Community services to move under one roof

From Monday 18 June, the former office at 79 Kite Street will close and the community centre building at 286 Lords Place will take on a larger role with 29 staff working at the same location.

Orange Mayor Reg Kidd believes the change will lead to a lot of extra community benefits.

“The council decided at its meeting back in March to go ahead with the change and I’m pleased it’s now ready to happen,” Cr Reg Kidd said.

“For many years it was practical to work from two locations. The Kite St office was a pioneering start for the council when it began more than forty years ago and eventually the former neighbourhood centre outgrew its space, and so the Lords Place office was built closer to the Civic Centre. Now we have the opportunity to bring everyone together, it’s good we can do that.”

“Across the council these staff are working on child care, support for older residents, road safety, migrant support, youth work, people with disabilities, Aboriginal engagement and many other fields. It makes so much sense to have them working alongside each other under the one roof.”

“For the community, the new Community Services Centre in Lords Place is going to be a one-stop-shop where all kinds of support can be found, replacing the former two locations.”

“It’s also going to make it easier to work on the areas that our staff have in common. When we’re working on community strategies and activities for pre-schoolers and teenagers through to the elderly, in the same building, it’s going to make the intergenerational aspects of what we can do much clearer.”

“A number of tenants in the Lords Place office had moved out so there was some space,” Cr Kevin Duffy said. “The upstairs section of the Kite St office would also need a lot of money spent to make sure it measures up when it comes to contemporary access standards for a workplace.”

“The downstairs section spreads across two linked buildings and I’m sure it will be very attractive to let out as a professional office.”

To signal the change, the council decided to give the new expanded office at 286 Lords Place a new name. It’s now to be known as the Orange Community Services Centre – Giyalang Ganya.

“The new name ‘Orange Community Services Centre’ makes it clearer that there’ll be extra activities and services available that weren’t there before,” Cr Reg Kidd said. “Whenever the council is looking at the public profile of local facilities, the option of reflecting Orange’s broader indigenous culture is also considered. In this case, the name Giyalang Ganya is a Wiradjuri term which means Belonging House.”

Staff are gradually making the move to the new location. It’s expected last staff will move from the Kite St office by 18 June.