Meet the team - Peri

Name: Peri – Program Manager, Community Connections

What do you do in this role?

I manage programs that provide a range of health promotion and prevention services across primary health, mental health, dental, gambling support, volunteering and transport services for people of all ages and backgrounds within the community.

My team and I work to help support and raise the awareness of our clients, carers, family members and other community agencies in accessing the range of services we deliver at Connect Health & Community.

A good example of this is work we have done during the pandemic to support communities with essential services.  We set up pop-up Covid-19 testing centres, supported vulnerable communities with day-to-day essentials (e.g. food, nappies, medicine) and kept them connected them to the community while in self-isolation.

My team includes 200 volunteers who are essential to providing important services like our transport service, hydrotherapy and social-support groups etc.

Our Community Transport helps people in our community get to personal medical appointments or access our services.  Our drivers can take someone to a doctor’s appointment or a counselling, physio or podiatry appointment with us.  We also have a bus that collects group members from their homes to bring them in for hydrotherapy classes or social support groups.  Our wonderful, dedicated volunteers deliver this much-needed service. 

How long have you been with Connect Health & Community?

I started in early December, 2020.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

What I love about my role is being close to the community and working in collaborative partnerships - they say, “many hands make light work.”  The closer we are to our community, the more appropriate and targeted our services will be.

I love my community and take pride in helping make it the best it can be.  As we say at Connect Health & Community, “healthy people, healthy communities.”

What do you like most about Connect Health & Community?

What stands out most for me as a new member of this amazing team is the passion, commitment and dedication all staff have to the individuals they serve.  Over the past 45 years of service, Connect Health & Community has been in the heart of the community.

Tell us something about you:

• 

  I am a local.  I love living in Glen Eira.
• I am a volunteer in my community - I crochet blankets, hats and scarves for women and children escaping family violence.
• I sing in a local community choir.  We put on the Dendy Park Christmas Carols each year in East Brighton.  We also perform in local

  

  residential aged care facilities.

Thanks Peri! It’s great to have you on board and sharing your passion to help support our community.