A soft opening of the Nowra Veterans’ Wellbeing Centre (VWC) was held today (7th May 2021) at the Worrigee Sports Club in Nowra. Dignitaries gathered to celebrate this milestone as the first VWC to be established in NSW with the support of the Dept of Veterans’ Affairs and RSL NSW. The Nowra VWC will commence operations on Monday 10th May 2021 in temporary premises at 19 Nowra Lane in the Nowra CBD while the permanent premises are being built in East Nowra in the RSL Lifecare complex.
Services to be coordinated by the VWC include:
- Connection to Defence and other Ex-Service Organisations, including ADF Transition programs and activities
- DVA Claims and Advocacy support services
- Social connection – eg. support groups and sport activities including NSW Government supported programs through Veteran Sport Australia
- Holistic veteran and family wellbeing support services
- Housing assistance services, including the existing NSW Government programs such as Rent Choice Veterans and Link2home
- Open Arms community and peer advisor support services
- Employment support assistance and services including the RSL Employment Program and connection to the NSW Government Veteran Employment Program
- Mental health support services and referral services with programs such as Open Arms, the National Centre for Veterans Healthcare and other NSW Health services locally
RSL NSW intends to use the lessons learnt from the development of the Nowra VWC to establish other VWCs in NSW, located where there are significant concentrations of serving and Veteran military personnel.
To learn more about the Nowra VWC click here to view their web page.
(L to R) Robert Grant (President, Nowra RSL Sub-Branch), Senator the Hon Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (representing the Federal Minister for Veterans’ Affairs), and Lyn Webber (Secretary, Sussex Inlet RSL Sub-Branch)
