6 July 2011

Pact has a new contract with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to help support clients and providers in Christchurch following the recent earthquakes and a staff member has been appointed.

Prior to the February earthquake Pact had secured a contract to provide a vocational service in Christchurch, however after the earthquake it soon became apparent that service could not go ahead because providers and clients were out of their normal routines and there were huge challenges in finding a property to run the service from.

After attending a Christchurch providers’ meeting an opportunity was identified for Pact to assist in a different way.

Pact agreed a contract with MSD to hire a community-based staff member to connect with clients, service providers, schools, tertiary institutions and employers to ascertain needs, identify gaps and create opportunities.

Teresa Evans-Turner in the role in June. Teresa has a master’s degree in tourism and a post graduate qualification in public health. She has previously worked as a research assistant at the Donald Beasley Institute.

Pact client programmes and service development manager Glenn Murtagh says the list of deliverables for the 12 month contract are:

• Supporting clients and providers with up-to-date information on community and social service availability

• Relationship engagement between provider, family and funder to re-establish clients back into appropriate services

• Mapping of current services in terms of capacity and state of readiness to support clients

• Establishing the level of client need across the city

• Assisting with service access – ie transport and logistics (as a point of co-ordination rather than providing transport)

• Acting as a point of coordination for the ministry in relation to the disability sector and a conduit for the communication of issues being experienced by providers and clients.