Local Connections to Work in Elizabeth

South Australia media release
Friday, 15 October 2010

A new approach to helping the long term unemployed, vulnerable youth and other people is paying dividends in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

The Elizabeth Centrelink Local Connections to Work hosts hosting 27 rostered community partners offering services together at the Elizabeth Centrelink Customer Service Centre.

Elizabeth Centrelink Manager, Annie White, said the Local Connections to Work initiative involves multiple service partners working together under one roof.

The long-term unemployed, disadvantaged youth and others have already seen the benefits of better collaboration and coordination between service providers.

"Local Connections to Work enables people to access a broad range of services and tailored assistance at the Centrelink office," said Ms White.

"This particularly helps disadvantaged job seekers to get the local support they need to overcome barriers to employment. People only have to tell their story once to receive a range of services.

"At Elizabeth Centrelink, service partners include employment services providers, community welfare and care providers, Housing SA, Families SA and more.

"Medicare services are also now available at Elizabeth Centrelink including Medicare benefit rebates paid via EFT.

Customers can register their bank account details with Medicare at Elizabeth Centrelink or on 13 2011 or on Medicare Australia's website."

Elizabeth is one of four sites nationwide offering Local Connections to Work. Others are at Frankston in Victoria, Ipswich in Queensland and Campsie in New South Wales.

Ms White said although the initiative had only been in operation at Elizabeth Centrelink since June, they were already seeing results.

"We’ve already conducted about 348 joint interviews with disadvantaged job seekers and our co-located service partners," she said. "And more than 1300 people have used the Medicare services now available at Elizabeth Centrelink.

"There is a lot of community support for assistance for the unemployed and people are very open to the idea of us doing something a little different in the way in which we help our customers," Ms White said.

"I think our disadvantaged job seekers have really welcomed it. They can be interviewed jointly by a Centrelink Customer Service Adviser and an employment services provider, or social welfare or housing provider, depending on their need," she said.

"This means customers can get referrals and appointments where needed with other service providers, in their visit to the Centrelink office.

"In the past, we have often had the same young people coming back repeatedly and being unable to move ahead in their lives"

Annie said the new joint interview techniques find disadvantaged job seekers, including vulnerable youth, more readily open to revealing for example, issues with drugs and alcohol or mental health. This allows staff to immediately refer them to service providers, sometimes on the spot for assistance.

She says the early success is due to staff who know the community well and understand the difficulties faced by local families and individuals.

For example, one socially isolated young man who had not worked for 13 years due to mental health issues is now doing regular volunteer work in a church-run op shop.

A homeless teenager who lacked education and employment has also found new hope.

"Following his initial interview in the Local Connections to Work environment you could see his confidence growing as he saw his options open up in front of him. We had him do a skills test and found he had an aptitude for plumbing," Ms White said.

"Now he’s doing an eight-week preparation course to get him ready for an apprenticeship.

"People often fear that if they reveal a problem they’ll be penalised and lose their benefits but with Local Connections to Work we have a better chance of identifying their total situation and putting them on the right track," she said.

"It is fantastic to be able to provide alternative service options to our most vulnerable customers by working with other groups who can also help them."

Ms White said that any organisation interested in becoming a co-located service partner should contact her at Elizabeth Centrelink.

For more information, telephone the relevant Centrelink media contact.