Pronia has launched two new free services that are open to members of the community; weekly telephone peer-support groups and monthly family-violence webinars.
Pronia’s Community Engagement and Capacity Building Officer, Antonios Maglis said that the first two peer-support groups held in September had made good use of the telephone service and that the organisation was working with groups for October.
“The telephone service engages the most vulnerable cohorts of our community – people who do not speak English, elderly, carers, isolated and/or people who do not have access to computers and internet,” said Mr Maglis.
“These telephone group chats encourage peer-support, general wellbeing, communication and engagement during COVID time when we are unable to have our face-to-face groups.
“We now have commenced the October groups (the sessions are held on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11.30am). We are now registering clients for additional groups and the month of November”.
A maximum of 10 people can take part in each group.
He said that by the end of the month, Pronia would extend the service to Regional Victoria to include people in Geelong, Gippsland, Ballarat, Bendigo, Dromana and Shepparton.
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He said each peer group, would participate for one month at the end of which participants would be linked with each other or could be linked to a program or service that was relevant to their needs.
This month the organisation will launch a new webinar service for networks, clients and carers who have access to computers and who speak English.
The Respectful Relationships webinars will focus on issues relating to Family Violence and accessing help for those affected by it. They will take place at 3pm on the second Thursday of each month until March, next year.
♦ For more information on Pronia’s free services call 03 9388 9998 and leave your name and number.
READ MORE: Along with COVID-19, we are also experiencing a loneliness epidemic