Doorways - A New Model for the Delivery of Emergency Relief Services

The Salvation Army (Australia Eastern Territory) announces it is changing the way it delivers emergency relief services from April 1, 2015.

The new delivery method - Doorways - is an innovative, best-practice model to run and manage Salvation Army services across 48 regions in New South Wales, Queensland and ACT providing emergency relief (ER) and financial counselling.

This new approach aims to end long term, generational welfare dependency, which affects up to 20% of clients. It also aims to restore those in situational poverty back to previous level of functioning.

Major Bruce Harmer, spokesperson for The Salvation Army, says Doorways is about focusing on the needs of clients who are experiencing both situational and generational poverty.

“We want to help people deal with their needs in an efficient and effective manner. We want a client to develop the confidence and receive the support to break free from the cycles they are trapped in. Doorways will focus on the long-term unemployed and those with complex needs, delivering a higher standard of care through dedicated and trained case managers working to a standardised triage model.

“The other advantage for clients is they will now have access to help more regularly during standard operating hours. Previously, operating hours was dependent on individual center hours which varied according to the volunteers and employees who staff that centre. Clients will now also be serviced by staff with appropriate case management qualifications,” said Major Harmer.

Highly successful trials of the Doorways model have been run across metropolitan areas in Sydney and the Illawarra region.

“Successful trials of this new Doorways model were run between 2013-2014 across four sites including Liverpool, Fairfield, Illawarra and Hurstville. Both clients and employees overwhelmingly reported positive feedback of the new model,” said Major Harmer.