Pictured from left to right are Gloria Jarrick and Bonita Gwyn and Margaret Wheeler

Neighbourhood Central’s Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme is bringing members of the community together and they are looking for more Volunteer Visitors.

This program is funded by the federal government as part of its Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme, which provides friendship and companionship to eligible older people by matching them with a volunteer visitor who will visit regularly and become a friend. This scheme helps to improve their quality of life by reducing social isolation.

At Neighbourhood Central, Bonita Gwyn and Gloria Jarrick have been volunteer visitors for quite some time now and have formed a beautiful friendship with Margaret Wheeler. The ladies meet every week for a catch up and a few games of cards. Margaret looks forward to her visits with Bonita and Gloria and has expressed how much she enjoys their company and having someone to play cards with.

Bonita and Gloria expressed that the visits with Margaret does as much good for them as it does for Margaret.

Brooke from Neighbourhood Central said, “As an aged care volunteer visitor coordinator, it is wonderful to sit and have a conversation with matches that have been made and witness in person the beautiful friendships that have formed and continue to grow with each visit.”

Being an Aged Care Volunteer Visitor can be incredibly rewarding; by having meaningful conversations, you can drastically improve the quality of life for an older person.

Volunteers from all social and cultural backgrounds from Forbes, Parkes and Condobolin are encouraged to join the program. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer visitor, please contact Brooke at Neighbourhood Central.

If you would like to brighten the days of older people as a volunteer, or if you would

like to request a visitor, please contact Brooke at Neighbourhood Central on 1300 810 771 or email: admin@ncentral.org.au

Relationships Australia NSW (RANSW) has called for urgent intervention from the NSW Government to address men’s violence against women following the horrific murder of Forbes woman Molly Ticehurst.

RANSW CEO Elisabeth Shaw said it is critically important that domestic violence services are adequately and sustainably funded to address the growing rate of violence against women.

“My heart breaks to hear the news of yet another victim of alleged domestic violence,” Ms Shaw said.

“Our country is facing a systemic issue of men’s violence against women, and we need urgent intervention to address this issue at the core.

“We know that Men’s Behaviour Change Programs (MBCPs) can be an effective intervention to help men stop using violence in their relationships – but these programs are chronically underfunded.

“Our organisation currently has 235 men on a waitlist for our Men’s Behaviour Change Programs – these are men who want to stop using violence, but cannot access the help they need.

“We would not say that a behaviour change program would have saved Molly’s life. Some men would never put themselves forward to look at their own actions. However, for those that do, we have to seize that moment and move in fast.

“The NSW Labor Party committed to longer-term funding for the social services sector during the election, and has a strong commitment to addressing domestic violence – now is the time the Government makes good on its promise and delivers fulsome, generous funding for domestic violence services.

“We cannot keep lurching from one crisis to another. It’s time for action.”

To access more information on RANSW’s MBCPs you can visit www.relationshipsnsw.org.au

Communities across regional, rural, and remote Australia can now have their say on telecommunications issues as public submissions open on the Regional Telecommunications Review.

The input of local communities will form an essential part of the Review – held once every three years – which will see the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee deliver recommendations to Government.

The Review is closely examining the experiences of people in regional, rural, and remote parts of Australia with telecommunications delivery, as well as considering the unique needs of First Nations communities.

Residents, businesses and community organisations can make a submission, with the Terms of Reference – announced by Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP – outlining key issues for the Committee to examine. An issues paper has been released to help frame ideas.

Feedback from the public has been essential in previous reviews to ensure the Committee’s recommendations are well-targeted and based on evidence. For this Review there are three options available to have your say: attending a face-to-face consultation, providing a formal submission or completing a survey. The survey will be published in May 2024.

Since March 2024, the Committee has visited Western Australia and Tasmania for face-to-face consultations with local issues also forming an important part of the Committee’s considerations. More locations for face-to-face consultations will be announced shortly.

The 2024 Review is being led by the Hon Alannah MacTiernan, former Western Australian Minister for Regional Development as Chair of the Review Committee. She is supported by the Hon Fiona Nash, Ms Kristy Sparrow, Dr Jessa Rogers and Mr Ian Kelly.

To have your say just visit www.infrastructure.gov.au/have-your-say/2024- regional-telecommunications-review

Chair, the Hon Alannah MacTiernan went on to say “Access to telecommunications services is critical for regional residents and businesses across so many aspects of everyday life – and we want to understand the lived experience of these services so that future policy actions are well-targeted and backed up by evidence.

“We really encourage Australians in the bush to have their say via a submission or completing the survey in coming months, while we continue our face-to-face consultations across the country.

Pictured is Club President Chris Finkel.

At their most recent meeting, the members of Forbes Rotary Club agreed to hold a special Rotary awareness meeting on Friday the 16th of April 2024 at 6pm for 6.15pm at the Forbes Services Club.

60 invitations have been sent out to potential new Rotarians in the 30 to 50 age group in an attempt to gain new membership to keep our club operating and solve the problem of the current lack of office bearers in the club who are willing to continue on as executive members to run the club.

A finger food menu for the meeting which will be provided at no charge for attending guests as this will be covered by donations from current members who are anxious to keep the Forbes Rotary Club continue its service work to the local, national and international communities.

The deadline for RSVPs for those wishing to attend this function is 6pm on Friday, 12 th April.

For those residents who would like to attend this evening and did not receive an invitation please phone, text or email our Forbes Rotary Secretary, Grahame Uphill on 0427 640 065 or email dorso@westserv.net.au. Current President, Chris Finkel also said he would like

RSVPs from all current members and Friends of Rotary to add to the total of attendees.

Chris then stated: “We can only hope that with the forthcoming Rotary Awareness evening we can gain enough new members to rejuvenate and reactivate our club to what it was when I first became a Rotarian at the age of 37. My request to our current members is to ask one or two of their younger associates or friends along to next week’s meeting and consider helping us out.”

Rotary International theme for 2023/24 is “Create Hope in the World”.

The ROTARY CLUB of FORBES has been a part of the Forbes community for over 75 years working to support charities in the community, in Australia and in many countries around the world.

Unfortunately time is catching up with us and with the exception of a couple of younger members we all well into our 70s and beyond.

It has now reached crisis point and we are in danger of having to close this wonderful organisation in this town if we cannot Inject some younger members into our club.

We realise that you all have many commitments to family, work and of course mortgages.

All the older members are keen to hand over running of the club to younger members with new ideas and these members are more than happy to step into the background to give advice only when we are asked to and help when asked.

On Tuesday 16th of April 2024 at the Forbes Services and Memorial Club at 6.15pm we will be having an information night and would like to invite you to come along, have a couple of drinks and some nibbles with us at the cost of our existing members.

If you would like to attend we would appreciate getting an RSVP to Grahame Uphill on 0427 640 065 Email: dorso@westserv.net.au or Chris Finkel on 0429 661 358 by Friday, 12th of April 2024.

Please give this your earnest consideration, we think you will find it a most fulfilling experience.