Wellbeing with music and service

WELFARE is more than a job title for Heather Browning. Sure, it’s what she does, but it’s nurtured her own wellbeing.

Having worked for 18 years at Centrelink, she is an active volunteer welfare officer at Ballarat’s RSL.

“There’s only two or three welfare officers for our region,” she said. “This year…what they’ve agreed to do is allow me to go as far as Maryborough, Beaufort and down to Ballan.

“I’ve put myself out there and said I’m available for welfare consultations, and if necessary, I’ll go out to those branches.

“Anyone being in the defence forces, SES or CFA are entitled to be in the RSL and a lot of people don’t realise that. We are now a returned solders and services club,” she said.

It was her RSL colleague, support services officer, Lynne Redman that put forward the nomination to name Heather Browning as one of Zonta Ballarat’s Great Women of 2019, and not just for her work with returned service people.

Welfare was also key to her role as youth and community services officer with Christian group, Fusion where she also helped run Ballarat café, Matlida’s.

“The concept of that was to get street kids in and kids that had nowhere to go… We trained them in hospitality and quite a lot of kids got jobs out of that,” she said.

“It was to give them confidence and there was always a hug if people wanted it.”

Really, these roles through Ms Browning’s life are only a drop in the water.

“I keep busy, that’s the good thing about retirement,” she said. “I’ve been involved in community groups forever. My mum was one of those people that said, ‘if you see something that needs doing, do it,’ and it’s rubbed off. She died when I was 21.

“I was adopted. I have one sibling, an adopted sibling that I rarely see… because of that, I sort of saw myself more as an only child, so having been brought up like that, I like to surround myself with people.”

She’s certainly found groups along the way where she belongs.

Ms Browning was one of the drivers behind the original BBB radio, now Voice FM and has been a youth leader.

She used to call Bingo in Creswick, visits retirement homes, is involved with Ballarat’s Latin American community and attends North Baptist, her church. With her daughter, Alicia, she enjoys practicing the Spanish language.

But it doesn’t stop there. Music has always been within Ms Browning and provided her with community and more.

She attended the Conservatorium of Music in Melbourne to study, started Springvale Folk Club, played in folk bands with her former husband, has always sung, played the accordion and guitar, and taught lessons.

Ms Browning has been a music specialist at Pennyweight Park in Ballarat East and even played at the Children’s Hospital to provide music therapy to patients while her daughter spent some time there.

“I’ve always loved music. Music is my life,” Ms Browning said.

It helped pick her up when she fell in a heap, having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She found physical and emotional support in her former vocal group, Pandora and has found the current choir she belongs to, Sing Australia a wonderful, uplifting environment that keeps its members health and social.

Now, looking ahead in 2019, Ms Browning’s next project is to grow North Baptist’s craft group, hosted every second Monday. She wants the community to know that they can reach out to the church.

Anyone is welcome at the craft group where there are skills to be learned. People can get creative with the church’s materials, bring their own, or even just sit with a cuppa for a chat.

“I really love it there. We’re hoping to expand,” Ms Browning said. “There’s a lot of isolated people.

There’s a lot of units and we’d like to get those people out a bit, so we’re working on that.

“If churches are going to survive with the whole Christian vision, they really have to really focus on the community,” she said.