BENDIGO Community Health Services should be congratulated for taking a new approach to a problem that has been entrenched in our city, and broader community, for decades.
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The organisation has recognised that while inequity has always existed in Bendigo, it is growing faster than we have previously seen.
And indeed, something needs to be done.
BCHS last night released its plan for the next three years, prioritising young people and making family and childhood services easier than ever to access.
It is ambitious and simplistic to suggest we will ever end poverty, but we can and should do all we can to try to end the cycle of poverty – and that’s what Bendigo Community Health aims to do during the next three years.
The service plans to work with at-risk children, with the view to making their programs and assistance more accessible and therefore reduce the risk factors that can lead to lives of disadvantage.
There is comprehensive research that shows young people who are raised in low socioeconomic areas are at greater risk of dropping out of school, unemployment and go on to develop drug and alcohol dependency.
They are also more likely to experience health problems, and find their way into the juvenile justice system.
Children who live in households where there is drug and alcohol abuse, violence and mental health concerns are more likely to have difficulty at school.
The goal is to work with them while they are young, to stop that cycle and limit the environments being passed on to future generations.
Bendigo Community Health Services chief executive officer Kim Sykes is right when she says supporting children early in life is the best way to improve outcomes.
“We don’t accept that, just by sheer luck, where someone is born should have a significant influence of a person’s entire life journey,’’ she said.
We agree.
This is a whole-of-community issue and it’s not the sole responsibility of BCHS.
They need our support and that of other organisations, to work with families and young people with the hope that together we can create positive change.
Nicole Ferrie, editor