History

BayCISS (Bayside Community Information and Support Service) was established in 2006 with the amalgamations of three former Community Advice Bureaus ( Hampton East, Sandringham and Brighton) and the Castlefield Community Centre.   BayCISS has been providing services to the local area since 1973 when the Hampton East and Brighton Centres were opened. The Sandringham Centre opened in 1974. The Brighton Centre closed in September, 2014 due to changed community needs.

BayCISS provides information and support including counselling, legal advice and tax help to all community members in the Bayside and Kingston local government areas. We also provide advocacy, referral and emergency relief to low income and vulnerable clients in these areas. The Committee of Management has worked over recent months with volunteers and stakeholders to develop a Strategic Plan that will guide operations over the next three years in a challenging environment. During this period, we identified current issues facing the organisation and a preferred future situation.

The BayCISS Strategic direction for the next three years is to become a more connected agency, collaborating and partnering with other agencies working with similar clients, so that the organisation can provide service at a deeper, more responsive and inspiring level- working with clients to assist them to be more self reliant, stronger and more connected to the broader community. Providing these more comprehensive services means that BayCISS will seek to call on the expertise of other agencies to help develop and deliver programs that help to achieve successful outcomes for clients.

BayCISS is now the only government funded provider of emergency relief based in Bayside and the northern section of Kingston and looks to how it can continue to provide quality and effective services into the future.