News

New leadership role at MDAS

Thu, 17 Sep 2015 15:04:00

A new leadership position has been created at Mallee District Aboriginal Services in response to its continued growth and development.

It’s three years since Rudolph Kirby was appointed as chief executive officer at MDAS, but Mr Kirby said an additional senior manager was now required to meet the demands of a growing and more complex organisation.
“MDAS has developed incredibly quickly and with a fantastic board and executive team, we now have an organisation that is really taking initiative and delivering better outcomes for the community,” Mr Kirby said.
“There has been a huge amount of infrastructure development in upgrading the tired and outdated facilities we had in Mildura, Swan Hill and Kerang and that work is continuing,” he said.
“But more importantly we are providing additional and better services, managing more programs and providing the community development and leadership that is needed to start Closing the Gap for Aboriginal people,” he said.
Mr Kirby said MDAS had doubled its geographical service area and staff numbers over the three years, and client numbers were continuing to rise.
“Last year across our three communities MDAS provided 27,000 health consultations and services – the number of health checks our staff did increased 40 percent for the year,” he said.
“We are proud of those achievements, but it does mean the organisation must respond internally as well, and it cannot continue to be effectively managed by one CEO.”
Mr Kirby said an Executive Operations Officer position had been created to support the oversight of MDAS’s day-to-day operations.
“The manager of MDAS’s Menera Station property at Swan Hill, Rob Connelly, is taking up the role in an interim capacity and we are starting a national recruitment process to fill the role permanently,” Mr Kirby said.
“It’s an exciting phase and will set up our operational structure for the long-term, so we can continue delivering the services and leadership for driving change and development in our community,” Mr Kirby said.