By Kim Sykes

CEO, BCHS

It’s been a busy end to 2016 for Bendigo Community Health Services as we prepare our organisation to deliver much-needed and sustained change in the area of disadvantage in our community.

Much of the hard work around restructuring our organisation to ensure we are best placed to tackle the cycles of disadvantage in Bendigo has been completed and we are excited about the work we will be doing in 2017.  

The restructure is just one step in planning how we will deliver our programs in the future to best support our community and to ensure our organisation remains healthy in an increasingly competitive environment of service delivery and funding.

As the year draws to a close we farewell some long-serving staff who have made great contributions to our organisation.  They are moving on to new and exciting employment and we have no doubt they will bring great knowledge and experience to their new organisations. We wish them every success.

We will welcome three new directors in January who are keen to help BCHS achieve our goal of challenging disadvantage in Bendigo and leading our organisation into this new and exciting era.

It was fantastic to get the keys to our new kidzspace building in Kangaroo Flat this week. We will start moving our child and family services into the building in January to deliver a hub and service model which will be a first for regional Australia. Stay tuned for a big open day in the New Year!

Big changes and opportunities are coming and this will be exciting and very rewarding.

We thank all our consumers and loyal partners for the ongoing support through 2016 – you are vital to our success; perhaps we don’t say ‘thank you’ quite enough but we greatly value your trust in us.

Finally, on behalf of all at Bendigo Community Health Services we wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.