David Fawcett (Wakefield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to draw the attention of this House to the very good work done by the Jack Young Centre supporting members of our retired community in Wakefield. There has been a lot of talk recently about the ageing of the population and the requirement for increased services. There has been a lot of talk about policy that should be developed and funding that should be delivered. But, like many programs, the ones that have the very best outcomes are the ones that are actually driven locally and where there is a partnership—where the Australian government works with the local community to develop a solution that works for them in meeting the needs of that community. The Jack Young Centre is one such place.

The Jack Young Centre supports its members to lead healthy, active lives and, wherever possible, to maintain full participation in their community. The objectives of the centre include the provision of information and support to people over 50 as well as people with disabilities, the frail aged and their carers. The Jack Young Centre also delivers meal services that respond to the diverse and changing needs of its members. That is something I will come back to a little later. They also facilitate a broad range of activities. In partnership with a number of organisations they provide services that help their members to age within the community. They also promote the principle of lifelong learning, which means that people are constantly able to access adult education opportunities and improve the quality of their lives.

None of these things happen just by themselves or just because funding happens to come in from Canberra and other sources. I would particularly like to recognise Councillor Betty Gill, who is the chairperson of the advisory committee for the Jack Young Centre and a councillor of the City of Salisbury, for the excellent work she has done as a long-time representative of the council working with the Jack Young Centre. Now, in her role as chairperson, she has given guidance to this group over some period of time. I would also mention Pam Pindral, who is the manager of Healthy Ageing and Access, and Rob Mercierre, who is the team leader of Positive Ageing Services.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Sylvia Fisher, who has now retired from the Jack Young Centre. For over seven years she provided an outstanding service to bring people together. In her own unique way—and I have heard many stories about her morning teas and training sessions that grabbed people’s attention—she breathed a real vigour, passion and interest into the group there which was supporting the aged in the community. I guess it is telling that, with that kind of leadership and passion, she drew into that place a real team of volunteers. The contribution that they as a team made to the community has been recognised by a number of bodies. The Heart Foundation, for example, has recognised them for their healthy heart moves program. Northern Volunteering, a group that operates within Wakefield, has recognised them for the volunteer program that they run. I congratulate the Jack Young Centre for that.

From a federal perspective, though, they have also partnered with us in some of the programs that this government has put in place to assist people in other areas. One that I particularly want to talk about is the Work for the Dole program. The Jack Young Centre has now had this program running with multiple fundings. Whereas most people tend to get one crack at it, they have had multiple fundings of the Work for the Dole program. In the last 12 months, they have prepared some 27,000 meals for aged people in that community. They have been able to integrate one of the programs from the federal government—one that helps people who have been long-term unemployed to gain real skills; in this case, skills around catering and working in this organisation—with real needs in their community. It has given them that capacity in that partnership with the federal government to actually develop a local solution that has benefits not only for the providers but also for the community. It is of note that that cafe and meal service is now self-sustaining. Even without the Work for the Dole funding, that will continue.

They have also made good use of the HACC funding which has come from the federal government—and that funding has more than doubled—as well as the Commonwealth Carelink Centre funding. This is just one very good example of the community working together in partnership to develop effective local solutions to meet the needs of those who have gone before us and built this country.