Liam Durkin
THE new Traralgon hub of the Australian Community Support Organisation was officially opened recently.
Some 40 staff will work out of the Traralgon office, in areas of reintegration, drug and alcohol and mental health assistance.
ACSO provides more than 23 programs across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and its Traralgon hub will grow its capacity to provide front door access to much-needed programs which help strengthen the wellbeing of the community.
ACSO chief executive officer Vaughan Winter welcomed the new facility.
“Opening a new hub on Kay St has allowed ACSO to unite our two former Traralgon locations together,” he said.
“Not only will this better connect our employee across our different programs, but it will also provide our services to the Traralgon community from one handy location.
“To truly be there for our communities and give everyone an opportunity to thrive, our new Traralgon hub will provide several free to access programs.
“This includes services which support people who are experiencing alcohol, other drugs and mental health concerns, to people who have been impacted by the justice system and programs which assist carers and family members who have a loved one experiencing substance use.
“Over the last financial year alone, ACSO has supported 39,727 people across Australia. We’re looking forward to growing this number by expanding our programs in Traralgon”
To celebrate its official opening, Ronald Edwards-Pepper hosted a Welcome to Country before program participants, ACSO employees, program volunteers, partners, and other local services providers toured the new facility.
As ACSO chief operations officer Cath Williams explained, it had become necessary to move to a larger base.
“We knew we’d outgrown our previous hub in Traralgon which is why we had to open a second office in Morwell because we had too many staff,” she said.
“It’s just amazing the growth that we’ve had down here, to be able to bring everyone back together in a bigger hub it gives us more opportunity for collaboration, integration and cross programs.”
Ms Williams also wished to pay tribute to the work of ACSO staff.
“All the staff down here are amazing and are so committed to the clients, the way they’ve been able to pivot and provide all our services remotely over the past year has been terrific,” she said.
ACSO Traralgon is located on Level 1 28-30 Kay Street.
If you would like to learn more about ACSO or learn more about the programs on offer please visit www.acso.org.au or call 5172 2900.
