CRANBOURNE
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Thursday, 1 August, 2024
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Looking hip at 100 Imagining what you would be like as a 100-year-old when you just attended 100 days of school is not an easy job, yet Foundation students at Devon Meadows Primary School allowed their imagination to run wild and staged a show into the future. FULL STORY PAGE 10
Oscar, Lenny, Thomas and Blake dressing up as their 100-year-old selves. (Stewart Chambers: 420949)
Funding pressure By Violet Li A highly sought community service in Casey is concerned about its future with great difficulty in securing grant funding. Nas Recovery Centre, launched in August 2023 and run by volunteers, provides a culturally sensitive approach to drug and alcohol rehabilitation and mental health support. According to director Nyachan Nyak, the organisation was established out of a huge gap and demand in Casey. In nearly a year, it has seen 164 people attending its group therapies, 34 clients specifically for one-on-one counselling, and 11 people going into rehab after the support.
While the organisation is determined to help the community in need, the financial burden has been an obstacle for it to forage ahead. The organisation received pilot funding last year from the Department of Justice and Community Safety, which ran out before June this year. “We use it to rent. We use it to pay for catering. We use it to pay clients’ medications,” Ms Nyak said. “We’ve got no funding at the moment. “I’m always writing grant applications, looking for grants, searching what grants are available, which is taking too much of our
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time, the time I could use to provide more counselling, more referrals, more linking, more culture training. “We’re using the grants to try to sustain us and stay afloat. We need an investment from the Federal or the State.” Ms Nyak said she had written multiple advocacy letters to relevant departments, but she hadn’t heard anything back. She also met with many local MPs to seek additional support. Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards said: “Nas Recovery Centre is a remarkable community-led organisation, and I will continue to advocate to the Minister for Youth Justice
on their behalf. “The Victorian Government is engaging with Nas Recovery Centre on a range of initiatives, including those related to their funding needs.” Holt MP Cassandra Fernando said she visited the Nas Recovery Centre last year and witnessed firsthand the excellent work that both the Centre and Nyachan Nyak were doing for the community. “The Australian Government is committed to building safe and healthy communities by reducing the impact of drug and alcohol misuse,” she said. CONTINUED PAGE 10
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