Warrigal Celebrates a Year of Achievement
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- Created on Monday, 05 November 2018 09:02
Warrigal celebrates a year of achievement within a tough environment for the Aged Care Sector
Warrigal held its Annual General Meeting last week at its newest flagship community at Shell Cove, celebrating what has been a year of significant achievement amidst tough times for the sector as a whole.
The Warrigal Board, and over 33 company members, reflected on the last year which has seen Warrigal grow over 43 per cent in 12 months to now have over 1,150 staff members across 13 communities within its network of services.
Warrigal CEO, Mark Sewell, said the year has been a special one with accolades including winning the national ACSA (Aged and Community Services Australia) award for Aged Care Provider of the Year, the NSW State Business Award for Excellence in Sustainability, the Illawarra Business Award for Excellence in Innovation and the Goulburn Business Awards for Excellence in Business and Employer of Choice.
“We acknowledge it’s been a hard year for the sector as a whole with nearly half of all providers in the red and the announcement of a Royal Commission, but Warrigal has been working hard at continuing to be the best we can be. We’ve opened our new Shell Cove community which has been a great success with our new customers and I’ve had the pleasure of hosting a range of delegates from all over the world coming to see it in real life and really being impressed with what they find.
“This growth for Warrigal has also included the acquisition of the Mount Terry home (formerly the Christadelphian Ridgeview site) where we are working hard to bring the new home into line with The Warrigal Way. It will soon have all our systems and processes operating fully there to ensure the lifestyles of our new customers there great.
“We have also commenced construction of our new $32M home and community centre at Queanbeyan with 124 suites and 8 serviced apartments, set to open in late 2019.
“This has been on top of $6.75M renovations at our oldest homes at Coniston, Warilla and Mount Warrigal with major upgrades to each place resulting in a beautiful living environment for our residents.
“Our My Club Connect launch has also been held this year – a virtual village club program that promotes social groups for over 60s in the community with similar interests. We really are walking the talk when it comes to our vision: that older will have great lives.
“Financially we have also provided added strength to Warrigal with a surplus of $5.5M this year and an increase in total assets to $238M. That’s a great result and ensures Warrigal, as a community-owned and operated not-for-profit organisation, can continue to invest this surplus back into providing services for older people in our local communities.
“It also helps us meet the needs of more and more older people in our area. Aged care is certainly one of the big economic drivers in local regional economies, and that’s something we are very proud to be part of”, Mark said.