteering to assist in the office and with refugee and asylum-seeker support work.
• in the areas of writing, communication, fund-raising; lobbying and network building;
• hosting a speaker from ERC staff within your local community;
  
• participating in a cross-cultural immersion program:-
  
• in Australia visiting Aboriginal communities in northern NSW; or 
• internationally with our partners whose focus is also working for human rights
• by promoting products from our ERC Fair Trade program as a means of advocating for the Fair Trade philosophy, commerce model and certification process;
• by hosting a fund-raising event in your community.

We'd love to hear from you - ideas, social comments, observations. Would you like to know more about the work of the Centre? Would you like to become involved?

Register your interest now! 

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Servicing the needs of Indigenous Australians

• Providing help and support for Indigenous families in crisis
• Fostering and advancing the cause of Indigenous Australians
• Promoting and furthering the congregation in its works on behalf of those Indigenous people who are in need of assistance and those that are disadvantaged
• Encouraging and supporting the development of direct services to Indigenous families
• Assisting Indigenous peoples who are experiencing financial disadvantage by reason of their circumstances

Servicing the needs of Refugees and Asylum Seekers

• Providing help and support for Asylum Seekers and Refugees
• Fostering and advancing the cause of asylum seekers and refugees
• Promoting and furthering the Congregation in its works on behalf of the needy and the disadvantaged
• Encouraging and supporting the development of direct services to asylum seekers and refugees
• Assisting persons who are experiencing financial disadvantage by reason of their circumstances