The Waterloo Human Services Collaborative was established in December 2020 to assist with engagement, planning and coordinated responses by Government and Non-Government human services agencies to the Waterloo NSW community in advance of the Waterloo Estate redevelopment. If focuses on the existing and ongoing needs of that community and seeks to change business as usual.
In May 2021 two Coordination Groups were established to develop actions related to Front Line issues as well as Service Integration and Systems issues. These groups developed the priorities in the action plan after reviewing input from agencies and public housing tenants. The Action Plan was agreed October 2021with a few tweaks following and an Implementation Plan setting out the priorities for implementation was agreed in April 2022.
The initial stage of implementation (Start Now) is underway being lead by the Coordination groups and Implementation Groups established to progress each action item. As the implementation takes place new resources, projects and approaches emerge. Collaborative meetings bring together all members to monitor work and to progress new initiatives.
While the Collaborative is focused on Waterloo many of the issues are common across public housing communities and the hope is that this initiative will change business as usual not only in Waterloo across the district and the state. As a result the resources on this site are likely to be of use to agencies and communities outside Waterloo.
Our vision
- Better collaboration and coordinated service delivery using existing resources.
- Better use of and access to services by the community.
- Improved service culture and provision of customer services.
- Improved mechanisms for the identification and resolution of local systemic issues impacting service delivery and client experience.
- An informed design and development of human services aspect of the built form in the new redevelopment.
- A documented action plan with short, medium, and long-term goals/actions to address local systemic issues
Our Priorities
The Waterloo Human Services Collaborative Group developed an initial Action Plan with six priority areas:
The Action Plan has six priority areas:
- Improved safety.
- Improved health and well-being.
- Improved communication and consultation and community participation.
- Improved customer service.
- Improved service integration and service accessibility for all service users.
- Improved responses to systemic issues (and accountability) on an ongoing basis.
The Collaborative aims to assist those living in public housing by:
- facilitating engagement, planning, and coordinated responses by human services agencies to the Waterloo community.
- consulting with resident representative bodies, residents, service users and key stakeholders.
- creating a collaborative effort to effect change in the absence of new funding by capitalising on the existing services and capacities.
- committing to build community resilience through community development, community strengthening and capacity building.
