Community rallies to save No 10

The community has stepped in to save Southland's free youth health centre from closure after the Southland District Health Board refused to give it a cash lifeline last week.

Southland's Youth One Stop Shop Number 10 is waiting on official confirmation from community funding organisations about whether they will fund it to stay open for at least another year.

The free health centre for 10 to 25-year-olds has been lobbying for six months to secure sustainable funding from the DHB but was last week told that effort had been unsuccessful.

Yesterday, Community Trust of Southland chief executive John Prendergast said the trust, Invercargill City Council, the Southern Institute of Technology, the Primary Health Organisation and the Invercargill Licensing Trust were working on a funding package to allow the centre to stay open for at least another year.

"We are determined to see the service retained ..." Mr Prendergast said. "And we are still working long term to try to get some health funding into what's a health facility.

"We are pretty disappointed at the DHB's response last week. They did not have to provide any funding as such. We just wanted a genuine commitment for future funding in a partnership with us."

Funding amounts from each of the willing funders would be confirmed within the next week but would amount to about $200,000 to start with, he said.

Number 10 manager Jocelyn Johnstone said it was grateful to those funders who had stepped in but was aware amounts were still being confirmed.

Number 10 would be wanting assurances there would be future funding beyond a year or at least an agreement that substantial effort would be made to secure it, she said. "We are very grateful that the community trust and others have come forward to support us ... and we're very grateful for all of that," she said.

The funders would finalise amounts at a meeting next week. Members from Southland's Youth One Stop Trust would decide whether to stay open following the outcome of the funders' meeting, Mrs Johnstone said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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