Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service Limited ANNUAL REPORT 2024/2025 65 Funded by: Federal Dept of Social Services – National Indigenous Australians Agency NSW Health – Rural Doctors Network – Western NSW Primary Health Network Celebrating over 39 years of Service since 1986 11 Galumali – Youth Wellbeing Service Walgett Gamilaraay wirring.gaa Loretta Weatherall leads DEG’s Youth Wellbeing Service at Galumali – DEG’s new second premises purchased in August 2024. Galuma-li is a community space made possible with Yuwaya Ngarrali supports, providing holistic services/support for children & young people and their families. Galuma-li accelerated progress under all three elements of Two River Pathway to Change youth diversion model: Influencing accountability of agencies: Govt/NGOs in Walgett approaching Galuma-li to work collaboratively; Location based reporting pilot established with visit to Walgett by senior Revenue NSW staff & initial data sharing. Direct referral path to Revenue NSW. Local collaboration on community action plan to reduce fine debt. Supporting community & family engagement: through our Community Responses program (see page 12) and Working directly with CYP: During the program the Youth Wellbeing Service ran 18 activities with 175 attendances by children & young people. Loretta made connections between children and young people & parents, carers, grandparents with 23 adult attendances at YWS activities. During the period Loretta continued integrating the Food and Water for Life activities into the Youth Wellbeing Service. Left: YWS Activities in NovDec 2024, Christmas arts/crafts, making Frog Hotel Habitats with River Rangers, Snake Awareness workshop with WAMS, painting. Right: YWS Activity in Jan 2025 with Aunty Brenda McBride, Identifying Native Vegetation. 12 Walgett Gamilaraay wirring.gaa Vanessa Hickey leads DEG’s community responses work at Galumali. Over the period she has built ways to support community in Walgett’s expanding poverty crisis, including establishing a Women’s Group that saw 52 attendances aged 17 to 70 years at 5 sessions. Using our walking alongside holistic approach Vanessa delivered 680 community troubleshooting sessions with 187 community members over 391 hours during the period. Hands-on learning & information was provided through 92 attendances at 8 Education Workshops conducted in the period, enabling deeper understanding & behaviour change (e.g. Galuma-li workshops led to people enrolling to vote & 4 women working at the Walgett polling booth). Vanessa leads the Dealing with Fines program which cleared $131,530 of fine debt during the period. Vital partners were the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT who collaborated with DEG to provide a fines legal service which achieved many fines write-offs. DEG’s close relationship with WAMS also benefits this program because participation in an AOD or mental health care plan is a good way to reduce fine debt. During this period a new Walgett role with Revenue NSW – Sean Suey-Thorne worked alongside the Dealing with Fines team to further reduce fine debt. Throughout the period, our Yuwaya Ngarrali collaborator, architect Samantha Rich, supported DEG to plan and renovate the Galumali building. Working with community and their ideas for the building, including young people, women and men who attend our programs, Samantha designed the future plans for the back area of Galumali (see top left). Another important YN collaborator during the period was Andrea Hadaway who supports the Wellbeing and Community Responses Leads in their day to day work practices to ensure Galumali services are safe, compliant and have processes to support the work sustainably. Left: Architectural plans for the rear of the Galumali building, designed by Samantha Rich with community ideas and input Galumali – caring community responses DEG invited Revenue NSW in the period to join a location-based data pilot project so that we can obtain more information to track our outcomes. Senior Department of Customer Service staff including Revenue NSW Deputy Secretary Scott Johnston visited Walgett on 18th February to meet the DEG Elders Council and Dealing with Fines team staff, accompanied by UNSW staff Peta MacGillivray and Dr Rebecca Reeve. The Yuwaya Ngarrali Briefing Paper: Dealing with Fines, September 2023, describes our program. https://dharriwaaeldersgroup.org.au/images/do wnloads/YNFinesBriefingPaperSept23.pdf.
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