CENTACARE executive director Peter Selwood said each one of Centacare’s staff honoured at their annual awards for 10, 20, 25, and 30 years of service was a “leader” in his eyes.
“When you do a job and you do it well and you do it over time, people watch you; whether you like it or not, they follow what you do,” he said.
He said the truest form of leadership was authentic leadership – “and that’s who you are”.
The Centacare Awards were held in four localised events held at venues across Brisbane archdiocese and honoured 108 award recipients this year.
Mr Selwood said the caring work of Centacare staff was not fully understood or fully appreciated but it was “absolutely essential”.
He thanked each of the award winners for their work and everyone who supported them.
Speaking at the same event, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge gave his own thanks for the work Centacare did, calling it an “extraordinary gift”.
He said much of what Centacare did was “hidden”.
“A lot of people would look at what you do and think it was quite humdrum; hidden but ordinary and deeply unglamorous,” he said.
“We look at what you do… I look at what you do and I see an extraordinary contribution not just to the life and mission of the Church but to the entire society.
“In a sense it is people like you who make the world go around.”
He said the awards were all about “seeing the truth of your contribution and bringing out into the open that which is so often hidden”.
“All of this requires a particular kind of edge through the pandemic because your service – the care that you offer, that is your calling – has been harder and more complex than ever, and that’s saying something,” he said.
“It really has been and is still a most extraordinary time for people like you who are in so many ways at the coalface.”
The awards close out a significant year for Centacare after launching their rebranding in August.
Centacare has been providing social services support for more than 60 years in Brisbane archdiocese.
