DUNJIBA CENTRE

This is Darryl Braund, the new Substance Misuse Worker in Oodnadatta. Prior to recently starting this position, he has been living here in a caravan with his wife for 7 months, slowly getting to know the community through volunteer work - mostly gardening, arts and aged care. He grew up in regional SA and have lived in every state of Australia, and tried a variety of jobs. He also has 40 years of live experience and recovery from AOD addictions, and subsequent training in Disability Work, Pastoral Care, Mental Health, and Art therapy.

In this position I am to continuing to build relationships, trust and hope for a holistically healthier future for the Dunjiba Community. This will be enhanced by working more closely with the DAS team, using more Arts for expression, and encouraging unity, and promoting inter-agency collaboration that creates activities and services for social and cultural health. We have had some positive steps made in this direction already: mentoring a client to get a job and planning a men’s camp - both with Bungala Aged Care, and during our recent NAIDOC celebrations UTHS sponsored a BBQ, arts, and movie activity at the Town Hall, which included four successful boomerang-making workshops and we also supported other community agency’s activities throughout the week, in collaboration with Dunjiba Council.