Golden Bay Community Workers notice higher case-loads: figures give partial picture of pressure
“Even though you hear people saying: ‘Recession? What recession?’ the community workers have noticed that there’s a real need for more of everything we do at present,” says Golden Bay Community Workers manager Sheryl Nalder.
Sheryl was commenting on the community workers’ case- load in the three months from the beginning of July to the end of September. The records showed that in that period, the food bank distributed 76 food parcels or vouchers, the Home-Based Support worker received 13 new cases, there were 34 referrals from the workers to counsellors, seven young people received social work assistance and 12 people received budget advice. This work was in addition to the unprecedented numbers of people seen by the workers under the general heading “Social Work.”
“We’re contracted to the Ministry of Social Development to deliver social work to 40 families a year,” said Sheryl. “In the three months to the end of September alone we saw 69 families – 48 of them with children and 21 of them without children. Funding for work over and above the contracted numbers comes from lotteries and the Community Trust.”
Sheryl explained that the case-load figures quoted above give only a partial picture of the pressure the community workers have been feeling.
“When someone comes in to see us, whether they’ve come under their own steam or they’re referred by another agency, there’s usually a number of issues we need to address. Some, like pressing financial needs, are immediate, and others are longer-term challenges. The workers have to build up a relationship of trust and confidence with the clients and quickly gain an understanding of the nature of their needs. Often this will require multiple visits and consultation with government agencies like WINZ and CYPFs. In the three months just gone we’ve been kept really busy on this kind of work.”
Sheryl explained that the extra work was mostly in the reactive portion of the community workers’ overall role.
“We’re involved in pro-active work too, like women’s education programmes, parenting courses, Creativity for Change, school holiday programmes and after-school art classes.”
The Government has put in place a scheme called Community Response Funding. It replaces the former Pathways to Partnership scheme, which was designed to fund non-government organisations like the Golden Bay Community Workers to the full extent of the cost of their services.
“Pathways to Partnership was a real policy breakthrough,” said Sheryl. “Finally the Ministry of Social Development was saying that they would fully fund the services we provide instead of part-funding them. We’re not sure how the Community Response Funding is going to work. We’ve applied to the fund for some money but, to be successful, you have to be able to demonstrate that you’re providing services to more people because of the recession. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that and our figures are pretty convincing. We’ll have to wait and see if the Ministry agrees. I hope they do.”
Neil Wilson
