A "Happy Home" at Karingal

Sunday, March 9, 2014 – 1:15 p.m. Victoria time (in a train to Wandin)

By Teressa Jackson

Last Thursday, my host Warren was kind enough to drive me over an hour west to the city of Geelong for the day, where I visited Karingal, whose name means “happy home”. Much like where I work, Karingal was founded in 1952 by parents of children with disabilities. They have experienced incredible growth in the past fifteen years, going from a $3.5 million annual budget to a budget of around $80 million through mergers and growth in programming. Their service area is now “interstate” (multi-state).

I first met with Robyn, who gave me an overview of the agency’s many service lines. Like many of the disability service organizations we have visited, and very unlike most similar organizations in the U.S., Karingal’s employment placement program runs a surplus that they use to further their other services for people with all types of disabilities, the elderly, and other populations, some of which include:

• Kommercial – Hospitality, land care, packaging, and catering services conducted in a variety of on-site “social enterprise model” setups
• Youth services – Targeted to kids at risk who drop out of school
• Individual supports – Respite, personal care, work-based support, note taking assistance
• Aged care – Includes a service for individuals in distress where they are required to “buzz in” each day to ensure their safety
• Participate – A day program providing accredited training, adventure-based learning focused on pre-employment skills, volunteer work, literacy training, and other supports
• Karingallery – Run by an artist and showing art by people with disabilities and other community artists
• Transcend – Mental health respite, outreach, personal helpers, and mentors
• Accommodation – Shared living housing, primarily for individuals with intellectual disabilities (4 to 8 individuals per home, 24-hour support – staff are allowed to sleep in all homes except one)
• “My Own Place” – A program that helps people find a place for more independent accommodations
• ARC Support – For people with acquired brain injury including community education, family support networks, and a drop-in center (board funded) 

Like the organization where I work, Karingal is ISO 9001:2008 certified, and is also accredited by Disability Services Victoria. Like many other not-for-profits I’ve visited, they first and foremost look for staff with skills in the program area and then provide disability support training.

Next, Tracy gave me an overview of BacLinks, which provides links between business and the community. Much in the way that our local Metro United Way does, this service arm connects businesses and other groups with community not-for-profits in need of volunteer support. The program runs at a significant deficit and Karingal sees it as their “gift to the community.” The model was devised in working with federally-funded consultants. Businesses pay a membership fee that provides them with support and access to four business breakfasts each year. They also pay a fee for projects supported by BacLinks. These fees allow the agency to provide support in the form of risk assessment, project agreements including roles and responsibilities, assessment of need for insurance, event registration, photos, evaluation, and more.

Karingal’s Foundation director gave me a lift to one of their other sites in the community. She was in much the same situation I was three years ago. Hired just six months ago, she is facing a capital campaign to raise $2 million of a $6 million goal to build a new building at the site I was visiting, which will be a community center geared toward inclusion of people with disabilities in community life. It will include a coffee shop (I told you they like their coffee here!), conference space, art rooms, and much more.

The director at the community center, Lee, took me to a lovely lunch and then we visited several of Karingal’s other sites and programs. Karingallery was a beautiful space with some wonderful works that were very professionally presented. They have a show five times a year and this is always in mind as a goal. Additionally, they rent gallery space to other artists in the community to help bring people in to the space and generate funds. Most people come to the art program a half day to two days per week. Most of their sites were centrally located to facilitate integration of participants into the community. I really enjoyed meeting their staff and participants, and going at what felt like a slower pace than the hustle and bustle of Melbourne. 

View more photos from the day and stay up-to-date with all our latest at our Facebook page:www.facebook.com/gse2014.