[North Eveleigh] No Aug 1 REDWatch / Lord Mayor Candidates Forum / Waterloo History / Waterloo Urgent Care Service / Improving Services / Public Housing News

Tue Jul 30 16:32:01 AEST 2024

Dear REDWatch members, supporters and agencies,

No REDWatch Meeting Thursday 1 August

What Questions should we ask City of Sydney Lord Mayor Candidates?

City of Sydney Lord Mayor Candidates' Forum 21 August 7pm

Waterloo History

Waterloo / Green Square gets new Urgent Care Service

Helping people connect better to Services

Homes NSW Place Manager for Waterloo

Public Housing Newsletters
Please note - this email contains hyperlinks. This means that if you see a blue underlined word or phrase that you can click on it and go directly to a document or to get more information.
No REDWatch Meeting Thursday 1 August
In August REDWatch are holding a City of Sydney Lord Mayor Candidates' Forum on 21 August 2024 and hence will not hold a normal monthly meeting on 1st August 2024.
What Questions should we ask City of Sydney Lord Mayor Candidates?
In the lead up to our Candidates' Forum REDWatch is running a survey with Alexandria Residents Action Group (ARAG) and Friends of Erskineville (FOE) to find out what people's top questions are. We will put the 3 top issues selected by residents to the candidates before the forum and ask them to tell you what they would do about them in their opening remarks.
To tell us your questions / priorities complete this survey<https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.surveymonkey.com%2Fr%2F8DJJMHB%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR02Zlag8Zn4E1SAThDmx1CsCAjYfDtXtPqsHnzoArqZ19xznTtq5UIcCKc_aem_7z_BOWnnsrWd4Bqe_KzRwg&h=AT2drmkQhPdpPRqlNTGM_dk8h95ex6AvcQk3Fr2HnyTzmGIeal3RroZiCZVaZbPYaiKbcfuENhtHngBVOWuPcsX1BnFapNc1yqKNOa3lxmR7f-dzv9A9OQd4VSb5TEo_dQ&__tn__=-UK-R&c%5b0%5d=AT23_22CiNOHQtgxp7tF2sf4wzDucSZmZY6aB4Sg6B-5iloZ5wkvCyaCecSfgvX75QeD_eahV3assuIj9iJM1Scm_vrLNcSofE0Xa_AGYLCDk6PSoM99COOS6U-eLdtfqDqP9IPO_kSRGbMzahmvzVg0L7i-RctpFKdLrQLI7l9QhIWzNAStLA>
There will be a general Q&A at the Candidates' Forum and you can add in other questions also on the survey.
City of Sydney Lord Mayor Candidates' Forum 21 August 7pm
The Council elections are being held on Saturday 14 September this year. Nominations Close 14 August and the ballot paper draw is held on 15 August. So by 21 August we will know who all the candidates for Lord Mayor are and they will be sent the top three questions from residents (discussed above) and invited to attend the Candidates' Forum.
The Candidates' Forum will be held at 7pm on Wednesday 21 August 2024 at the Alexandria Town Hall. The forum is jointly held by Alexandria Residents Action Group, Friends of Erskineville and REDWatch. So put it in your calendar and come along to hear what the candidates have to say and ask any questions you might have.
Waterloo History
In Feb 2017 the NSW Land and Housing Corporation and the Department of Family and Community Services commissioned an oral history project on the history of the suburb of Waterloo. This has resulted in a book and video of "Waterloo Stories" which can be found on the Waterloo Collaborative website under Preserving Waterloo's History: Oral Interviews and Community Engagement<https://waterloo2017.com/preserving-waterloos-history-oral-interviews-and-community-engagement/>. The direct link for the book download is Waterloo Stories<https://waterloo2017.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Waterloo-Stories.pdf>.
The material is drawn from interviews conducted between June 2017 and March 2018. Frank Heimans and Graham Shirley conducted and recorded 50 interviews with 53 subjects, some in joint interviews with family members. Interviewees also included former staff of the Department, historians and local stakeholders. Five interviews were videotaped for the production of a short documentary on Waterloo. More than 60 hours of interviews were recorded and transcribed in full. Subjects were also photographed. All this fed into the video and book.
One of those interviewed for the History Project was film maker Tom Zubrycki who directed the documentary Waterloo (1981). That documentary covered the resident action and Green Bans that stopped Waterloo being taken over by Housing Commission high rises in the 1970s as part of a slum clearance of Waterloo involving compulsory acquisition of homes in the area. You can see Tom's Waterloo<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItMM4PivSI8> on YouTube.
Waterloo / Green Square gets new Urgent Care Service
In mid-July a new Urgent Care Service opened at Green Square Health at 4/965 Bourke St, Waterloo NSW 2017. The Urgent Care Service is associated with a private practice but is free to Medicare card holders and community based asylum seekers. The new service operates 8am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday including public holidays.
Referral can be patient self-referral including walk-ins, referral via HealthDirect, referral from local Emergency Departments, other GPs and clinicians. The services are intended to deliver episodic care for non-life threatening conditions and refer patients back to their usual GP for ongoing care. Pathology, pharmacy and radiology services are located on site or within close proximity.
While walk-ins are possible it is suggested that to get free* urgent care you should call HealthDirect on 1800 022 222 - For language support call TIS on 131 450 and ask for HealthDirect - Your call will be answered by a HealthDirect nurse who can advise you on what is best for your situation.
The new Urgent Care Service is designed to take pressure off people needing to attend casualty for health services that can be provided in other ways.
Helping people connect better to Services
One of the aims of the Waterloo Human Services Plan is to better connect people to the services they need as quickly as possible, while minimising the number of times they need to retell their story.
Work by two different groups in the Waterloo Human Services Collaborative has resulted in new tools and resources on "active linking" and "community navigators" to try to improve how the service system works for service users. These resources are now available under the resources tab on the Collaborative's website www.waterloo2017.com<http://www.waterloo2017.com>.
Active Linking Resources<https://waterloo2017.com/service-access-copy/#htoc-active-linking-resources> encourage government and non-government frontline workers to take responsibility for helping a service user navigate and feel supported within the service system. An active linker connects service users to appropriate services, managing the system's complexity so the client doesn't have to deal with it. The resources include an Active Linker Handbook for agency staff as well as training slides. Service user material will also soon be available based on the information sheet in the last two pages of the handbook that cover "Our Staff are committed to active linking" and "We are part of the Waterloo Collaborative".
Waterloo Community Navigators Tool Kit<https://waterloo2017.com/service-access-copy/#htoc-waterloo-community-navigators-tool-kit> is designed to assist community services, government service workers and community organisation authorised volunteers who may not specialise in referrals and casework, but still need to connect people with the right services and support through signposting and active linking. That resource includes a Navigator Tool Handbook and training presentation. It also includes the Navigator Tool, which is used to help people identify the areas of support they need, so they can be helped to connect to the right services.
Residents can also use the Navigator Tool independently to describe their support needs before attending a support service. You can find information about local services in the Tenant's Welcome Pack<https://waterloo2017.com/resources/resources-for-residents/>.
These tools build on, and go hand in hand with, earlier work by the Collaborative on improving Customer Service. Materials on improving customer service can be found in the Collaborative's Customer Service Toolkit<https://waterloo2017.com/customer-service-toolkit/>.
Homes NSW Place Manager for Waterloo
Homes NSW Housing Portfolio has appointed Bruce Woodhouse as a Place Manager for Waterloo as part of the Homes NSW redevelopment team. Bruce can be contacted through the Waterloo Connect office located at Shop 2, 95 Wellington Street (opposite OzHarvest). It is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10am and 4pm. You can also contact the Waterloo Connect team on 9384 4134 or via email at WaterlooConnect at homes.nsw.gov.au<mailto:WaterlooConnect at homes.nsw.gov.au> .
Public Housing Newsletters
Homes NSW Waterloo South Redevelopment team has issued a Waterloo Newsletter for July 2024 available in English<https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/615887/HomesNSW_WaterlooConnect_July_4_ACCESS.pdf>, Chinese<https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/615889/HomesNSW_WaterlooConnect_July_4_Simplified-Chinese-Web.pdf> and Russian<https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/615888/HomesNSW_WaterlooConnect_July_4_Russian-Web.pdf>. The newsletter is now named Waterloo Connect. Everyone is waiting for the announcement of the successful consortium, which the June newsletter still states as expected to be announced in mid to late 2024. As a consequence the expected first round of relocations have also been delayed.
The City of Sydney is also setting up its own social housing newsletter. You can subscribe to receive news, events and local updates for social housing residents living in the City of Sydney area at www.city.sydney/social-housing-updates<http://www.city.sydney/social-housing-updates>.
Counterpoint also put out an email update about events around public housing in Redfern and Waterloo, which you can receive by asking at The Factory or the Multicultural Neighbourhood Centre or by emailing info at counterpointcs.org.au<mailto:info at counterpointcs.org.au>

Regards,

Geoff
Geoffrey Turnbull
REDWatch Co-Spokesperson
Ph Wk: (02) 8004 1490  Mob: 0418 457 392
email: spokesperson at redwatch.org.au<mailto:spokesperson at redwatch.org.au>
web: www.redwatch.org.au<http://www.redwatch.org.au/>
FB: www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/<http://www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/>

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