News archive

Barb van den Vlekkert's retirement event

21 December 2023

 

BDS board members, staff, participants, families, and partners turned out last night to farewell Barb van den Vlekkert after 17 remarkable years as our CEO.

Barb has left an incredible legacy and she will be greatly missed. We wish her every joy in her retirement, and hope she’ll drop in from time to time with her amazing home-cooked muffins and other treats!!

Thank you, Barb, for your years of selfless service and the impact you have had in the lives of countless people.

 

Christmas Carols at Twilight 2023 has been cancelled.

6 December 2023

A message from our CEO:

Hello all, unfortunately we need to cancel our Christmas Carols at Twilight event this Saturday. The weather forecast is for heavy rain, and therefore we have made the difficult decision to cancel this event scheduled for Saturday 9th December.

While this cancellation is very disappointing for all of us, we are planning to hold a similar type of event in February or March next year. Stay tuned for further details!

The safety and well-being of our participants, families, staff, local community, stall holders, and entertainers are always our top priorities, and we believe this decision is in the best interest of everyone.

Philip Brookes appointed CEO of BDS Support Services. Retirement afternoon tea for Barb van den Vlekkert.

22 November 2023

 

Message from Margaret Ruff, Chair of the BDS Support Services Board

We are delighted to announce that Philip Brookes has been appointed CEO of BDS Support Services, starting on Monday 4th December 2023. A highly experienced CEO, the BDS Board were particularly happy to find a person that is also kind, caring, and that will suit the culture of BDS.

Philip comes to BDS with substantial experience leading disability support service organisations. In addition he has experience in community service organisations, finance, human resources, marketing, information technology, and spent many years consulting to non-profit organisations. Recently Philip served on the South Australia State Committee of NDS (National Disability Services), the peak body for disability support providers in Australia. Philip’s expertise will be of great assistance to BDS as we transition to the new NDIS apportion funding, and will also support BDS’s plans to further develop and grow as an organisation through Project Build.

Although born in Victoria, Philip grew up in Nepal and India, has worked in Cambodia and Philippines, and has a multi-cultural family. In Brisbane he supported refugees and newly-arrived migrants through a number of his organisation’s initiatives, including a community farm, multicultural arts program, and other support services. Philip is looking forward to continue BDS’s work of providing culturally-aware and inclusive services that meet the needs of our diverse community.

Philip is a champion of collaboration, innovation, kindness, and values-driven teams, and is excited to work with the BDS team to ensure we provide the best possible opportunities for all of our current and future participants, supporting everyone to realise their full potential. The disability support sector continues to change, and through that change Philip will advocate on behalf of BDS for improvements to the NDIS, for our participants and families’ rights, and to continue BDS’s legacy to support people to belong, develop and succeed. 

As previously announced, after 17 years of wonderful service at BDS, Barb van den Vlekkert, our current CEO is retiring. We invite all BDS participants, families, friends of BDS, and staff to a special afternoon tea to celebrate Barb’s retirement and achievements at BDS on Wednesday 13th December, 5.30pm - 7pm. Barb is looking forward to introducing Philip to everyone at her retirement afternoon tea on Wednesday the 13th, and also at the Christmas Carols event on Saturday 9th December, 5.30pm - 8.30pm. 

Please RSVP to info@bds.org.au or (03) 9309 7448 if you can attend either or both of these events.

BDS Participants and Family Update 27/10/23

8 November 2023

It’s time to dance! And to party!

You and your family are invited to our end of year Family Dance Party on Friday 17th November, 5.30pm - 7.30pm at BDS Broadmeadows, 241 Camp Road, Broadmeadows.

We would love to see you there, and celebrate the end of the year. It will be a great event, with a sausage sizzle and free drink for everyone.

  • Games and activities
  • Sausage sizzle
  • Disco
  • Join Barb on the dance floor with her exciting dance moves. 
  • See DJ Ben to choose your favourite song

And for those that like some quieter time, take a stroll in the grounds, chat with friends and celebrate everything that was fun in 2023 with friends, family and staff.

Please click here to RSVP to the BDS Family Dance Party

Survey Reminder - Help us improve BDS – We would love to hear from you!

There is still time to complete the BDS online survey before it closes on Tuesday 31st October.  You can do the survey on your phone, or on your computer. And for anyone who prefers to fill their survey out on paper, you can get a printed copy from BDS Reception.

Thanks to everyone who has already completed the survey!

BDS Participants, Parents, Carers, Families and Friends survey link 

Working Bees Reminder - with a sausage and a drink! 

We had great fun at the last working bee. And everyone did a great job gardening at the Camp Road grounds too. 

Everyone is welcome to join us at the next working bees on:

With warm regards and ready to have some fun!

Barb (CEO)

 

 

BDS Participants and Family Update 17/10/23

8 November 2023

Hello everyone, 

My senior leaders and I would like to give all BDS participants, families and carers a quick update on some of the great things happening at BDS. 

As many of you know, we’ve launched Project Build.  There’s already great work happening. Spring is in the air, flowers are blooming, and also my leadership team and I have really noticed an increase in energy at BDS. We have welcomed new participants at BDS, we’re improving programs, and we’re getting to know new families. 

Who likes sausages? 

We’re holding a Bunnings Sausage Sizzle this Sunday 22nd October at the Broadmeadows Bunnings. We would love you to come along, support BDS and buy a sausage! It will be a fun atmosphere. 

How many sleeps till Christmas? 

Christmas will be here before we know it. And BDS are looking forward to hosting a Christmas Carol event for participants, families, staff and the local community. It will be at the Broadmeadows campus on Saturday 9th December 5.30pm – 8.30pm. There will be Market Stalls, Food Trucks and we’re hoping Santa will come too! We’ll provide more information soon. 

What I want to do on the Summer Holidays? 

The BDS team loves having a fun day out. With Project Build, and our Escapades team we’re developing a great list of fun activities in January for adults, and another great list of fun activities for children. We’ll provide more information soon, but Jodie and the team have their thinking caps on! What do you think would be fun? Let us know your ideas before Tuesday 24th in this quick online survey. 

BDS Fun on the School Holidays – ideas survey link 

Help us improve BDS  

You are invited to complete our online survey to improve BDS. We had some great feedback and suggestions last year, thank you to everyone that participated. We acted on a lot of the feedback. And this year we’d like more people to do the survey. The Project Build teams are ready to take your feedback, and continue to improve BDS. Our staff will be doing a survey as well, we’ll send a separate survey link to them.  

BDS Participants, Parents, Carers, Families and Friends survey link 

For anybody that prefers to fill their survey out on paper, you can get a printed copy of the survey at reception. Please respond to the online survey by Tuesday 31st October at 5pm, or return your paper survey responses to BDS reception at Broadmeadows by Tuesday 31st October 

Project Build - A lot has already been done!  

Throughout everything we do on the project, we’ll continue to focus on quality, and put our participants first. And also continue to listen to, work with, and support our participants, families, carers, BDS friends, and staff.  

Here’s some recent success stories that we want to celebrate with you: 

  • Launched a Spring calendar of activities 
  • Welcomed four new children into our escapades program, two children formed a very special bond and friendship. We also had three adult participants return to day programs. 
  • Added three days of extra programming during the September school holidays. We will be adding extra days for January in the Summer Holidays too.  
  • Well done on a great fishing expedition! During the September school holidays a young man with a passion for fishing had the opportunity to go fishing with BDS. The young man comes from a family who love to bond over fishing. He chose a couple of locations from pier to surf fishing. And he felt very proud and showed great independence and skill that he knew what equipment he needed. He was so excited to relay his day back to his brothers and his father.  Although no fish were caught, the smile on his face was priceless. And has let us all know back at BDS about the best places to fish, and how happy and peaceful he feels with a rod in his hand and being out in nature with beautiful weather. 
  • BDS held a working bee at our Camp Road site on Sunday 8 October. We had a crew of BDS staff, volunteers from Dallas Neighbourhood House and representatives from Reflect Recruitment improving the front gardens  

  • We conducted our Annual General Meeting on Saturday 14th October which was attended by 45 people. click here for 2023 Annual Report 
  • And I’m very proud to let you know that I was awarded the Eric Childs award. This is a very special award that recognises the vision, stamina, commitment and quality of the people who have come after Eric Childs, our BDS founder. It means a lot to me to receive this very special honour. 

COMING UP – In our Spring calendar of activities and events  

We see this as a great way for people to connect with each other, and with BDS. We’d appreciate your help in getting the word out too. The events include: 

  • Sausage Sizzle on Sunday 22nd October at Broadmeadows Bunnings. We would love to see you come along and support BDS and buy a sausage! 
  • Working bees with a sausage and a drink! We’re improving the Camp Road grounds on: 
  • BDS Family Dance Party (Games, Disco and BBQ)  
    • Friday 17th November 5.30pm – 7.30pm 
  • BDS Christmas Carols at Twilight (Market Stalls and Food Trucks)  
    • Saturday 9th December 5.30pm – 8.30pm 

With warm regards, and a bounce in my step! 

Barb (CEO)

BDS Update – COVID Management

24 May 2022

A lot has happened since my last correspondence in December. We have had Christmas, New Year, and Easter. The time has flown and continues to move at a fast pace. Well for me it does anyway. COVID is still playing a major part in all our lives.

We are steadily learning to live with it. Although a lot of things that were put in place at the height of COVID have stopped in the community; this is not the case for worksites like BDS.

We are still required to keep a number of things in place – wearing of masks, social distancing, health declarations, working in bubbles, temperature taking, etc. These things assist us to significantly reduce the risk of a COVID outbreak. These measures, plus other strategies are documented in our COVID safe plan. All worksites are required to have a COVID safe plan, and it must be reviewed regularly. We have COVID safe plans for each program area.

Our COVID safe plans have recently been reviewed. This is because as we are provided with updates or instructions on strategies to mitigate/reduce the risk of COVID our COVID Safe plan is changed to reflect those instructions that are relevant to our industry. Further to having a robust COVID safe plan, all staff have recently completed a refresher of the COVID Infection Control and donning and doffing training. We are very serious about keeping our staff and participants safe.

Kind regards,

Barb van den Vlekkert

CEO

BDS Update

8 June 2021

As I write we are in our fourth lockdown, each one a little more familiar to us, as it seems to be a regular occurrence in Melbourne. We know the drill,  however it doesn’t make it any easier for anyone.  What started as one week lockdown has now moved to two.  I like all Melbournians are hopeful that at 11:59pm on Thursday 11 June this lock down will be lifted and we can return to some “normality”.

Due to the current sanctions and restrictions in place, BDS has once again scaled back our services to essential services only.  This current plan ensures that BDS complies with the mandatory rules and other directions that are in place for metropolitan Melbourne to contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and reduce risk to the health of our employees and the individuals we support. 

Prior to this lockdown, we were well on the way to returning all those ready to return.  Although we have a large site, it has been a challenge to resume all services back to normal with the social distancing rules.

We are being as creative as we can to maximise the support we can provide. We thank our families and care givers for their patience as we continue planning returns.

Thank you for your understanding and ongoing support in this matter. Please stay safe.
Kind regards,
Barb van den Vlekkert 
CEO

2020 Annual General Meeting

13 October 2020

As you are all aware, we are experiencing a year like never before. COVID 19 has really challenged us in many ways and has made us change the way many things are carried out.  We are working under extreme conditions and to many restrictions. There is a still a lot of uncertainty in the coming months.  By law, we are required to hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) prior to the end of November.   

To that end, this year our 21st Annual General Meeting will be different from the traditional meeting we usually hold. We will not be holding a large celebratory meeting where we present awards and have performances followed by a lovely afternoon tea. Instead, we will be conducting a short meeting that addresses all the legal requirements that we must do as a company – approve last year’s minutes, endorse the financial reports and hold elections for the vacant Board positions.  

The meeting will be open to financial members via Zoom on 27th October from 6.00pm. 

Concerning our celebratory side of award presentations, performances and afternoon tea, we will schedule a time early next year to hold an afternoon tea for these important formalities. This has always been a highlight of our AGM’s and a tradition that we do not want to stop.

Take Care
Barb van den Vlekkert - CEO

Our Response to Coronavirus

13 October 2020

BDS Support Services is committed to the health and wellbeing of our Participants and Employees and we have been constantly monitoring this rapidly evolving situation.

We will provide regular updates about the current health alerts due to the risk of infection by the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

CLICK HERE for more information about temporary service closures due to Coronavirus

Craigieburn Official Opening

14 February 2020

We are very excited to announce the launch of our new site at Craigieburn Specialist Junction

The official opening was held Monday 3rd February