Newsletter #155 - 23 January 2015

MAD 1Welcome to 2015 – the year CanCERN is hellbent on going MAD.

Having been in this space since September 2010, we already qualify for having gone mad but MAD is all about Making A Difference.

There are a few collaborative projects we are trying to kick off early in 2015 aimed at making a difference for specific groups of people still progressing through their insurance and home reinstatement. None of it is set in stone as yet but we are already bringing together those we believe need to be sitting at the table so that we can collectively be MAD.

Number one on our list is focused on people over 65 years who are not yet in their fixed or rebuilt homes. There is much to be considered in terms of how we all better respond to this need and hopefully within the next week or two we will be able to share more of our thoughts. Next week we are bringing the right people to our table to have this conversation and already the most important ingredient of all – goodwill – has been demonstrated just by the fact that everyone has jumped at the chance to be MAD for over 65s.

Number two on the list is something aimed at all residents who are still struggling with the vast complexities of this residential recovery. Building on the concept of the In the Know Land Hub which ran for a couple of weeks late last year, we are working with agencies and organisations to create a more permanent face to face resource where you can go and access information, speak to experts, be linked with supports and services and see what your next steps may include. This isn’t just about land though so think of it in terms of being a place where you can deal with all of those ‘earthquake’ questions that rumble around your head most loudly when you are trying to go to sleep.

We know from experience that the community hosts are one of the big successes from the In the Know Land Hub because they are just like you. They speak the language of the resident, know what you need just by looking at you and most importantly, are there just to help and support you. Community hosts are a definite in this collaborative venture and we are pretty keen to get this space up and running as soon as possible. We need a pretty sizeable venue with good foot traffic – ideas anyone?

Obviously there are a whole heap of other things we are planning on doing to make a difference and we will talk more about these over the next few newsletters. Breakthrough, our pilot aimed at helping Southern Response customers make progress is still happening in 2015. Have a read about it here and if you’re interested in knowing more, give us a yell.

We put some of our MADness on our Facebook page so if you are a social media butterfly, make sure you ‘like’ us here. Otherwise, share the newsletter far and wide, or better still, tell people to subscribe. The plan this year is to talk a lot more about what we are doing so that you can be confident that there are people out there who are MAD for the residents.

Enjoy the beautiful summery weekend weather!

The CanCERN team

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