Kairos Volunteers News and Updates

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April 2025 | Issue 005

Volunteer News

Hello everyone!

March has been a busy month with many Regions running core team training and team formation training sessions. It is an exciting time, and I pray that preparations for the upcoming Programs are running smoothly. If any of you are experiencing difficulties, please do not hesitate to contact me so that I can organise support for you and assist in removing any obstacles you may be encountering or resolving any questions you may have.

I am delighted that we have been able to fast track the new Kairos Inside Volunteer Mentoring pack. Once new volunteers have completed the induction with their assigned mentor and received clearance from Corrective Services, Regional Committees will be able to involve them in the ministry in the time prior to the next short course being run. This will be particularly helpful for Regions who are restricted to running only one short course per year.

I have been privileged to participate in the planning of the KO Guest Recruitment pilot which is being run jointly by KSO and a small delegation of KO Sydney volunteers.  I am hoping hat we will be able to take the learnings of this pilot program and share them with the other Kairos Outside committees in Australia.

This month I have held face to face meetings with three Regional Committees in Southern Queensland – KO Southeast Queensland, KI Southern Queensland and KI Wacol and have been privileged to accept the hospitality of our Board Chair Col Stiller and his wife Robbie. Thank you for the warm hospitality which I received from you all. It was a pleasure to spend time with you.

We have cause to celebrate the receipt of official confirmation that the first program at South Coast Correctional Centre in Nowra, NSW!  It will be held in October this year.

We also have cause to celebrate the invitation by Hope 103.2 to Gill Begbie to participate in a 15-minute podcast to talk about the work of Kairos Outside. A link to the recording of the podcast which was recorded earlier this month is on the News page of our website. Gill did an excellent job sharing about her involvement in the Kairos Outside Sydney ministry since its inception in 1999.  Click here to listen.

The Lord continues to bless us abundantly and to walk with each and every one of our volunteers.

Please stay in touch and reach out so that we can all work together to ensure as many people as possible hear the word of our Lord.

Blessings to you all as we journey through this Lenten season in preparation for Easter, recommitting ourselves and drawing closer to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thank you to each and everyone of you for your outstanding work, commitment and dedication to our miraculous ministry.

Deb Poulton

Chief Operating Officer

Kairos Prison Ministry Australia

coo@kairos.org.au

Training

Leaders Ezra Training

EZRA training for leaders of programs was held on Zoom over four weeks in March. All Sessions other than the initial introductory session, have been recorded and are available to watch on the website/YouTube. The training incorporated watching a series of short videos which are readily assessable on kairosezra.com or kairosezra.org and presentations by the Ezra Support volunteers with question-and-answer opportunities at the conclusion of the sessions. The recorded sessions are a valuable reference resource for both those who were unable to attend and those leaders who attended.

Thanks to Jan Syme and her team for their ongoing support of leaders and their team members tasked with EZRA duties.

Governance

Technology and Vega Update

Can I please ask all Program leaders to ensure that they forward their team lists including Name, Role and Talks given to Bruce Bond our Office Manager at the KSO. This will enable Bruce and his data input team to update the Regions data in a timely manner. Email Bruce at operations@kairos.org.au

As part of our process in maintaining data currency you will have received an email asking you to check your personal data for accuracy and to notify us of any change in phone numbers, email addresses or home address.

If you have not already done so, can you please make it a priority to respond to this email and notify us of any data changes required by following the instructions on the email.

Empowering You

New Brochures

The new brochures have been finalised and sent to the printers. Each Regional Committee will receive a promotion pack (at no charge) comprising General promotion brochures, KI or KO specific brochures, KO Postcards for giving to people attending either KO or KI closing ceremonies and for leaving in coffee shops, churches, and other community locations, Kairos needs Volunteers brochures, General Volunteering Overview brochures, Kairos Fact sheets and testimonies.

I pray that you may find these resources useful in your promotion and recruitment activities.  Please destroy any stocks of old brochures which you may have and only use the new materials we have supplied.

You can see samples of brochures on MyKairosOz.

Please contact Bruce – operations@kairos.org.au if you require any additional resources.

Policy

Kairos Inside Journey

At the February 2025 Board Strategy meeting a decision was made to allow new Kairos inside volunteers who have not been on a Short Course team to attend Journey accompanied by a mentor.

The Kairos Inside Journey program volunteer mentoring guide has been completed, together with an application pack. The application pack documents will be made available to a Regional Committee upon request, to the COO.  Signed Volunteer Applications forms will need to be returned to the COO prior to a volunteer being taken in on a Journey team.  The form is labelled Application for Journey Program – Volunteer (KI 1002).  Please remember each new volunteer must be accompanied by a mentor and no more than two new volunteers can be on a Journey program team at any one time.

The COO will liaise with the mentor and new volunteers to obtain feedback.

A mentor's guide is also available on the website.  The document name is "Guidelines for Mentoring Kairos Inside Journey Program Volunteers Who Have No Short Course Experience."

I encourage all mentors to familiarise themselves with this document which is located on MyKairosOz.

Technology - Google Drive

Kairos Cloud for your Committee Files

Your Committee now has a place to store documents in the Kairos Cloud. There are separate Kairos Cloud Shared Drives for Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.  All is stored in the Google Drive and accessed via your Kairos Google/Gmail password.

Why use the Kairos Cloud?

While it is not mandatory to use the Kairos cloud yet (that will come later), there are some advantages:

• Files are available on any computer you use when you are logged in.
• Next person in your role, has automatic access to Kairos documents.
• Files are backed up each night (Kairos Support Office can restore if needed).
• Enterprise levels of security (protecting from hackers etc).

How to access the Kairos Cloud

There are three ways to access the Kairos cloud:

1. Add the Kairos Cloud to your computers file manager app (recommended).  Contact the support office for help setting this up - Email: operations@kairos.org.au or call 0498 012 263;

2. Use this link https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/shared-drives (Kairos Google password needed); or

3. Open Google "Shared Drive" within your Kairos Google account (Kairos Google password needed).

Names of Kairos Cloud Drives

Each Region/State Council has been given 4 shared drives - See picture below which outlines the name and who has access. 

Below is a screenshot of what the list of the 4 new folders would look like when the Chair of a Region is logged into Google Drive.

Save the Dates

30th Celebration Events

Brisbane on Saturday 20 September – venue and time to be advised.

Sydney on Saturday 27 September – Stanhope Anglican Church - Time TBA

Adelaide on Saturday 18 October – venue and time to be advised.

Invite your friends, family, church members - everyone is welcome!

Kairos Outside Perth AKT

11 to 13 July - Venue to be advised

Past Newsletters

Vision

A Community Spiritually Freed from the Effects of Imprisonment.  Reaching all Impacted by Incarceration, through the Love, Hope and Faith found in Jesus Christ.

Mission

The mission of the Kairos Prison Ministry is to share the transforming love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ to impact the hearts and lives of incarcerated men, women and youth, as well as their families, to become loving and productive citizens of their communities.

Donate today! Donations over $2 are tax deductible. 

www.kairos.org.au | info@kairos.org.au | PO Box 388, Seven Hills NSW 1730

ABN: 55 081 496 175 

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