Aboriginal hub in Casuarina
Having an Aboriginal hub; a place where Aboriginal people can easily access services they need in one place has long been a goal for AIG. We’re pleased to say we’ve achieved our goal with the arrival of new tenant Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory (APO NT).
“Having Indigenous services together in the same, easy to access place makes sense” says CEO Liz Morgan-Brett. “At our headquarters in Casuarina we now have offices of the North Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Service (NAAFLS), Territory Credit Union (TCU), APO NT and the Casuarina Remote Laundries project unit.”
Perfect location
Casuarina is home to the NTs biggest shopping centre. Everything is there, and all visitors to Darwin invariably end up there at some point. The AIG office is very close to the shopping centre which makes it easy to access and the perfect location for an Aboriginal hub.
On any day there are many people coming and going from the hub and this is what we wanted to achieve; a place that is easy to access, offering useful services and promotes cultural safety for our clients.
The Remote Laundries project manager Brittany Ciupka says being easy to access is an important part of the business model for her project.
“Centrality is crucial to the Remote Laundries model. In remote communities, we look for sites with heavy foot traffic to ensure all community members have equitable access to the service. The same goes for Darwin. Being part of the AIG Indigenous Hub removes barriers to people accessing our service and makes us more visible to those who are unfamiliar with the project – which means better health and social outcomes for all”.
Support and networking
One of the key benefits of having organisations with the same goal under the same roof is the potential for support and networking. While the organisations in the AIG building have different service delivery mandates, we all understand the challenges to culturally appropriate service delivery for our Aboriginal clients.
For David Alexander, the CEO of NAAFLS, the benefit of a hub is clear. “It’s very important that likeminded organisations, all working to improve the lives First Nations Territorians, have an opportunity to learn from one another and share ideas about how to address difficult social issues.
“For instance, the co-location of Aboriginal Housing NT into the Hub has already allowed a discussion to start about the impacts of housing on family and domestic violence and child protection.
“We all know the value of water-cooler conversations and when the conversations focus on some of the key issues facing the NT there must be benefits to all our work”.
Rent used for projects that benefit people in community
We own the building in Casuarina and the rent we receive from tenants goes towards funding our projects. Our business model is for AIG to create wealth through asset revenue (rent) which is spent on projects throughout the seven regions of the Top End.
“Having Aboriginal organisations in our Casuarina building means we have all the benefits of bringing like minded organisations together, there is an added benefit of being able repurpose rent revenue into projects that benefit Aboriginal people. It gives our tenants more bang for their buck” said Liz.
