Page 3059 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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Key initiatives in the plan include a significant increase in the supply of residential land; new house and land packages priced between $200,000 and $300,000; regular englobo sales; over-the-counter sales of affordable housing blocks; a major expansion of community housing that will deliver an additional 480 affordable dwellings over five years; an initiative to increase the supply of private rental dwellings by 200 to 400 homes in the first instance; additional support for tenancy advocacy; the introduction of a homeshare program; land rental and shared equity schemes, including for public and community housing tenants; and targeted stamp duty concessions. The significant boost to community housing, the additional support to tenancy advocacy, strategies to increase the supply in private rental stock, the shared equity schemes and the introduction of the homeshare program are all initiatives of particular relevance to people on low incomes.
In its first term, the board has successfully piloted new approaches to service delivery to improve social inclusion through the Community Inclusion Fund. The fund has provided support for 25 community organisations working with government partners, helping the most vulnerable members of the ACT community to improve their social and economic circumstances. To date, $4.4 million has been committed to locally driven initiatives such as the early morning centre in the city, providing the homeless with breakfasts and referral services enabling them to re-engage with society.
The two child and family centres in Gungahlin and Tuggeranong are examples of successful implementation of new approaches to service delivery. The centres are providing universal health, early-years development and parent support services to local families with young children. These universal services are of particular benefit to more disadvantaged and vulnerable families, providing easily accessible services in a way that welcomes all families and provides the support families need.
The child and family centres are showing early signs of success in engaging more marginalised groups. The child and family centres’ prevention and early intervention framework reflect their mandate to provide integrated services along the spectrum, from prevention through to early intervention services. This means providing both universally available as well as targeted programs. It means being available to all children and their families as well as proactively targeting those with vulnerability factors that are known to be at risk for poorer developmental outcomes.
Universal access programs such as paint and play, as well as the full-time intake service, have a good representation of more marginalised families. This allows for earlier identification of support needs and a coordinated approach to programs that support the diverse needs of families.
Targeted programs have also been developed for groups known to have vulnerability factors for poorer developmental outcomes in children. Some members of the community will not access mainstream groups for fear of being judged, not understood or not having their additional needs met.
Parents with a diagnosed mental illness can access a facilitated playgroup, with facilitators having both adult mental health and early childhood expertise. This was
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