More community agency mergers

Further consolidation of Geelong human services agencies is on the cards as Bethany Community Support and Geelong Kindergarten Association (GKA) propose to merge.
The agencies announced their respective boards were unanimous and signed a Memorandum of Understanding as a sign of their commitment to the proposal.
Geelong Indy reported in March that the region’s two largest human services organisations, Karingal and St Laurence Community Services, agreed to merge.
Karingal had already merged with northern suburbs support agency CREATE in 2011 and with DoCare Geelong in 2015.
The same year Barwon Child, Youth and Family was created out of a merger between Barwon Youth, Glastonbury Community Services and Time for Youth.
“We are excited by the opportunities and believe that Bethany and GKA are a good fit to deliver quality early childhood education programs for children and support to families,” Bethany CEO Grant Boyd said.
“As one organisation we aim to increase the opportunity and capability in developing new and innovative services to meet the changing needs of children and families.”
The outcome of the merger would depend on the support of existing kindergarten committees and the Department of Education, he said.
GKA Managing Director Tina Martin said extensive consultation sessions with all GKA Kindergarten Committees and Department of Education would be held.
“An announcement was made to our staff yesterday and we are committed to engaging staff and stakeholders in the process.
“We believe the merger will be an excellent outcome for both organisations and the wider GKA and Bethany communities.”
She said a final decision on the merger would be made by August this year.