By Allan Hogan, Editor, Bulletin 09/2023 November

From left to right: Glen Powell, Mitra Gusheh, Allan Hogan, Duncan Leys (Photo: Mitra Gusheh)

On Thursday 19 October, three members of the Management Committee visited the Glebe Youth Service (GYS) to meet the new CEO, Mitra Gusheh. Members may be aware that the GYS aims to provide a safe and responsive environment to young people who live in the Glebe area through a range of services and programs, where they are supported by trained and professional staff. GYS aims to provide young people with opportunities to socialise and develop knowledge and skills in a safe and supportive environment.

Mitra Gusheh is a social impact practitioner with 20 years of experience across the social and higher education sectors. She began her career as a youth worker in Western Sydney, where she shared responsibility for establishing the Roundabout Youth Centre. She comes to the Glebe Youth Service from her role as the Executive Manager, Social Impact at the University of Technology Sydney’s Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion. Before this, Mitra worked for a range of not-for-profit organisations where she was responsible for the strategic design, development, and implementation of large-scale social change programs.

The Management Committee is keen to liaise with the GYS so that we have more direct communication with its clients.  The Glebe Society supports its strong track record of delivering projects and services, with significant community engagement in the local area for over 30 years.

Mitra took us on a tour of the GYS kitchen, which we were surprised to see was in poor shape. It prompted Duncan Leys, Glebe Society President, to write to the NSW Government Community Building Partnership (CBP) Grants Program to support the GYS grant application to refurbish their kitchen and upgrade its equipment. The President wrote:

Glebe has a high proportion of economically disadvantaged households, with food scarcity and affordability being important issues in our community. As a result, an important element of GYS’s work is ensuring that nutritious food is served at their group programs, and community have access to food like fresh fruit and vegetables. However, GYS’s capacity to provide food relief services has been greatly limited due to broken and old kitchen facilities. The CBP grant would allow GYS to repair and upgrade their kitchen, allowing them to resume wider-scale food relief activities and also facilitate job readiness programs.

There’s more information on the GYS website.