Andrew Leigh

This month, Canberra Charity Champions is featuring Northside Community Services and the incredible work they’re doing to support vulnerable members of our community. Northside Community Services is a community based organisation that provides support for people with a disability, women’s housing and emergency relief and home support, children’s services and transport and social programs for seniors. In response to changing community needs due to COVID-19, they’ve focused on helping isolated Canberrans with personal and clinical care, safe medical transportation, essential shopping support, complex case management and client well-being check ins.

Every second day, a team of volunteers at Northside Community Services is calling over 600 Canberrans to check in on them. If they can’t make contact twice in a row, they undertake a home visit to ensure people are safe and well in their homes. In the week before Mother’s Day, they delivered an incredible 160 activity boxes to community members, including women and families in supported housing, older clients who were unable to see their family, and people feeling the period of isolation. This is just one example of the work charities are doing to ensure the wellbeing of individuals and boost social connection in this difficult time. You can find out more about Northside Community Services at their website.