And, she is thankful to Shellharbour MP, Anna Watson for lobbying on the centre’s behalf, and NSW Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard for providing the one-off funding.
“I think the funding recognises that there are significant and increasing pressures on women’s health centres,” she said.
“We’ve been serving the community for over 30 years but we haven’t had any real increase in funding over that time.
“This is despite increasing population, high rates of domestic and family violence and increasing rates of mental illness in the local community.
“These factors coupled with greater demands for the centre in terms of IT, governance, accreditation, and wage increases over this time effectively means, when taking into consideration CPI, that the funding in real terms has gone backwards.”
Ms Watson said the Illawarra Women’s Health Centre continuously met and exceeded the key performance indicators associated with the NGO Health Partnerships grant program.
“This funding is very well deserved and will go a long way for the centre and for our entire community. I’m so happy to have been able to help an organisation that is helping my community every single day,” she said.
