Coalition commits to Olivia’s Place funding

The first government funding for Olivia’s Place pregnancy and early parenting centre based in Warragul has been promised if a Liberal-Nationals state government is elected later this year.

Member for Narracan Gary Blackwood and Member for Eildon Cindy McLeish, deputy chair of a parliamentary committee for family and community development attended the centre last week to tell volunteers that a Coalition government would provide $200,000 over two years to help them continue to their “valuable work in support of families”.

One of the co-founders of the Warragul centre Kirsten Finder, said government funds would be a huge benefit in continuing their work.

“It would make such a difference to the quality of service Olivia’s Place provides as well as meeting the growth in demand,” she said.

From a small and humble start in 2012 when Ms Finger and Melissa Raymond established the centre under the umbrella of a national organisation the Warragul centre, now an independent body governed by a committee of local people, last financial year supported 150 families over an area extending beyond Baw Baw Shire to include areas in Latrobe City and South Gippsland shire.

Ms Finger said to date the organisation has been entirely self-funded.

Fundraising provides about one-third of the centre’s income with donations and grants, including from philanthropic organisations such as the Andrews Foundation and Trinity Families, accounting for the remainder of expenditure.

Those outlays include $80,000 last financial year in material aid needed by many new parents, such as nappies, clothes, cots, bedding and prams alongside emotional and family support.

Ms McLeish said she found it great to see what is being done at grassroots level to help families and was impressed by what she saw at Olivia’s Place.

Mr Blackwood described the community support for the centre as a testimony to what the centre had done over the past six years.

He said the Coalition promised funding before the 2014 election but did not win government. Olivia’s Place supports families at any stage during a pregnancy and the first year of a child’s life.