We are pleased to announce the results from our AGM held last night at SDIEA, welcoming three new Board Members, and farewelling two long standing members of our Board.

Please see results:

• Janelle Robb, reappointed as Chair.

• Justin Nolan, reappointed as Treasurer.

• Pam Burley, reappointed as Secretary.

• Rod Kelly, reappointed as Community Representative.

• Cr Sheryl Windle, reappointed as SDRC Representative.

• Marco Gliori, reappointed as Community Representative.

• Andrew Jones, retired from Board.

• Denise Ingram, retired from Board.

• Gary Lawrence (Warwick Chamber of Commerce President), appointed as Industry Representative. Jacinta Boland (Head of Department, English and Languages, Warwick State High School), appointed as Education Representative.

• Alison Sommerset (headspace Warwick Manager) appointed as Future Directions Representative.

We recognised a successful year, enrolling 103 new Skilling Queenslanders for Work participants (funded by Queensland Governments- Department of Small Business and Training- DESBT) in calendar year of 2022, with 85 of those participants gaining permanent employment. This means we report an employment outcome of 88% of Skilling Queenslanders for work participants with a funding requirement of 65% and an internal target of 80%. In addition to new enrolments, we too continued to support participants from previous years, along with general support we provided to community as a community-based organisation.

We recognised the very full year it was to say the least with a relocation to our now community and education precinct at 163 Palmerin St, with a goal of providing lifelong learning and growth pathways for those who visit the hub. We celebrated the strategic partnerships that have been formed with Busy at Work, Connection Plus and Star Services who all joined us as tenants of the site in 2022. All with a collective goal of supporting lifelong learning and growth.

Last night, we acknowledged the extensive challenges we faced for the year and proudly reported that the organisation continued to lay solid foundations for the future.

Our Chair was pleased to report the additional support we can provide to our community with large community facilities available to hire and recognised 20+ organisations currently using our large community room that was previously the Library for St Mary’s lower campus.   We all agreed with the introduction of our new Board Members, we are well positioned to leave a legacy for our community with SDIEA being the precinct of choice for our region though inspiring and fostering individual growth, creating community value and delivering on the precinct’s intent of lifelong learning and growth.

Our strategic plans for the current year include becoming NDIS accredited and establishing our social enterprise food van to support employment and learnings for our participants. We also will continue to work with community, government, and universities to establish a regional university centre at the site. SDIEA continues to partner with community to establish a Neighbourhood Centre and when the site is operational, SDIEA have agreed to provide governance.

All attendees at the meeting recognised the extensive contribution of long-term Board Members, Andrew Jones and Denise Ingram and in their retirement from SDIEA, will continue to have an open invitation to attend our meetings as guests.

We thank our community for almost 25 years of support.