| Community outreach
Overview
We continue to seek out and develop outreach partnerships with other agencies, and to introduce our services to frontline community and government agency workers to encourage better referral pathways for consumers who need EWON's assistance.
Targeted outreach is resource intensive and always a challenge given our small team and the need to inform consumers throughout New South Wales about
our services.
It is however an effective way of reaching disadvantaged and vulnerable customers. For example, our outreach program to corrective services staff has resulted in appropriate referrals and increased awareness of our role among individuals and families impacted by imprisonment and financial hardship.
Forums and events
As in previous years EWON attended a range of community events including Mardi Gras Fair Day and Seniors' Day at the Royal Easter Show. When EWON was not able to attend an event, we contributed promotional materials for distribution.
We have found that partnering with other agencies to present community information forums is an effective and productive way of reaching diverse and geographically spread communities.
As well as several affordability and sustainability forums, we held a forum for tenancy workers and advocates in June 2007. Representatives from the Housing Appeals Committee, Department of Housing, Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal, and the NSW Office of Fair Trading spoke at the forum, which was well attended with more than 50 participants.
Partnerships
Community agencies
We thank the following community agencies for partnering with us to raise awareness of our services:
- Bankstown Community Health Centre
- Baulkham Hills Parramatta Migrant Resource Centre
- Cabramatta Community Centre
- Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association
- Financial Counsellors' Association of NSW
- Greek Welfare Centre
- Hewitt House Neighbourhood Centre
- Liverpool International Women's Day Collective
- Macarthur Diversity Services Inc
- North Ryde Community Aid
- Northern Beaches OMNI (Older Men New Ideas) Group
- Retired Public Servants Association
- Riverwood Community Centre
- South-West Sydney Koori Interagency
- Tenants Union of NSW
- South West Women's Housing
- Vietnamese Women's Association
NSW Department of Corrective Services
This year we continued to work with the NSW Department of Corrective Services and individual prisons to ensure welfare officers, inmates and their families are aware of how to manage bills and arrears, and who to contact if they have problems paying energy or water bills.
EWON staff participated in pre-release programs at Dillwynia, Emu Plains, John Morony and Parklea Correctional Centres. We also presented information sessions as part of the training program for prison welfare officers.
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