Goodwin Aged Care Services has been supporting Canberra's older people with quality care and accommodation since 1954. But while the not-for-profit company is Canberra's longest standing aged care provider, Goodwin still has the passion for service and commitment to innovation that first inspired the founding members.
The company has its roots in a meeting called by the National Council of Women in 1954, where these forward-thinking ladies proposed establishing a housing settlement for Canberra's older people. Twelve community leaders formed a committee to pursue this ambitious idea, including the well-known political scholar Professor L.F. Crisp and the founding editor of the Canberra Times, A.T. Shakespeare. The group decided to call itself the Goodwin Centre Development Committee in honour of Lt Col John Goodwin, who was a renowned public servant and tireless advocate for the needs of the growing Canberra community.
After five long years of lobbying and fundraising, the first Goodwin cottages were opened in 1959 on a dedicated site in Wakefield Avenue, Ainslie. These provided modern, comfortable homes that were designed around the needs of older people, and were followed in 1961 by the opening of Goodwin House - Canberra's first dedicated aged care facility. More cottages were added in Sherbrooke Street in 1964 to complete Goodwin's Ainslie Village, creating a model of aged care that other companies have followed ever since.
In building Ainslie Village, Goodwin aimed to help older people live independently, but within a supportive, close-knit community and with services close at hand to meet their changing needs. This vision also drove the creation of a second Goodwin village at Farrer in 1977. This also offered a specialist aged care facility - George Sautelle House - along with units for independent seniors.
The quality care and diverse services on offer at both these villages helped build Goodwin's reputation as one of Canberra's most committed local service providers, as well as one of the aged care industry's leading innovators. By 1994, when Goodwin established its third village at Monash, the company had also become a leading provider of in-home care and support through its Goodwin Community outreach program.
This program takes Goodwin's signature care into people's homes with visiting nurses, helpers and companions, giving older people more choice and control over how they can live as they age. The program has expanded to all parts of the Canberra region, and now makes up a major component of Goodwin's work.
Since 2004, Goodwin has been carrying out a major program of building and development, to prepare all three of its villages for the needs of Canberra's future retirees. In particular, Goodwin has created new and different kinds of retirement accommodation to give older Canberrans more choice, flexibility and independence in the years ahead.
This has included the construction of several hundred independent living units based on the Apartments for Life philosophy of active, social ageing, which are spread across Goodwin's Ainslie, Farrer and Monash villages. The Ainslie and Monash villages also feature lifestyle centres boasting dining, beauty, fitness and entertainment facilities, all of which help draw residents into an active, vibrant community and banish social isolation.
None of these achievements would have been possible without the thousands of Canberrans who have served on Goodwin's staff over the past 50 years. It is these people who have helped build the company's reputation for quality care and dedicated service, and further deepened Goodwin's links to the Canberra community. The company has grown to become one of the national capital's largest non-government employers, and today employs people from many different professions and walks of life, including nurses, community workers, business administrators, project managers, chefs, carers and activity leaders.
As Goodwin heads into its sixth decade of service to the Canberra community, the company has expanded significantly from its early days on Wakefield Avenue. Goodwin is now the Canberra region's largest provider of accommodation, care and services for older people, and one of Australia's most awarded aged care companies. But throughout these years of growth and change, Goodwin has never lost sight of the vision which first inspired the founding committee: to care for the people in the Canberra community.
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