The Salvos have surveyed more than 15,000 people from all demographics across every state and territory for their first National Social Justice Stocktake Report and it may not surprise residents of the Goulburn Valley that alcohol and drug misuse, mental health and housing affordability were the top three concerns in Nicholls.
“This information has come out at a state or national level, but it’s the first time people have had this information for their own community,” Salvos spokeswoman Major Wendy Hateley said.
“This gives us some hard data for local areas. We think it’s a great resource.”
The survey was conducted in July and August last year when Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley were dealing with COVID-19 lockdowns.
“It’s pretty significant that nationally 53.9 per cent saw mental health as a major concern given the lockdowns we’ve had,” Major Hateley said.
“There were a number of places under lockdown at that time and some of the first things that happened for people was that they lost their income and so it’s not so surprising that mental health and housing affordability were major concerns.”
Nationally, the top five concerns were mental health, housing affordability, alcohol and drug misuse, family violence and homelessness.
In Nicholls, the top five was the same, albeit with alcohol and drug misuse being the leading concern, followed by mental health, housing affordability, family violence and homelessness.
Major Hateley said the Salvos hoped the survey would provide Goulburn Valley residents with relevant information about the major concerns in their community.
“So often people (candidates) want to campaign on what they think is important in a community and this tells us what it is that the people think is important,” she said.
“I think the key thing here is this information, we’re putting it out to communities and so communities right around Australia can say to politicians of whatever party, or independents, communities can say to them, ‘You are our representatives, these are our concerns, what are you going to do about it?’”
