Providing services for people with a disability from Wollongong to Nowra

Welcome

Greenacres Disability Services has been providing services for people with a developmental disability in the Illawarra Region for more than 58 years and more recently in the Shoalhaven area. In 1953 a group of parents of children with a disability who had no appropriate services to access, banded together and started Greenacres Special School. The hard work and foresight of these parents was the catalyst for the development of the multifaceted organization that Greenacres Disability Services is today, which is totally committed to the development of skills and delivering “Best Practice” services to all our service users across vocational and non-vocational needs.

Greenacres supports over 950 people in Wollongong, Shellharbour, Nowra and their surrounds each week. Our 180 staff provide a wide range of programs from open employment to supported employment to transition from school to work through to living skills, community access, leisure, day respite and retirement.

The corner stone of Greenacres success is its total commitment to training for both service users and staff. Training is the key to Greenacres continuing success and ongoing evolution.

Greenacres Disability Services Administration Centre is located in North Wollongong as is Greenacres Industries, two supported employment facilities. Greenacres supports 11 Community Participation Centres including Greenacres Retirement Options (GRO); these are located throughout Wollongong, Shellharbour, Nowra and its surrounding suburbs.

Greenacres has a Transition to Work (TTW) program called Joblink which is located in the Wollongong CBD, Nowra and Ulladulla, an Open Employment service called Greenacres Employment Solutions which has three offices, one at Unanderra, one at Warilla and the other at Nowra with outreach services in Vincentia and Ulladulla and a VETAB accredited Training Service which is situated at the Administration Centre.

Greenacres is considered a specialist in the field of ‘change management’ by both Federal and State Governments, who have acknowledged the results of its planning processes; Greenacres Disability Services Management has a focus on two very different but parallel streams in order to achieve its goals. The first is identifying and meeting the individual needs of its service users and the second is the promotion, development and successful operation of all of its services.

Management's philosophy is to empower staff and in the process encourage them to think outside the disability circle and be creative and innovative in achieving both goals. This has resulted in an extraordinary diverse and exciting program development for people with a disability in the Illawarra.

If you have any questions or need advice with regard to a service or a program that might best suit your needs, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone, email or have a closer look at our website.