108 Bargara Rd
Bundaberg East, Qld, 4670
By Tanya O'Shea, IMPACT Community Services' Managing Director
A big part of being a community organisation is helping people improve their lives.
Part of our focus here at IMPACT involves how we can work with other businesses and like-minded organisations to provide a better service for our clients and participants so they achieve the outcomes they are after.
Operating across such a diverse suite of services, IMPACT has close-working relationships with plenty of the Bundaberg region’s really wonderful operators.
Here are some of the ways we work with others to deliver great results.
Bundaberg Regional Council
For the past six years, our Green Gang has been operating alongside the Bundaberg Regional Council as program trainees complete their Certificate I in Conservation and Land Management.
The Green Gang delivers Work Skills Traineeships through the Queensland Government’s Skilling Queenslanders for Work initiative.
A traineeship runs for 22 weeks and each intake sees 10 new participants provided with an opportunity to develop the skills and work ethic needed to build a bright new future.
The trainees engage with council on various initiatives of benefit to the community, such as foreshore works, weeding, regeneration and revegetation projects, maintenance and repair tasks and completes upgrades to local spaces and facilities.
Recycling
Bundaberg’s Material Recovery Facility is owned by Bundaberg Regional Council, but managed by IMPACT Community Services.
The facility processes all recycled items from the region’s yellow lid bins and provides employment for more than 20 people with a disability.
Our recycling activities also see us work closely with Container Exchange (COEX), which is the not-for-profit organisation created to establish and run the Containers for Change scheme in Queensland.
IMPACT operates its own Containers for Change refund point, where community members can actively gain a refund for recycling their eligible cans and containers for the greater good of our environment.
The Community Hub
IMPACT is proud to have introduced a Community Hub which provides a one-stop-shop for support services for locals.
A wide range of local services, including mental and sexual health, money management, legal advice, carer and child support and housing, gather once a month at IMPACT’s offices so people can come in and speak directly to the experts in a particular field.
Providing documentation or receiving advice from multiple service providers can be a time consuming and exhausting process; the Community Hub brings Bundaberg services together in one place to work collaboratively and aims to be a time saver for people, allowing the community to streamline service delivery.
MATE Bystander Program
IMPACT, in partnership with Bundaberg Family Relationship Centre, Uniting Care and the Family Law Pathways Network is working with Griffith University to deliver it’s MATE Bystander Program.
The program adopts an educative and intervention method that teaches how everyday people like you and me have a role to play in the prevention of violence and problematic behaviour.
The bystander approach focuses not on the perpetrator or victim of violence rather, what we can all do to prevent violence in our homes, workplaces, schools and communities.
IMPACT will be hosting a “Train the Trainer” workshop next month with a view to continue this prevention method to broader pockets of the community, so watch this space!
Employment Services
The success of our job service programs has been built on the foundations of our long-lasting relationships with employers.
Each year we work with hundreds of businesses across the region to help connect them with people looking for work and the opportunity to improve their lives.
I am extremely proud of IMPACT as a collaborative, community-based organisation that works with others to help people in our community improve their lives. We are all Stronger Together.
Please note: This website may contain references to, or feature images, videos, and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have passed away.
