St Joseph Affordable Homes is a new and innovative Catholic building and construction social enterprise established to improve life and employment outcomes for disengaged young Tasmanians. An initiative of the Archdiocese of Hobart, St Joseph Affordable Homes is delivering a training and employment program, including an in-house apprenticeship scheme for young people who are disengaged from employment and training. The extensive social and affordable housing building programs of CatholicCare Tasmania and Centacare Evolve Housing will be the building and construction projects for St Joseph Affordable Homes. We aim to build around 100 homes in Southern Tasmania in our first 12 months and provide an in-house apprenticeship scheme for 12 young people, across a range of trades, primarily carpentry.
Young people, previously disengaged from training and employment will be given life-skills and work readiness training, coaching, work experience, and employment opportunities, specifically employment as trade apprentices with St Joseph Affordable Homes. We will employ and support a trade apprentices who as well as skills training will receive one-one coaching and access a range of wellbeing supports. Participants will participate in our already established Build Up Tassie initiative with Centacare Evolve Housing. St Joseph Affordable Homes will engage young people from all backgrounds, beliefs and circumstances.
StJoseph Affordable Homes stands in the long tradition of Catholic service to people in need. The principles that guide St Joseph Affordable Homes are inspired by the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, guided by Catholic Social Teaching, and informed by the Archbishop' s Charter for CatholicCareTasmania. Key guiding principles include:
StJoseph Affordable Homes acknowledges and deeply respects the dignity of each individual human person, no matter what their circumstance. The work of St Joseph Affordable Homes considers ways in which we can support and affirm people from all backgrounds, beliefs and circumstances.
St Joseph Affordable Homes acknowledges that human work is regarded as an important component to human fulfilment. I t has a value in and of itself. In particular St Joseph Affordable Homes will look to provide opportunities for people who have faced barriers to work and employment, especially young people.
St Joseph Affordable Homes will seek to provide support and service to those in the community most in need, who are experiencing poverty and vulnerability and who have barriers to human flourishing.
St Joseph Affordable Homes will utilise the Social Impact Approach developed by AOH, CCT and CEH as a means to work holistically to support individual, family and community wellbeing. The social impact approach focuses on developing the full human person across 7 wellbeing domains: housing, education, safety, economics, spirituality, health and community engagement.
Our social enterprise is named after St Joseph, the foster father of Jesus Christ.
“St Joseph was a carpenter, and we’re trying to develop carpenters. Jesus himself would have learned the trade of being a carpenter under his foster father, Joseph. Joseph and his young pregnant wife Mary went to Bethlehem to report for the census. When they arrived, all the accommodation was taken up and they had nowhere to stay. St Joseph is very appropriate to have his name associated with this work, but also to place it under his patronage.”
