This week we spoke with Mark Dohnt and Lisa Haddow about the Over 40's Football and Netball match happening in Ararat on March the 26th. Mark and Lisa speak about what drives them to play, their sporting history and also about the difficulty and also the need for kids to be out playing sports after the past few years of COVID.

If you're interested in playing in either match, click here to register.

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This week on we are joined by Simone O'Brien who tells her story of surviving an attack by a former partner that came very close to killing her. Simone was struck up to 50 times in the head by a baseball bat, was given a 3% chance of surviving. Simone tells us what happened, the red flags that she did and didn't see, how the kindness and bravery of her children, neighbours and paramedics saved her life and her recovery.

Simone also talks about the work she now does as an advocate for domestic violence survivors and the wider community and how she bounced back stronger and more positive than ever.

Visit the Grampians Community Health website

Visit Simone's website to find out more about her story and work

The Red Rose Foundation

Hairdressers With Hearts

This week Carly McKinnis & Tammie Meehan from One Red Tree join us to discuss their exciting new venture to assist schools and parents manage mental health concerns amongst primary school aged children. 

Carly and Tammie discuss the begins of One Red Tree, what they hope to accomplish, the work they are currently doing in schools across Ararat and Stawell and the potential for local young people to be able to study pschology and be able to in turn assist their local communities.

Visit the Grampians Community Health website

Find out more about One Red Tree here

This week we speak with the co-winner of the Northern Grampians Shire Council Young Citizen of the Year award Charlie.

Charlie is a young volunteer at Grampians Community Health and is part of both the Grampians Youth Events team and the Rainbow Alliance program.

Charlie was also keen to discuss what life is like for them as a young LGBTQI+ person here in Western Victoria as well as their work advocating and supporting for other young LGBTQI+ people in our area.

Visit the GCH website here

And for support for young people who are in the LGBTQI+ community you can click here for information on Switchboard Victoria or here for QLife Australia.

This week Youth Alcohol and Other Drug Outreach Worker Jess Johns joins us to discuss youth alcohol and substance abuse in our area. Jess talks about what she has seen and what's happening with young people's substance intake as well as how to get support and what that support would look like.

Visit the Grampians Community Health website for more information about us and our services

For part two of the GCH FAQ episodes we're joined by GCH General Manager of Business Support & Innovation Kate Astbury to discuss just how people can access services from GCH, how the intake process works and how to navigate it. We also dicuss volunteering and some of the community conceptions around GCH.

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Uniting Victoria/Tasmania Homelessness Services.

Hi everyone and thanks for joining us again in 2022 for our first podcast of the year. This week we're joined by Grampians Community Health CEO Greg Little to discuss, amongst other things, what community health is, what GCH as an organisation does and the past, present and future of GCH. We also answer some questions that we get around GCH and our role in the communities here in western Victoria.

Check out the new and improved Grampians Community Health website

This week Ada Castle is back and with Christmas on our doorstep we look at some of the positives around the COVID pandemic, such as the incredible vaccination rates in our communities, the great work of health care staff and the vaccination for primary school aged kids.

We also discuss the Omicron varient, booster and third shots and how to have a COVID safe Christmas Day with your family and friends. 

On behalf of the board and staff of Grampians Community Health we'd love to wish you a happy and safe festive season and we'll be back in January with more of the Community Is Our Middle Name podcast.

Visit our website via this link

On this weeks show we're joined by Julie Scanlon who is an Integrated Care Worker and part of the Older Australian Intiative that Grampians Community Health are running across the Grampians/Wimmera area. Julie discusses the issues of isolation that have been amplified during the past few years due to the COVID pandemic, how this has exacerbated existing mental health conditions, made more older people isolated and lonely and the difficulty of dealing with grief in a pandemic world. We also discuss ways that people like Julie are helping older people reconnect with their communities.

Visit the Grampians Community Health website

This week we speak with Nichole Palmer. Nichole speaks candidly about her past as an ice addict, what she saw and went through, her journey to sobriety and her new passion, helping others and their families who are suffering from methamphetamine addiction by starting The Raewill Project, to support those people and their families looking for help as a person with lived experience of addiction.

Follow this link to discover more about The Raewill Project

For more on Grampians Community Health click here to visit our website