There’s a new face at Bushland and she comes with a wealth of experience working with Indigenous people, Indigineous youth, and Indigenous organisations.
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Tucked into a little office next door to the Bushland Tukka Cafe at the Bushland Community Hub is the area’s new community development worker/youth, Fiona Lee.
She has only been in the job two months but has hit the ground running, networking with the local community and services.
“It’s my job to mobilise and co-ordinate the community and services to deliver place-based activities for youth care at the Hub,” Fiona said.
“The project is guided by working with the community and the service providers, including the school and police; I’ve been in the planning stages so far. It’s an ongoing conversation.
“There are specific aims for the project, and that would be to increase safety in the community and to build community cohesion, and to really activate this space and have a regular program of activities running here for youth so they have something to do,” she said.
Fiona has previously worked as a youth worker at Alice Springs, with her last position being a two-year stint as general manager of Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation in Balgo, Western Australia, 100 kilometres from the Northern Territory border.
“It’s one of the most remote Aboriginal communities in Australia,” Fiona explained.
“My bosses were the elders of the community who were on the board of directors. It was managing an arts centre in a community development framework.”
Fiona is already building relationships with the Bushland community. She recently held an ‘Elders’ Morning Tea’ and the project has the support of the elders who attended.
“For me it’s about building rapport and building trust and developing those relationships, and that’s why I think it’s important that people know I grew up here and I went to Taree and Chatham High and I’ve worked with Aboriginal people before.”
The project is auspiced by Manning Valley Neighbourhood Services and funded by the NSW Department of Justice through the Community Safety Fund.
For more information on the project call Fiona on 0476 756 515. She also invites community members to drop in and say hello at her office, open Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8.30am to 4pm.