Windermere CEO Cheryl DeZilwa, Governor Professor David de Kretser, Jan de Kretser and Windermere chairman Carl Strachan met last week to discuss the impact Casey’s By Lia Bichel
CASEY’S growing population has increased the demand for Narre Warren’s Windermere services.
Last week, the Governor of Victoria, Professor David de Kretser AC, visited Windermere to discuss the challenges the child and family services are facing.
The Governor met several staff and was given an insight into Windermere’s services such as disability services and its Victims of Crime program.
He was interested in the impact the population growth had on community services as more than 1 million people are predicted to live in the outer east growth area within the next 10 years, CEO of Windermere Cheryl De Zilwa said.
“With a huge influx of young families into the area, this service is in high demand and can only take a limited number of children off the waiting list,” she said.
“It is vital that children be assisted early so that they are ready to move into the school system.”
Ms De Zilwa said the Governor also heard about a new project Windermere is facilitating with Cardinia Shire, Monash University and other services, which focuses on building communities within new housing estates that will support families in need.
Through the program new residents will work with existing residents to help Windermere identify risk factors in emerging communities and put people in touch with relevant services early, Ms De Zilwa said.
“The Governor commended Windermere for taking such a progressive step in trying to anticipate and address the issues of population growth early rather than wait for the problems to emerge,” she said.
Ms De Zilwa said she thought the visit was successful in demonstrating the importance of Windermere’s services and the need for government support.
“Whilst Windermere is very well supported by both state and federal government departments, the point we made is that we all need to look at how we manage this workload into the future,” she said.
“Obviously additional funding will assist but it’s not that simple.
“There are many competing needs and it is important for all of us to re-examine whether more should be done in the area of early intervention and prevention rather than focussing all resources on servicing the problem.”
