Energy Link: A Support Service Focusing on Prevention and Early Intervention

John Murphy

The Energy Link Community Outreach Service is an innovative two-year pilot project introduced by the Frankston Community Support and Information Centre, south of Melbourne. The Centre’s own research and consultation found that increasing numbers of people were becoming dependent on welfare agencies, who seemed to be making minimal effort to identify, understand or address the causes of people’s financial, social and emotional problems.

The service was set up to provide short-term, generalist human services for individuals and families on low incomes and experiencing problems not deemed serious enough for them to be eligible to receive support from other welfare organisations.

The aim is to provide support to individuals and families in their own homes and neighbourhoods during the early stages of their problems, in an attempt to prevent them from escalating to a more serious stage and to prevent people’s reliance on institutional welfare services. The project is unusual in having corporate sponsorship, government funding having been rejected because it had “too many strings attached”.

This paper describes the work of the Centre and the development of the outreach service, and concludes that there are early signs that the project is making good progress towards achieving its objectives.