Our History
Our original legal name was Anglican Health and Welfare Services (Inc.) (AHWS). The story goes that the receptionist was lamenting one day about her need to repeat the full name to every caller. A few people got together about this, and the name "Anglicare" was derived. This name is now used by many associated agencies throughout Australia and is now officially our legal name.
Early History
Moves to establish a general social services agency as an outreach of the Church began in the 1960's. It was not until the early 1970's however that concrete progress was made. Archbishop Geoffrey Sambell had been appointed Archbishop in 1969. In June 1972, he produced a paper entitled "The Church and its place in Health and Welfare Services." In his Synod Charge of September 1973, Sambell set out in detail his vision of how and why the Anglican Church was to develop in its delivery of social services.
52 Mount Street
While planning for the Sambell Centre in Colin St West Perth was underway, the first operations of Anglicare were undertaken from premises at 52 Mount St. Perth. Anglicare assumed the work of the Church's Social Services department. Rev. Roy Poole was appointed as the director of "Coordination and Administration" in February 1974.
Initial Programs
One of the key elements of the Sambell vision was that the agency must operate at the highest professional standards. As Sambell said, "such an agency must always be ready to give an account of its services, to maintain standards to continually evaluate its work and its performance and the needs it is servicing".
The need to become involved in this area was seen quite early. Anglican Marriage and Family Counselling (AMFC) was established in 1975. Initially the counsellors were trainees and volunteers. No government funding was received.
From early beginnings in 1976 as "Salvage to Care," the Op shops have now become an integral and essential part of the organisation.
Perth ITeC: Employment and Training
Unemployment had become a serious social issue during the 1980's.
The Sambell Vision Today
The original concept was for the needs of the community to be established at the "grass roots" level within the Parishes. Anglicare would then work within the context of these needs.
Conclusion
Anglicare today is probably a far larger, and very different organisation to that envisaged by Archbishop Sambell in the early 1970's.
We are now a state-wide community services agency with a unique range of services. Our uniqueness lies in two key elements of our operations. Firstly we are a truly state-wide organisation with services provided from over 30 locations from Kununurra in the North to Albany in the South. This service scope is further enhanced by our growing partnership with Anglican parishes delivering their own services to their local communities.
In his foreword to this Strategic Plan, Archbishop Roger Herft says of our work.
“The enigmatic presence of Jesus in history, past, present and future, places all of life into the category of the sacred. No one is a waste of space. Each person is a mystery demanding dignity.”
At this time in our history our focus remains rooted in these contexts and is focussed on bringing to health and wholeness the vulnerable and marginalised individuals and families in the Western Australian community.