By Callum Ludwig
A new initiative at the ADRA Redwood Centre in Warburton and the Yarra Junction family Centre is helping connect locals with the services they need.
A new flyer can be found at the centres which lists a variety of support services and organisations that can help assist with a variety of concerns.
Christian James from the Redwood Centre said communication is key when working with services.
“When you get complex clients coming in during a crisis, it’s really important to be able to access the right service quite quickly, and services come and go with different funding all the time, so it’s very important to have up-to-date information,” he said.
“Being able to relay the information to the client is crucial, whether it be where to get food, when to get food, where to go to get the right help, because most of the time people will end up in a situation and they know that they need help, they ask for help, but they don’t know where to go,”
“Having some direction and guidance is good and it helps other services be able to better connect with each other as well.”
Services listed on the flyer include options for face-to-face, online and over the phone to support.
Mr James said having access to information about services can take a lot of anxiety away for people.
“It gives control back to the person as well and it also helps agencies sort better funding for grants and things to better apply the money to the gaps where it’s needed as well, so it works on many different levels. it helps the agencies and it helps the individual,” he said.
“People are wanting and needing the information, and it helps them understand in greater detail what they may be able to access, so it’s really good to see the anxiety leave them even from just handing them the flyer.”
All services on the flyer are based in the Upper Yarra, provide outreach services to the region or phone and online support and are low or no cost.
Mr James said anyone is welcome to ask anyone at the Redwood Centre for advice on which service to contact, or they could reach out to any service as they’ll be able to redirect people to the right service.
“There’s a variety of services on the flyer, obviously there are the different services that offer food help, which is a big one, so many people need to cut costs in their shopping, and so being able to access fresh fruit and vegetables is important while there are community meals as well which helps with the social aspect,” he said.
“Then there’s the more specialised kind of services, like homelessness services or services you might access for escaping family violence or child abuse, like Orange Door.”
The services on the flyer cover the areas of Alcohol and Drug support, Child and Family services, Legal services, Family Violence, Homelessness and Housing, Mental health and Counselling, Financial Counselling, Health, Seniors, Computer and Phone Access and Online Service Directories.
