Local Knowledge

ACON Mid-North Coast

ACON Outreach in Port Macquaie

This Outreach service opened in January 1998. After a number of years in Hayward Street, the Outreach Project now has its main base at 3/146-150 Gordon Street Port Macquarie. Outreach covers from Pacific Palms through Port Macquarie and Kempsey to Coffs Harbour and aims to assist at a local level in the provision of support and education to PLWHA and members of the GLBT community living on the Mid-North Coast.

The Outreach from our Port Macquarie office spans two Area Health Services - the Hunter New England Area Health service and the North Coast Area Health Service. The distance covered from Coffs Harbour in the North to Forster Tuncurry in the South and west to Gunnedah shows the depth of challenges facing this small team.

Though home for many GLBT community members, the area's community is widely dispersed and some socially isolated. Many people are attracted here for the lifestyle, leaving behind social networks. This creates a greater need for community attachment through outreach activities that are diverse and unique.