Well I became involved in GROW through my manager [\u2026], with my role being I suppose \u2026 around employment and training opportunities and the Department of Justice and Community Safety \u00a0already working with GROW, she thought it would be [of] benefit to work with [Liz Everist, GROW backbone] and from there it has grown into something pretty huge. In terms of my role, I came into a role that was completely new so there was a PD with expected outcomes – which was to source employment training and education opportunities for offenders with community work on their orders, but without that initial link with GROW I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do my job, the opportunity to sit in on forums and groups.<\/p>\n
The change I see is that the Department is much more integrated into services in the community. The Department was always seen as being remote from community and concentrating on our core business. We did our job as case managers to look after clients, but that interaction with the community wasn\u2019t there. GROW was where I met all these wonderful people and found out about Jobs Vic and Jobactives and Diversitat […]<\/p>\n
We are very unique in Geelong (and Colac) because of GROW, we are all working toward the same outcomes. GROW brings everyone together and brings the right people. What this has meant now is that I can take all of these contacts and everything that GROW is doing in the community and I can take that back and I can involve our case managers. So we have better opportunities for our offenders. So that is why the programs I have set up in BSW through the connections with GROW \u2013 these are now considered as benchmark by the Department \u2013 what I am doing is working with the contacts I have met through GROW, we all have the same clients, it has enabled us to link our offender cohort to link them to the right employment and training supports to help them. These are services that understand that cohort \u2013 it\u2019s not easy for these clients, they have so much going on in their lives, they need wrap around and ongoing support. None of this fluffy stuff \u2013 what these groups of people are doing who are linked to GROW \u2013 it is honest down to earth stuff, not making promises that can\u2019t be kept. These clients have been kicked down so many times, you need to build trust. With these groups we are meeting the needs of the community.<\/p>\n
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