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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-05 Daily Xml
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Light Electorate Service Organisations

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (16:20): I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some wonderful things that are happening in my electorate of Light. Last night, for example, the Gawler Kiwanis Club held their handover dinner under new president, Margaret Hague. Earlier this year, the Kiwanis club celebrated their 30th birthday as a Gawler club. I would like to commend the work they do and the fundraising they undertake, especially for their projects where they specialise in kids.

One of the programs the Kiwanis run every year is that they hand out a range of books to various schools and they work with various partners and sponsors to deliver books to schools to promote literacy and the love of books. I commend them for that work. They are one of many service organisations in my electorate and collectively they do a wonderful job in building a sense of community in the Light electorate.

I also take this opportunity to congratulate the people who have been involved with organising the Munno Para Community Market, in particular Sandra Watherston. Sandra is the market coordinator, supported by the Munno Para Primary School, the Munno Para Preschool, Renewal SA, the City of Playford and a church in the locality. My office provides support with media and printing. The idea of the market was to help the community to come out of their homes and meet on a regular basis. The market held last Saturday was the most successful to date, and it is certainly growing.

Again, I congratulate the market organisers. I also thank the volunteers who helped to letterbox the area and the various stallholders, including small business people, particularly small businesses running home-based activities. They use the market as an opportunity to sell their products and their services. It is a great event for that community and, as I said, it has grown stronger and that is in no small measure due to Sandra and the team at Munno Para Primary School.

One of the other things I would also like to mention is the Northern Men's Wellbeing Network, which I am a member of. The Northern Men's Wellbeing Network is a network made up of service providers in the northern areas of Adelaide which come together to share information and to improve the delivery of services and advice for men in that community, particularly disadvantaged men and boys. They could be men who might be unemployed, men who have relationship problems, men who have some sort of disadvantage and also the boys. The focus is particularly on how to support men to support families and children in the area, so the focus of the network is to help men to be better fathers in their communities because we all benefit from that.

I congratulate John Goodger, who is the coordinator of the network, who does a wonderful job in bringing these people together. They share ideas and also use the opportunity to cross-refer people for assistance. The most recent meeting was a joint meeting with the Gawler Men's Wellbeing Network, which is a new network of service providers in the greater Gawler area, and I am a part of that. Again, it is a case where not only men but women—because there are a number of service providers who are women who provide services to men—come together to share information and promote the wellbeing of men in our communities, as distinct from just the physical health of men.

The network helps to connect with various service providers to share information, and also helps to identify existing services to make sure they are used efficiently. I would like to also thank those people from the Gawler community who came to the first men's wellbeing network meeting on 28 August. I know they are keen to meet on a regular basis and share information for the improvement of the health and wellbeing of men and boys in our community.

I was also very fortunate during the month to attend St Patrick's Technical College's annual skills lunch. St Patrick's Technical College is located in Edinburgh North and provides valuable entry points for high school students eager to take up an apprenticeship or traineeship, including those who are perhaps not well suited to a traditional academic learning environment. What I can say, in the seconds remaining, is that they do a wonderful job in helping young men and women enter into apprenticeships, traineeships and employment.

Time expired.

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