RWA Human Services

BACKGROUND

In 2004, the Redfern-Waterloo Partnership Project (RWPP) commissioned a Review of Human Services within the Redfern and Waterloo areas. The main findings of the review where that:

  • the human services system needs to be reformed and reshaped at the local level to achieve improved outcomes for the community and clients
  • changes must be made to build a more integrated service system and more collaborative approaches to service provision
  • significant improvements are required in relationships between services.

One of the recommendations of the review was that the RWPP facilitate the development of a human services plan and, subsequently, the human services advisory committee has been established with representatives from government, non-government, community and service users.

To commence the planning process, two community workshops were held in April 2004. The aims of the workshops were to:

  • identify human service outcomes for Redfern-Waterloo
  • develop draft quality of life indicators, which will form the basis for ongoing evaluation of the human services plan.

A parallel process of community consultation was also undertaken with service providers and community representatives in April and May of 2005. Formed into cluster groups corresponding with the four priority areas for 2005/06 young people; families and children; Aboriginal people andHealth, a series of workshops were held to identify gaps in services, duplication of services and areas where service improvement was needed and poor communication.

Directions that emerged from the consultation process are aimed at securing community-wide benefits. They are identified as:

  • greater community involvement in planning and decision-making about local services
  • increased accountability and reporting to the community from all human services, government and non-government
  • equity of access to services
  • improved coordination among the local services
  • politicians and senior managers with responsibility for services experiencing local issues by coming to Redfern-Waterloo
  • community meetings to be widely promoted (through letter drops and word-of-mouth) and held in accessible venues (such as schools).

In summary the following are the key themes that emerged from the consultations and provided the basis for a detailed consideration of ‘quality of life indicators’ that could be used to track progress toward the community results outlined above.

  • Healthy, well educated children and young people who have a positive outlook. More specifically, the participants wanted children and young people who:
    • are respected (‘allowed to be children’)
    • are healthy and active (‘drug-clean’, involved in sports, participating in associations, clubs and community activities)
    • have a positive, confident outlook on life (trusting, happy, ‘open to the opportunities available to them’, prepared to work, respectful of their parents, ‘set their own goals’)
    • are well educated and have the skills to gain employment (’job ready’, computer literate)
  • Safe families that are supportive, self-sustaining and participating actively in the community. More specifically, the participants wanted families that are:
    • safe and happy ð diverse (age, background, race, culture, socio-economic status, language)
    • supportive and stable (ie have access to extended families, networks and neighbours)
    • inclusive and open to others
    • community-minded
    • self-sustaining rather than welfare-dependent.
  • A safe Redfern-Waterloo community that is positive and welcoming. More specifically, the participants wanted a community that:
    • is safe and welcoming (‘less fearful’)
    • provides a sense of community (‘easier to be good’, ‘stable and united’, self-sustaining)
    • is drug and crime-free
    • provides opportunities for people to move around and interact
    • has a positive image (‘not of interest to the media!’)
    • is accepting of diversity (‘not just tolerant of diversity’)

Human Services Ministerial Advisory Committee

In 2004 an Interim Human Services Committee was established with community members, representatives from the three tiers of government and from the non-government sector. Following the formation of the Redfern-Waterloo Authority on 17 January 2005, Minister Frank Sartor announced that he was establishing three Ministerial Advisory Committees. The Human Services Ministerial Advisory Committee will consider human services and health issues affecting Redfern and Waterloo.

Membership
 
Mr John Becker Area Manager, Inner City, Department of Housing
Ms Helen Campbell   Solicitor, Redfern Legal Centre
M/s Anne-Maree Sabellico   Regional Director, DOCS
M/s Gay Horsburgh   CSAHS
Mr Paul Cramer   Manager, Department of Family & Community Services
Ms Monica Barone   Director of Community Living, City of Sydney Council
Mr Colin Kay   Coordinator for Redfern and La Perouse, Indigenous Coordination Centre
Dr Phil Lambert   Regional Director, Department of Education & Training
Ms Shirley Lomas   Community representative
Supt Catherine Burn   NSW Police Service, Local Area Commander
Mr Gary Moore   Director, The Council of Social Service of NSW
Mr Aldo Pennini   Director Reforming Human Services Redfern-Waterloo Authority
Ms Lynette Stewart   Community representative
Ms Mabel Chang   Community Representative
M/s Jill Edwards   Community representative
Mr Howard Glenn   Community representative
Mr Dominic Grenot   Community representative
Mr Paul Knight   Community representative
 

Human Services Fact Sheets:

Human Services Report for Redfern-Waterloo  (pdf ~1.2mb) http://www.redfernwaterloo.com.au/other/human_services_report.pd
Inquiry into Issues relating to Redfern-Waterloo (pdf ~) http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/77220A893AEA0E16CA256F6C00098A80

Cluster Group Reports

Aboriginal Cluster Group (pdf ~214kb) http://www.redfernwaterloo.com.au/other/aboriginal_cluster.pdf
Health Cluster Group (pdf ~264kb) http://www.redfernwaterloo.com.au/other/health_cluster.pdf
Families and Children Cluster Group (pdf ~323kb) http://www.redfernwaterloo.com.au/other/family_cluster.pdf
Youth Cluster Group (pdf ~176kb)  http://www.redfernwaterloo.com.au/other/youth_clusters.pdf

This text appeared on 7 October 2005 at http://www.redfernwaterloo.nsw.gov.au/redfern_waterloo_plan/human_services.htm

Sub-sections

  • HSMAC NGO Report Back - 16th August 2007
    Helen Campbell the Executive Officer of Redfern Legal Centre made a formal report back to Redfern Waterloo service agencies and local residents on 16th August 2007 regarding her involvement on... (4 items)
  • Human Service Cluster Groups
    Based on the Morgan Disney Review of Human Services the RWPP & RWA broke up the services in Redfern Waterloo into seven service clusters. Services in these cluster services are... (0 items)
  • Human Services Advisory Committee (HSAC)
    The HSAC is one of RWA's Ministerial Advisory Committees. It was originally selected by the RWPP to be the Human Services Implimentation Working Group (HSIWG) as proposed by the Morgan... (4 items)
  • Human Services Co-ordination
    In January 2013 a meeting of government agencies operating in Redfern and Waterloo met and decided they will hold monthly Redfern-Waterloo service co-ordination meetings. This followed a number of dis (1 items)
  • Human Services Plan Phase 2
    In late June 2006 the RWA started the process for developing Phase 2 of the RWA Human Services plan for services provided to older people, people with disabilities, homeless people... (26 items)
  • Needle Van and Lawson St Health Center
    One of the Governments first announcements at the time of the establishment of the RWA was that the Needle exchange on the Block would close and that a New Primary... (3 items)
  • Ongoing Evaluation of the RWA Human Service Plan
    With the RWA Human Services Plan being implimented there has been discussion about how it will be evaluated. This section deals with the RWA Evaluation Framework with Key Performance Indicators. (3 items)
  • Overview of RWA Human Services
    This section provides an overview of the RWA's involvement in human services. (0 items)
  • Redfern Waterloo Human Services Plan Phase 1
    On 14 October 2005 the RWA released Phase One Draft of the Human Services Plan for Redfern-Waterloo. Below are the details of the draft Human Services Plan and material released... (14 items)
  • RWA Statements on Human Services
    The RWPP RWA has made a number of statemets about the Reform of Human Services. Here we have bought together these statements. (2 items)
  • Waterloo Human Services Plan
    As part of the Waterloo SSP redevelopment REDWatch and local agencies pushed for a Human Services Plan to go alongside the built environment master plan. in 2017 FACS LAHC agreed... (35 items)

Browse all 21 items in this section »