Leading the way

Community services in the Macedon Ranges region of Victoria will receive a boost with the expansion of Intereach. 

Intereach has been a Partner in the Community to the National Disability Insurance Agency, providing Local Area Coordinators (LAC) and Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) services since 2017.  Since this time, Intereach has serviced the Macedon Ranges from its office in Kyneton. Having now outgrown the Kyneton space, Intereach will be moving to a modern, spacious office located at Office 5, Level 1, Nexus Centre, Gisborne (entry via Prince St). The new office has the capacity to house up to 30 staff members and as such will cater to the expansion of Intereach’s services in the Macedon Ranges. Staff currently at the organisation’s Kyneton office will relocate to Gisborne, with the former being closed from Monday, March 16. 

The community service provider, which has 16 offices across Victoria and NSW, will open its new Gisborne office on Wednesday, March 18. 

 “This is another exciting step in the Intereach journey,” explained its CEO Keryn Fox. 

“From humble beginnings in Deniliquin with only one employee, we have grown to be a leading community service provider across two states with a total staff of nearly 400. 

“We are proud of this achievement, and proud to be expanding our operations in the Macedon Ranges, where we will have the capacity to build a bigger team which will be able to offer more services. 

“We’ll continue to provide outreach services to the Kyneton area, and we’d like to thank the Kyneton community for making us feel so welcome over the past three years,” Ms Fox said. 

When it opens next month the Gisborne office will have ‘Community Linkers’, who are staff specifically trained to ‘link’ local people to the appropriate services and supports that are available. 

Anyone with queries about the new Intereach Gisborne office can phone 1300 488 226 or go to www.intereach.com.au 

Intereach support and assistance is offered across community services, children and families, older people, people living with disability, and mental health. 

Intereach Polo Shirts

The design of the new Intereach polo shirts has been inspired by Aboriginal and community significance.

It was created by Alison Stewart, a Gulidjan Woman who was born in the Riverina. Alison began painting significant Aboriginal sites about 15 years ago after visiting and learning about their importance to the Nari Nari and Wiradjuri Tribes. She was commissioned to paint a series of works for Intereach, which has the rights to digitally reproduce two of those paintings. Partial pieces from these have been used on the polo shirts.

The left hand sleeve features artwork titled ‘Communities of the Riverina’. The circle in the middle represents the community, and the orange lines leaving the circle show families or individuals, while the blue dots represent the landscape.

The images on the right hand side of the shirt are taken from a painting titled ‘Communities of the Riverina 2’, where each of the meeting place symbols represents an Intereach office location and its initial journey through the Riverina Murray region of NSW.

The polo shirts were developed and produced by BW Tribal, an Aboriginal clothing business which is 100% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owned and operated.

The Intereach Board is pleased to have been involved in the recruitment of a revitalised executive team to work directly with CEO Keryn Fox.

Board chair Pat Fogarty said the organisation had experienced recent significant growth and change and that “we were delighted to receive more than 70 applications for the three advertised general manager roles”.

“In line with our philosophy to hire within the communities we serve, we were open to the location for the roles, subject to the location of the preferred applicants,” Pat said.

“One of our Board members and an independent consultant worked with our CEO Keryn to shortlist for interviews and then interviewed six candidates.”

We are pleased to announce the successful applicants: Yvette Buhagiar (General Manager Corporate Services based in Bendigo), Michelle Tai (GM Operations in Albury) and Sam Hall (GM Operations in Deniliquin).

“The staff at Intereach will recognise these names as they are current employees and we are pleased to be attracting and growing the careers of our staff,” Pat said.

“Our three new GMs bring with them a great mix of skills, as well as a strong knowledge about the needs of our rural and regional towns and our staff who serve these communities.

“We are extremely happy with these appointments and look forward to another year of delivering the excellent services our participants have come to know.

“The fact we had 70 people apply for these positions suggests we continue to grow our reputation as an employer of choice across our footprint, which is heartening.”

Albury-based Intereach Board member Rebecca Bates, who was part of the recruitment process, said “our agreed interview questions and the scoring process allowed us to identify the candidates with the best values and skills match for these roles”.

“We’re very happy with our executive team and have every faith they’ll continue the good work that’s already happening within the organisation, especially in regards to the goals set out in our strategic plan,” Rebecca said.

“In recent years Intereach has grown to almost 400 staff across 16 offices and 38 local government areas – we’re a significant regional employer. We want to consolidate and even grow our operations to continue to employ more people and provide even greater services, and that requires a strong and skilled senior leadership team, which is what we have with these latest appointments.”

 Echuca’s Tamia Connor-Walsh loves singing, especially when she has written her own music. 

And her singing career has been given a boost, thanks to her personal efforts and the support she has received from the team at the Echuca Intereach office. 

Tamia recently performed at the GRAIN Store, in Nathalia, a rural arts centre that hosts exhibitions, performances and workshops. 

It was holding an art opening for International Day of People With Disability, and this was considered an ideal opportunity for Tamia to show her talents. 

Intereach Community Links staff member Tracey Molluso had been working with 15–year-old Tamia, who lives with Autism and was struggling to find something engaging and meaningful in which to participate. 

Tracey discovered Tamia’s passion for singing and writing her own music and was keen to explore avenues that might lead to a career path in this field. 

That’s when the opportunity to perform at the GRAIN Store arose. 

“I loved performing there and hope I get the chance to do it again,” Tamia said. 

Open Day organisers at the GRAIN Store were impressed with Tamia and said they will keep her in mind for future events where she may be able to perform. 

“When I first spoke to Tamia and her mum Nicole about the possibility of singing at the GRAIN Store they were very keen. She had previously performed at school and in Echuca, but this was the first engagement outside her home town,” Tracey said. 

“The success of her performance has opened up the opportunity for Tamia to sing at other events in the region. 

“Tamia is usually a shy young lady, so it was wonderful to see her shine on stage; her confidence was amazing,” Tracey added. 

The Intereach Community Links team, of which Tracey is a part, was established this year to help ‘link’ community members to the appropriate services and support that are available.