Southland Interagency Forum turns 21

Twenty-one years on and an agency set up to support community workers in Southland is celebrating its 21st birthday.

Invercargill City Council Community Development Manager Mary Napper said the Southland Interagency Forum (formally Southland Regional Support Group) would be holding a special meeting on September 9, to celebrate the 21st anniversary of becoming an incorporated society in September 1989.

Ms Napper said members of the Forum are tasked with providing a majority of social service and health support services in the region.

“The Southland Interagency Forum has a membership of over 50 Southland social service and community agencies.

“The co-ordination and partnerships achieved through this Forum are important for keeping on top of issues the Southland community faces.

“We have invited many of the original members of the Southland Regional Support Group to the September meeting to share how it was in the late 1980’s,” Ms Napper said.

The forum meets monthly in Invercargill and is an affiliated member organisation of the New Zealand Council of Social Services.

Ms Napper said it was originally set up in as the Southland Regional Support Group to provide backup support for community workers in Southland.

The group was incorporated as the Southland Interagency Forum on 13 September 1989.