It’s been a big year for Wungening in 2023!

We have continued to move from strength to strength through the year in our pursuit of realising the vision laid out for us by our founding members over 35 years ago. The clear demand they made to do things differently continues to inspire and drive what we do. It is their instruction that we lean on as we go about our business: services for our people, by our people.

There is no doubting that we do things differently at Wungening. From the way we were founded, to how we have grown, to who we are and the ways in which we work. It is a difference we should celebrate. It allows us to do the things that we do. Just some examples of this includes redesigning our Alcohol and Other Drug services to strengthen Aboriginal ways of working through a new suite of services, delivered under our new Ngalla Wirrin Wungening program. Or securing funding to extend the life of our Wungening Moort and Danjoo Moort programs. Or leading the Birdiya Maya project, the first research project of its kind to be led by an ACCO, that provided great insights into the issues contributing to homelessness in our community.

Recently, Wungening has made major improvements to our Alcohol and Drug Services to ensure it is at the core of all service delivery. Expansion continues throughout many of our new programs, research projects, and advocacy work on behalf of community.

Wungening have expanded their work into Homelessness services with opening of Boorloo Bidee Mia and four other facilities. New, family-led decision making pilot projects have commenced and the Wungening Moort program has extended into the Peel region. Our research and evaluation team expanded with involvement in 22 projects and the first ACCO research project on homelessness. We were also the winner of the Indigenous Governance Award, and Australasian Housing Institute Brighter Future Award.

Expansion of our counselling continues through new programs, new research projects, and advocacy work on behalf of community. Continuation of work for the community across key areas, resulting in over 10,000 people supported this year and support services available for years to come.