A campaign was launched last week to help highlight South West based community services.
The Certified Local Accreditation Program was created to help consumers think locally when looking for services including NDIS and disability employment services.
Bunbury Geographe Chamber of Commerce chief executive Mark Seaward said the project was a terrific initiative for local service providers and businesses.
“We put the organisation through an audit process to ensure that their base of operations is in the South West and as a business they also support local purchasing,” he said.
“With the chamber issuing the accreditation it lends credibility to the program.”
Certified Local will allow home grown providers to brand themselves as local and to differentiate themselves from providers from outside of the region.
Bunbury MLA Don Punch said the community services sector made an enormous contribution to the local economy and to the development of capacity within the community.
“Community services are significant local employers and service providers in Bunbury in the same way as commercial businesses are and I think it is important they too enjoy the benefits of a Buy Local campaign,” he said.
“Certified Local recognises community service organisations that have their origins in Bunbury and who continue to provide localised services tailored to the needs of our community.
“This initiative is all about giving people the information they need to make right choice for them when buying services and at the same time supporting our local community services.”
Forrest Personnel working group member Anna Bagshaw said many local people preferred to access the services of local providers but it had been difficult to work out who they were with many new organisations establishing themselves in Bunbury.
“We regularly hear from our clients how much they appreciate being able to access a local service that truly understands and responds to the needs of the local community but that it is hard to know who those services providers are,” she said.
“Certified Local is a way for the Community Services sector to work together to make sure that local services are always easily identified and accessed by local people.”
Enable WA chief executive Robert Holmes said the organisation saw Certified Local as an important initiative and another way people could support their local community.
“We strongly believe that we all need to support local businesses providing quality services and products so that our community can prosper and grow,” he said.
