Thursday, 31 July 2025

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:03): I had the great pleasure of attending a local drop-in centre, Cornerstone, in Dandenong recently. As many people would know, the area of the south-east is filled with issues, with poverty, people struggling and people becoming homeless. I met with representatives from the Greater Dandenong anti-poverty steering committee: Naomi Paterson, CEO of Cornerstone Contact; Silva Nazaretian, director of Enliven; and Elena Sheldon, manager of Springvale Learning and Activities Centre Inc. These ladies operate throughout the south-east, and they do it on a shoestring budget for their organisations. In the Greater Dandenong area we have one in five people and one in four children who live in poverty, and that extends throughout different parts of the south-east as well. Cornerstone offers a warm and welcoming environment. In fact they even had the local ukulele singalong with participants learning ukulele. They were able to perform for me, and that was really wonderful. I am always impressed with the work that is done on so little money to provide weekly open house sessions, in the case of Cornerstone, where snacks and regular two-course meals are provided for up to 80 people. The anti-poverty steering committee was established as an integrated approach to working collaboratively with organisations such as South East Community Links, Salvation Army and Red Cross to address identified gaps in current service delivery, aiming to create a community where poverty is no longer a barrier to opportunity.