Things have changed for the better since The Benevolent Society opened its Illawarra office last August.
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At the time Australia’s first charity was in the process of transitioning the Disability Community Support Teams from the NSW Government’s Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) to the non-government sector.
That is now complete and on Tuesday The Benevolent Society celebrated and held a welcome party at its premises on the University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus in North Wollongong.
The big change is that we are now providing services funded by the Commonwealth Government NDIS.
- Irene Maya
Tina McManus, The Benevolent Society’s southern region director of disability operations, said the event was held to ‘’welcome partners, people who refer clients to us, people here in the actual building and the community’’.
‘’We are here, we are open for business and we welcome the opportunity to work with our community and work with our partners both here and across the Illawarra,’’ Ms McManus said.
Illawarra office senior manager Irene Maya said the merger with DCS will see The Benevolent Society grow in terms of both staff and clients, and expand its’ reach and impact on client service.
‘’We've nearly doubled the size of the workforce of The Benevolent Society,’’ she said.
‘’We’ve added a really large business stream to the ones they already had, which was ageing disability, child and family disability stream, a carers support stream and now we are a stand alone disability service provider.
‘’We are still the same team and still provide services to people with a disability.
‘’The big change is that we are now providing services funded by the Commonwealth Government NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme).
‘’We are no longer a government agency. We are a non-government provider and like all our non-government partners, many of whom are here today, we are all providing services under the NDIS now.’’
Ms Maya said as an NDIS provider, The Benevolent Society team provided support coordination for people with mental illness, physical and intellectual disability.
In-home services offered included physiotherapy, speech and occupational therapy, nursing, psychology and case management.