1979
The organisation was founded as "Echuca & District Association for Residential Care of the Mentally Retarded" to provide respite for families with children with intellectual disabilities.
Since 1979, Community Living & Respite Services (CLRS) has been at the heart of disability support in Echuca, Moama, and surrounding regions.
What began as a community-driven initiative to provide respite accommodation for families with children with intellectual disabilities has grown into a leading not-for-profit organisation offering a wide range of inclusive services.
What started as a simple but powerful mission: to support families in Echuca and surrounding areas by providing respite accommodation for children with intellectual disabilities has grown into a dynamic, community-based not-for-profit organisation offering a wide range of support services.
The organisation was founded as "Echuca & District Association for Residential Care of the Mentally Retarded" to provide respite for families with children with intellectual disabilities.
Several Community Residential Units (CRUs) were opened in Echuca and Rochester.
These were James Alexander House (Echuca), Campaspe House (Rochester), and Minor Street (Echuca).
The organisation was renamed to “Residential Association for Disabled Echuca Region Inc.” and registered as a Residential Service under Victoria's Intellectually Disabled Person's Act.
We adopted a new name “Accommodation for Disabled Echuca Inc.”.
The organisation introduced an Outreach Program and transitioned our community residential unit (CRU) management to the Department of Community Services Victoria.
We established a central office in Echuca.
Once again had a name change this time to our current name "Community Living & Respite Services Inc." and expanded respite services.
Became a registered provider for various support services including IHAS, Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Workcover, Veterans’ Home Care, and Home First Packages.
Added case management and child protection services to our service delivery. The organisation achieved children’s services accreditation and began annual fundraising events.
We also opened our first home in Moama, which was named Waratah House.
Launched programs for older carers, an autism support group for families and carers which was called the SPOCAAS group. We worked with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to rebuild Alexander House.
Opened new supported accommodation homes at Mitchell Place and Victoria Place in Echuca. Mitchell Place was built by the Department of Health and Human Services. Victoria Place was purchased by Community Living & Respite Services. We also launched our social media presence.
In this period, we also revised our mission and values.
We introduced innovative respite programs and received awards which recognised the value and hard work of our organisation.
We also completed the Minor Street project, which developed a home to be shared by 3 people and 2 single bed units on the one block. This became our first Opening Doors Project.
Recyclability, a social enterprise, was established to support people with disability to access innovative programs, support the environment and build skills.
The organisation won multiple awards for inclusion and environmental efforts.
The Murray River Tea Rooms, a second social enterprise, was opened in Moama.
The NDIS was introduced and we did a significant amount of work supporting our clients with the NDIS transition.
Eyre Street, our second Opening Doors Project, was opened. This project delivered a shared home for 4 people and 2 single bed units on the block. High levels of accessibility features were built into this project to support people with high physical support needs to be as independent as possible. This project received a grant of $300,000 from the Federal government.
We were thrilled to celebrate our 40th anniversary; a testament to the foresight of those individuals, families and groups that established our organisation.
We delivered our third Opening Doors Project, this time at Maiden Street. This project again built a shared home for 3 people, and two single bed units on the one block.
We responded to the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic.
During this period we completed a significant restructure of our workforce, implementing a team structure.
We transitioned from an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) to the Social, Community Homecare and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award.
We opened our fourth Opening Doors Project at Barry Street. This project delivered a different style of housing. We built four one-bedroom units. Two of the unts had a carers room attached to support the clients.
In 2023 we received a generous donation from a local couple. This donation enabled us to develop our fifth Opening Doors Project at Spoonbill Street. This project was also enabled by local organisations, businesses and trades who donated time, labour and materials to the project. The fifth Opening Doors Project built two two-bedroom units enabling some flexibility in the support model into the future.
We also celebrated 10 years of Johnno’s Run in 2023 and in 2024 we renamed the event to Run Echuca Moama.
We were delighted to be recognised as XREF ENGAGE’s best workplace thanks to the support of our wonderful staff.
In Victoria we transitioned our registration for our residential care for children's services, what we call Out of Home Care to the Social Services Regulator.
CLRS is continues to be a registered NDIS provider, as well as being regulated by the Victorian Social Services Regulator.
We continue to grow, guided by our vision to empower individuals and families to live the life they choose. Our history is a testament to the power of community, compassion, and innovation.
We are excited to continue to build on the legacy of our founders and the community that supported their desires to enable people with disability to live the life they choose, in a community enriched by all.