By Feda Adra, ComLink CEO.

Once upon a time, there was a group of community members that lived in Caloundra , that saw a need for older people once they lost their license to get around. And they wanted to start a service that helped these people. Volunteers still very much ran the office, they still made a lot of decisions about where we should provide services and to who. They provided an incredible service to the community.

When I joined the organisation in 2004, my focus was how do we professionalise this? How do we start to think about where we need to be?

I remember going into a board meeting and saying to what back then was the committee, if we do not look at how we develop ourselves, we won’t exist anymore. Because someone else will be doing that. And I really believe in the product that we are selling. But over time, our product has changed, our customer has changed and why we do what we do, has evolved.

The Product

Originally, we were simply a Community Transport provider. Today, Transport for us is the service that underpins all the other services we provide. We now want to be able to help people from when they first need our support. And that could simply be that they’ve lost their license, or going into people’s homes helping with personal care, and providing allied health services, or connecting them with services that they require. Our services have grown and developed significantly in the Home Care space. The other area I believe we have engaged well in is keeping people socially connected. The way we’re doing that, is how I believe it should have been done all along. By treating people like human beings. By offering genuine connection, by finding out what they want and doing our best to provide it.

The Customer

Our customers of the past were our frail, older community members. But why can’t we help the broader community and have a bigger impact on the health and wellness of our wider community? This is what excites me. But to do this will require a collaborative effort. It will require all of us having access to the information that we need, and access to the services we need.

It has also become important to me to recognise that my customer base also extends to my staff. I need to support and serve my employees in whatever ways I can so that they can better serve our clients.

The ‘Why’

Initially, ‘why’ we did what we did was we just wanted to provide services that people needed. That’s how it started. And as things are developing now, our ‘why’ evolved into something much deeper. Wanting people to age well. I want people to live in the community well. I want people to have access to services as they require them. I want them to have access to information. One thing that I’ve noticed is people will come along on this journey if they know why we’re going. And our ‘why’ most definitely comes from a good place. And that’s genuinely wanting to make a difference. Not because I want the organisation to be the biggest or the best, but because I want it to be the first organisation that actually says, we can do more than what’s expected of us.

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