Community
5 February, 2025
Church exits from the social service it founded
NWQICCS has removed Catholic from its name and replaced it with Community.
Father Mick Lowcock says the decision to transfer control of the social service organisation he has steered for more than 20 years to a local Aboriginal leadership team is a step towards Indigenous self-determination in the region.
At first glance it appears to be a small change in NWQICSS’s title – North West Queensland Indigenous Catholic Social Services has replaced Catholic with Community.
However, the cosmetic change reflects a significant overhaul of the group’s constitution, management and structure, which will see NWQICCS reconfigure as an Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisation (ACCO), meaning it will officially cut ties with both the Mount Isa Good Shepherd Parish and the wider Catholic Diocese.
Father Mick said while he planned to keep an active “behind the scenes” role in NWQICSS, the day-to-day operations and future strategic vision of the organisation would be placed in the hands of an Indigenous-led board of directors and management team, with the group to meet in the coming days.
The new direction also reflects the changing requirements to qualify for many government funding programs, especially those aligned to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
“It has become pretty obvious that if you are not an Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisation you struggle to qualify for certain types of funding, and I think in the future you will have to be an ACCO to qualify for most types of funding in this space – so I don’t think we have much of a choice other than to make this change,” Father Mick said.
“But, in the long run, this organisation (NWQICSS) was set up to give Aboriginal people more control and I think this development is just another step in that journey.
“People taking responsibility for their own people is a great thing – Aboriginal people know better than any of us the challenges they face and what needs to be done.”
Employing more than 100 people, with about 80 per cent First Nations people, NWQICSS is responsible for a wide range of frontline social programs that includes school bus runs and kindergarten services to providing meals for watchhouse inmates as well as drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
Father Mick said skilled worker shortages in the North West had meant NWQICSS was routinely vulnerable to having qualified people poached for higher paid roles in competing sectors.
However, he said he hoped the changes would encourage Indigenous talent to stay put.
Church Elder Aunty Dolly Hankin said she believed the increased leadership responsibilities would see Aboriginal people “step up to the challenge”.
“We have been working at the grassroots level for a long time, and I think we have the skills to lead, and it is about time we used those skills,” she said.
“But we aren’t going to let Father Mick stray too far from NWQICSS – he is loved and highly respected by all of us and we want to see him close by.”