WHEN a small group of community-minded residents sat around a kitchen table in Paddington in 1978, they never could have imagined that their plan to give local residents a helping hand would grow into Communify, covering all aspects of community care. At the time, Paddington and Red Hill were very much working-class suburbs.
A lot of residents worked for the nearby brewery, others were ageing alone, and many, for various reasons, were struggling.
It was believed a community centre would provide them with a place to gather and to go to when they needed backup. From that kitchen table, the Red Hill Paddington Community Centre was formed, providing activities, support and advocacy services for locals.
The Centre has had a number of temporary homes until it purchased the building at 180 Jubilee Terrace Bardon in 1994.
Today it is the headquarters of Communify, which now provides a full suite of services supporting the community through the opportunities and challenges that life presents. CEO Karen Dare likes to describe it as “a one-stop shop” for our community.
Providing a diverse range of services
With a name that perfectly reflects its mission – unifying a community – Communify has support services covered, from child care to aged care and everything in between.
Specialist supports include the delivery of intensive family support, a mental health hub, a Homelessness Hubs for Greater Brisbane, Asylum Seeker Support, Community Care, Tenancy Sustainment, NDIS, a dual diagnosis drug and alcohol service, and a suite of aged care services.
“We pride ourselves that someone can walk into our food pantry, talk about their struggles and find support which may be through our health, housing, or drug and alcohol services or all three,” Karen says.
Karen has a social work background and joined Communify as the community development officer 27 years ago “when it was teeny tiny neighbourhood centre”.
There are now about 12,000 people supported each year, some one-off but many weekly or fortnightly.
Among them are about 2,500 older people who are supported through the Commonwealth Home Support Program, or who have Aged Care Packages, receiving assistance with domestic, nursing, allied health, community transport, personal care, home maintenance and modifications, Centre based and flexible respite, and Meals on Wheels.
Communify’s secret to success
Karen attributes the organisation’s success to having a great leadership team and a Board that fosters innovation and advocacy.
“It takes a village,” she says. “We explore new ways of doing things and trying to do things a little bit differently. Without a team willing to do that we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Communify focuses its activities in inner north and north-west Brisbane, predominantly within a 10km radius of its base in Bardon, although some services, such as working with the homeless, extend to greater Brisbane.
There is also a day respite service at Latrobe Terrace, an office at Ashgrove for in-home teams, a day drug and alcohol rehabilitation and, six years ago, a merger with the New Farm Neighbourhood Centre brought a homelessness hub.
Communify has just been awarded The Way Back Support Service, a suicide prevention program, in New Farm, and has NDIS services in offices around the corner from the head office in Bardon.
But while covering a comprehensive range of services, Karen says they don’t want any single one to dominate. Their mission, after all, is to create an inclusive and connected community.
“As a multi-disciplinary team, we have the capacity to have teams working closely together providing clients with wrap around supports and a continuum of care,” Karen says. “Our dream is to give them the best life.”
For example, during COVID-19 enforced isolation, the childcare centre and the respite centre remained open. A program was introduced for those in respite to read to the children and chat with them via Zoom
“We are able to reach across community and bring people together, as well as deliver a lot of services,” Karen says. “A lot of people want that integration across ages.”
Communify also manages venues and has about 21 spaces where each week up to 200 activities bring people together for everything from Latin dancing and singing, to Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
And if they can’t do something internally, they have a strong partner who can. “We are able to reach across community and bring people together, as well as deliver a lot of services,” Karen says. “A lot of people want that integration across ages.”
“It’s important to partner with key providers so we are culturally, gender and age appropriate,” Karen says.
This might be working with Brisbane North PHN in aged care, at one of the three community hubs for mental health, or in family programs.
Volunteer support
Communify also appreciates its 300 volunteers, not only for taking the time to help their neighbours but for making others feel part of a community, forging connections not only at the centre but giving them a wave at the shops or stopping for a chat.
“We are very well supported by local community,” Karen says. “It feels like a regional town in one sense.”
One of those community members who sat around the kitchen table at the very beginning was the late Joan Sherrin-Moody.
She went on to become a staff member, a volunteer in her retirement and then a client right through to palliative care. Her wish to help her community became part of her own life story.
The goal now is not to build bigger but to fill gaps.
It is this multi-service approach – embedded within the community – which sets Communify apart and makes a real difference to the many people who need it.