YTRHSG volunteers Lionel Heath, Elvie Anderson, Margaret Michael and Moira Young.
Camera IconYTRHSG volunteers Lionel Heath, Elvie Anderson, Margaret Michael and Moira Young. Credit: Supplied/Emma Reeves

Support group gets a helping hand of its own

Lucy JarvisNorth Coast Times

A COMMUNITY group received a new lease on life last month, allowing it to continue helping elderly, unwell and injured residents.

Wanneroo City Council approved another lease for the Yanchep Two Rocks Home Support Group in February, months after the group faced closure.

Founded by Stan Daley in the early 1990s, the not-for-profit group provides voluntary services such as free loans of mobility equipment to Yanchep and Two Rocks residents.

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According to the council report, the group’s last three-year lease of office and storage space in the Phil Renkin Recreation Centre expired last August and it became a weekly tenant.

‘There has been a delay in formalising a new lease agreement as the previous long-term YTRHSG office manager retired in May 2013 and advised the City at that time that the YTRHSG would be wound up on or prior to December 31, 2013,’ the report said.

‘Subsequently, however, new volunteers were recruited and a new office manager appointed.’

Councillors unanimously agreed to give the group a three-year lease, effective from March 1, with rent set at $500 a year plus GST and CPI increases.

Moira Young volunteered to take over as office manager for the 14-member group, which includes 10 retired women who run the office on weekdays from 9am to noon.

‘Mostly we just lend out mobility equipment, but we do lots of other stuff as well,’ she said.

‘We supply information to the community on all manner of things, we keep in touch with isolated residents to ensure they’re OK and we ferry local residents to the doctor, chemist and to the shops if necessary.

‘We even sew on buttons and read correspondence to elderly residents who can no longer do this.

‘Our catchment area for the loan of mobility equipment is Butler to Gingin, but we’re very flexible and try never to say no.’

For more information, call 9561 5161 on weekday mornings.