Club Dinner Meeting – Speaker: Sue Colverson – Discovery Community Care

TOPIC:                  Discovery Community Care

Our mission is “Moving closer to sow hope”

In the last 3 years we have introduced an appointment system with an interview every visit, this has been done with the sole purpose of building a relationship so we can find the root of the problem, and either assist with options we can offer or refer onto a suitable organisation.

All this is done to promote self-esteem and empower the individual.   Each program we have introduced is designed to fit into another, like a jigsaw puzzle.  Our hope is that we will provide stepping-stones with sufficient support that will encourage clients to take a chance and choose life.

To this purpose we provide life skills opportunities such as weekly cooking group, Step Up to Life, (a 7-week chat over coffee) that we wrote for those who are isolated, and lonely.  We have a mentor program called COACH for parents with children under 12, plus mentors in secondary schools with year 7 and 8 students.  We run a school breakfast program and provide a meal on the streets through Foodstop every Thursday, 52 weeks of the year, rain hail or shine.  Every Christmas we partner with other agencies and pack 450 hampers, run a gold coin toy shop and a Christmas Day lunch.

And I am very proud to say that all our programs are 100% volunteer run.

SPEAKER:            Sue Colverson

I am married (43 years) with 2 married sons and 1.75 grandchildren.  I started a hairdressing apprenticeship in 1966 and eventually owed 2 salons.  I became interested in community development because of my volunteering in the community.

In 1999 I sold my businesses and concentrated on volunteering in many different community groups but this lead to employment at my church overseeing the global and community connections.
In 2003 I connected with a remote Indigenous community on Elcho Island and spent the next 5 years as part of my job facilitating trades teams to build a school.
In 2008 my husband and I moved to live on Elcho Island, he provided training and I developed businesses to provide training and employment.
In 2010 we returned to Melbourne and I continued to travel to the NT as a consultant for the next 2 year.

In 2012 I was offered the position of manager for Discovery Community Care (DCC), which is a not for profit charity working in the community service sector.
We are not funded by government but through profits from our social enterprise and donations from the church and general public.
This new role required changing the organisation from a culture of meeting needs, to empowering people to move forward.

Discovery Community Care helps 2500 people a year through its emergency relief program.