Our speaker at last Tuesday’s meeting was Bronwyn Pike – a name familiar to most Victorian’s.
Bronwyn’s early years shaped her lifelong’s work and passions for public policy and social justice. Bronwyn was born in Tanunda SA and raised in a devout Methodist family where a lot of family life revolved around the Church. Growing up Bronwyn spent 7 years living in Malaysia where her father was a teacher under the Columbo Plan.
After University Bronwyn and her husband spent several years teaching in Darwin before moving to
Melbourne over 30 years ago. Bronwyn’s political career spanning 13 years from 1999 in the State Government was a natural progression for her passions, where she held Ministerial positions Housing, Aged Care, Community Services, Health, Education and Skills. Her Parliamentary experience gave her a broader understanding beyond the Church of people committed to working for a better world.
After leaving Parliament Bronwyn continued her work through the Uniting Church, holding many leadership positions to her present role as CEO of Uniting VicTas.
With Government outsourcing the role of organisations such as Uniting VicTas, has become much more important in supporting Childcare, Mental Health, Out of Home Care and Family Services. As an example, Uniting VicTas has over 1,000 different contracts throughout Victoria with organisations providing community support.
Bronwyn advised that during ‘COVID’ there has been a massive increase in demand for support services particularly around homelessness, emergency relief and alcohol related family issues. Bronwyn sees very challenging times ahead and further increased demand for support services, as there 
are more than 1,000,000 unemployed in Australia.
As a final note member, Rob Hogan, raised that the Hawthorn Men’s Shed (set up by Glenferrie Rotary) is on Uniting Church property. The first Men’s Shed was set up in Bendigo and opened by Bronwyn in 1999.