Anglicare team members met with local families last week during the Healthy Schools Network ACT’s Cost of Living @Schools event at Wanniassa Junior School. The program is part of the Southside Initiative 2024 and is designed to help connect parents and carers to community service providers, like Anglicare, who can offer support with ongoing cost of living pressures.
“It was great to meet with community members and explain the types of services and support we offer”, said Anglicare’s Senior Manager of Communications & Events, Elizabeth Simpson. “Many of the parents we spoke with weren’t aware of our emergency food relief locations, or our Anglicare Retail shops, and many didn’t know we provide No Interest Loans. Spreading the word and connecting with those families that are feeling, on a daily basis, the stress of high food and housing costs is essential to providing care, and we were pleased to be involved.” she said.
The Southside Initiative 2024 was established to address concerning findings from the Australian Early Development Census 2021 (AEDC), which showed that the ACT in general has the second highest level of developmental vulnerability in Australia and that Tuggeranong in particular, performed worse than the ACT and national average across all the 5 AEDC domains and 3 summary indicators.
Recognising the impact of soaring food costs and rental rates on this already vulnerable region, the Cost of Living @Schools events aim to encourage local families to seek support by helping them build relationships with local service providers. Additional Cost of Living @Schools events will be held each school term this year, hosted by various schools, but open to all local families.
The next event is scheduled for May the 3rd at Richardson Primary School during school drop off (9-10:30) and will include a free bacon and egg breakfast. Anglicare looks forward to attending and deepening our connection with the community we serve.
