Annamaria Wood: farewell to a great community leader

There are many iconic community organisations in the Campbelltown and Macarthur area and Disability Macarthur is right up there with the best of them. One of the main reasons for that is Annamaria Wood, who has been at the helm of this wonderful community asset for the past 26 years.

Unfortunately, everything comes to an end, and that includes great leaders like Ms Wood, who will walk out of Disability Macarthur’s Minto premises for the last time on Thursday, March 3.

She will be a big loss, as the current chairman of the board Paul Blyton admits.

“Annamaria is a great communicator and has helped promote our organisation to many parts of the Macarthur region and beyond,’’ said the former deputy mayor of Campbelltown, pictured above with Ms Wood in her office at the Minto premises.

“She will be greatly missed not just by our organisation and the community, but by the many families she has touched and has made such a difference in their lives.

“We are very sad to see Annamaria leave,” Mr Blyton said.

It would be fair to say the directors who hired Ms Wood all those years ago got it right.

The new chief executive brought a deep understanding of the needs of people with disabilities as well as the passion to help them and their families lead better lives.

That’s because before the Disability Macarthur job came up, Ms Wood, who trained as a disability nurse, had spent 20 years doing just that type of work.

The Ingleburn resident worked in a few different organisations doing community nursing work for those two decades.

Her last job before joining Disability Macarthur was as a project officer for the NSW department of community services.

Forty-six years later, Ms Wood tells the South West Voice in Macarthur that her work with people with disabilities has always felt like a calling.

“It all started when I came across a couple of young adults with Downs Syndrome,’’ she says.

“Then my nursing career helped me understand the needs of individuals and families.

“I loved community nursing because it involved families.’’

Ms Wood says that when arrived at Disability Macarthur there were fewer than 10 staff and the annual funding budget was between $700,000 and $800,000.

She helped grow the organisation so much, just before NDIS arrived on the scene it had an annual budget of between $4 million and $4.5 million – and a wide range of services for local people with disabilities and their families.

Now it’s down to somewhere between $2.5 and $3 million because individuals and families can now apply themselves for NDIS funding.

“NDIS has reduced the type of services we can offer now,’’ Ms Wood explains.

“I will miss a lot of things, the staff, the families, hearing their stories, their children in the program,’’ she says.

“But after 26 years here, and 46 years in the industry, it’s time to move on.

“I will have a bit of a break and spend time with the family, the children and grandchildren.’’