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ERFAS 5 Year milestone
The Emergency Relief and Food Access Service (ERFAS) celebrated a huge milestone this month, marking five years since operations began.
ERFAS is a vital initiative driven by the Financial Wellbeing Collective, designed to help Western Australians navigate periods of financial hardship. Whether it’s paying rent, paying utility bills or helping to put food on the table – ERFAS provides critical support to those in crisis, offering timely and compassionate assistance when it’s needed most.
Launched in 2020 as an urgent public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ERFAS was designed to be a simple, centralised access point to emergency and food relief services. The service has evolved into a long-term, sustainable model that now supports thousands of people every year. Since the service launch, more than 140,000 calls for help have been answered.
Central to ERFAS’s strength is its collaborative approach as it works under the umbrella of the Financial Wellbeing Collective – a partnership of 12 community service providers committed to addressing the drivers and impacts of financial hardship in Western Australia. Anglicare WA has a team of dedicated assessors working to deliver the ERFAS service, with partners Communicare, Mission Australia, The Spiers Centre and Uniting WA all working closely alongside to deliver emergency relief. These efforts are amplified by partnering with further external organisations such as Foodbank, Starting Over Support, St Patrick’s Community Support Centre, Vinnies WA, and The Salvation Army WA, which ensures clients receive seamless, statewide support.
Due to the big increase in the demand for ERFAS services, a referrals assessor from the Financial Wellbeing Collective has been established at the Foodbank Perth Airport branch to assist customers with their needs onsite, five days a week for just over a year.
Having a dedicated Financial Support Worker onsite to assist customers has been invaluable. The month of May saw the ERFAS phone line receive almost 3,000 calls from individuals seeking various types of assistance, with the primary reason for reaching out being cost of living pressures. Almost 800 referrals were issued for Foodbank, with requests for food relief climbing to the highest point to date this year.
Being a part of Financial Wellbeing Collective allows ERFAS to be a part of a wrap-around service that, for our customers, relieves the burden of food costs meaning individuals can redirect their limited financial resources toward other critical areas, such as healthcare, paying rent or paying utility bills.
We are so grateful for this collaboration which makes reaching out for help so much easier for those seeking emergency assistance. You can watch Anglicare’s video celebrating their 5 years and work with us here.