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A community champion for the underdog

Rachel McFadden
Vera Boston, former CEO of North Yarra Community Health Centre

She was not the first choice when she interviewed for the position of chief executive officer of North Yarra Community Health Centre (NYCH) back in 1996. Conventional wisdom, apparently, went against her.

But then again, nothing about Vera is conventional. With a voice like an organ pipe, a deep belly laugh and blue (sometimes purple) hair she was the perfect fit be the pioneering leader and CEO of the local community health centre.

No job was too hard, too complex, too simple, or too dirty.

If there was a wonky desk, Vera would be down on all fours, screwdriver in mouth:

“Well, you just get the job done, don’t you?”

This was the culture she built and led at the under-resourced community health centre.

It had bright yellow walls with posters covering the chipped paint. The floors creaked. Sometimes the doors would jar because the old building had moved during the night and the alarm. That bloody duress alarm.

At least twice a week, it would be set off for no apparent reason and ring for hours.

One may think that the ringing was inside your head because the staff at NYCH were unfazed.

Do the best you can with what you’ve got and get on with the job.

That was Vera’s mantra. And a necessary one in community health.

Community health centres target the most marginalized in society and provide health services to those that need it most.

“Health” incorporates all aspects: physical, mental, financial and community.

“It’s about looking at the whole person. People have diverse needs,” Vera says.

Listen here to Vera talk about the underlying principles of community health:


The staff at NYCH saw clients at their best and their worst and, unfortunately, it was not uncommon for clients to overdose at the centre.

“You’ve got to have empathy but you can’t be overly romantic. You can’t have too higher expectations, often the health interventions only bare fruit after a long period of time. But there are success stories,” Vera says.

The staff at NYCH included: doctors, counsellors, nurses, podiatrists, dieticians and social workers.

Together they ran an extensive list of community programs from the prize winning Billabong BBQ (weekly barbeque providing nutritional food), the gym program (providing access to gyms and showers for homeless people), café meals (allowing people who could not otherwise afford it to have healthy meals at local cafes) to domestic violence prevention and support groups- to name a few.

During Vera’s time at NYCH, the health centre won local, state and federal awards for its innovative programs and service to the community.  But Vera says her proudest moment was the establishment of Innerspace, Victoria’s first multi-service drug facility.

Listen here for an audio tour of Innerspace:

After 18 years of service, Vera effectively orchestrated herself out of a job.

The NYCH board suspected that it was the only way she could untangle herself from the organisation.

After years of struggling to find adequate funding in an increasingly uncertain future, Vera and the NYCH board searched around for opportunities to amalgamate.

“We have always been a small yet integral voice within the community, but there were times where it was a day to day struggle to survive.”

Community health centres get their funding from a hybrid of sources; local, state and federal governments, foundations and non-government organisations.

The tender and accreditation process is lengthy and time-consuming and resources, that could otherwise be put towards working directly with the community, are often put towards meeting various requirements.

Planning for the future is particularly challenging with changes in government and the incoming government’s desire to add their own flavour to policy outcomes and objectives.The health sector is particularly vulnerable to this.

So, after years of searching and a length consultations NYCH found like -minded organisations to build a secure future with.

“It is so we can sure up the future of community health and have a louder and stronger voice to advocate on behalf of our communities.”

In August 2014, North Yarra Community Health, Doutta Galla Community Health and Western Region Community Health amalgamated to become Co-health.

And Vera Boston hung up her reins as CEO.

Her parting gift, to leave the organisation in the best health for the future.

There were few dry eyes at Vera’s farewell party at Fitzroy Town hall’s reading room- an apt choice as Vera started her career as a librarian.

Staff paid homage to Vera’s legacy, to her no-nonsense approach, sense of humour and integrity.

Listen here to Vera’s take on social justice:


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