Liberal Member for Penrith Stuart Ayres MP metwith Helen Walker OAM, Manager of GREAT Community Transport, and with the organisation’s volunteers to discuss the commitment of $200,000 in extra funding over four years.
”At election time it is easy, in the middle of big announcements about the State’s future, to forget what a difference these funding commitments actually make in the lives of so many locals. To hear from the volunteers here at GREAT Community Transport how the funding that the NSW Liberals & Nationals have committed to the organisation has made positive changes in their work and lives every day helps keep rhetoric in perspective – without people like these, New South Wales is only a name and geography,” Mr Ayres said.
GREAT Community Transport is dedicated to servicing areas of transport need and to providing flexible special care transport assistance for residents of Blue Mountains and Penrith who find it difficult to get around on their own.
Their services include
- Regular door-to-door mini-bus shopping services – fortnightly dependant on clients location.
- VISTA(Volunteer Individual Shopping with Transport Assistance) one to one shopping assistance with individual carer/companions for high need clients once fortnightly.
- Hospital and Medical appointments – locally and out-of-area.
- Social and Respite Outings.
- Centre-based meals.
Ms Walker said that she welcomed Mr Ayres interest in the organisation in taking the time to visit and find out what the funds could achieve for GREAT Community Transport.
”We help a lot of people who would otherwise be isolated from their community by transport difficulties, whether brought about through injury, illness, or another reason. The mobility we can give them means a lot to our clients, and I really want to acknowledge Stuart’s care for our volunteers and all whom we assist,” Ms Walker said.
Stuart Ayres said that he believed one of the ways to achieve real change in the State was through commitments such as this funding to GREAT Community Transport.
”This is realistic, it is achievable, and it is improving the lives of many people every day. It is helping to build the sort of community spirit we need to make NSW number one again.”
