PEOPLE with disabilities will get their own “farm park” thanks to a historic agreement struck yesterday between the Kalparrin agency and Charles Sturt University.
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A small part of the Thurgoona campus near Trinity College will become Kalparrin’s new home and it will be able to transfer its present headquarters in Kiewa Street to the new site.
Chief executive Brian Hillas said it would mean a new building but the project would offer more than that, with a hydrotherapy pool, bird aviary and amphitheatre also planned.
“We also want it to be shared with the general community,” he said.
Kalparrin has 35 to 40 adult clients under NSW state-funded programs and was recently registered to serve Victorians as well as NSW clients and is aiming for expanded numbers.
Depending on various approvals, Mr Hillas hopes Kalparrin will be able to start the project within 12 months and move in perhaps six months after that.
Details of the land tenure have yet to be determined.
CSU hailed the deal as “a community partnership that marries social services and the environment”.
Campus head Allan Curtis said that CSU students, particularly those studying occupational therapy and physiotherapy, will work with and gain valuable insight into the needs and lives of people living with a disability.
“Kalparrin was attracted to the sustainability focus of CSU’s Thurgoona site,” Professor Curtis said.
“We are keen to encourage involvement by community groups on the campus.”
Kalparrin provides opportunities for people with a disability to participate in recreation, leisure, skill development and respite activities.
Its headquarters has been in Kiewa Street since 1995 but has outgrown the agency’s needs.
Kalparrin operates a respite service from a home in East Albury bought and modified by the NSW Department of Ageing Disability and Home Care.
