Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellyand weed covered. With the 1950s population increase and European migrantimmigration, housing in the area boomed with many families with youngchildren moving to the outer suburbs. The Gilles Plains Primary Schoolexpanded and grew to meet the needs of these families.In 1980 the North East Community Assistance Project (NECAP) was formedby local residents at the Gilles Plains primary school campus in the originalbrick school building. Funds generated through the NECAP volunteer thriftshop were used to assist people in need by providing food and householdgoods at no cost (Stark & Coulls 2007). Changing demographics in the area ledto school population reducing, leaving more of the older school buildingsempty. Most of the surrounding residential area was populated by lower socioeconomic public housing tenants but there were few health, welfare and relatedcommunity services lacking in the area. Staff from a variety of public humanservice agencies came together in 1981 and the Gilles Plains NeighbourhoodCentre was developed in the old wooden school buildings as an experimentalproject (Stark & Coulls 2007). The Gilles Plains Community Campus beganthrough community development and responsiveness to local needs. This set inplace very specific community expectations about their level of involvement,engagement and decision making regarding services at Gilles Plains.In 1982 a drop-in centre was provided by government and private services andwithin a year, the demand was greater than the resources available. Medicaregrant funding in 1984 enabled a co-ordinated health agency to be establishedwith an underlying philosophy of providing a wide range of services at localcommunity sites. Four staff co-ordinated services with support of governmentand non-government sectors. Resource sharing and diverse and flexible servicedelivery were integral to their community development and localresponsiveness model (North East Community Health Advisory Team 1996).In 1987 the Gilles Plains community health service expanded and changedfrom a Neighbourhood Centre to a District Level Health Service. The corenumber of staff increased to seven and the visiting agencies included mentalhealth, counselling, speech pathology, family planning, Technical and FurtherEducation (TAFE), child health, parenting and a food co operative. Closeworking relationships with health and allied professionals from nearby Ingle147