Interview Transcript from Illawarra Stories Wollongong City Libraries Oral History Project – Ash Castro
Interviewer Name: Samantha Figueroa
Interview Date: 23 May 2023
Samantha Figueroa: The following interview is conducted with Ash Castro as part of Wollongong City Council Libraries Illawarra Stories Oral History Project. It took place at Warrawong Community Centre on the 27th of March 2023. My name is Samantha Figueroa. So how you going, Ash?
Ash Castro: Good.
Samantha Figueroa: So today we’re here talking with Ash about the Warrawong Community Centre. So how long have you been here at the centre?
Ash Castro: As of today, it’s around ten months, so June ’22 I, I started here.
Samantha Figueroa: Oh, okay, awesome. Alright. Um, so what does the Warrawong Community Centre mean to you?
Ash Castro: Um, so the Community Centre, to me, I guess in the short, um, but intense time that I’ve been here, um, means, um, means safety and a secure base for a vulnerable community. Um, a community that’s got a pretty rich history of resilience and strength, um, and hope. So there’s a lot, a lot of heart and soul in this Community Centre, and I felt it the moment I walked in and every day that I walk in.
Samantha Figueroa: Yep, that’s awesome. Um, so what are your favourite memories here at the Warrawong Community Centre?
Ash Castro: Um, so I think, I think every day I could probably pull out a memory. I guess the ones that stand out for me the most will certainly be, um, you know, my time with Maxine Graham, who was the previous manager, um, prior to me who had been here for a good 20-odd years.
Samantha Figueroa: Yes.
Ash Castro: So just getting some time with her and getting a sense of, you know, the community that she established and kind of built within the walls of this centre. Um, you know, it’s one thing to probably step into a role like this and into a world like that, but it’s, um, the bonus was spending time with her, you know.
Samantha Figueroa: Yeah.
Ash Castro: And her being able to sort of introduce me into, into that space, which has been awesome. Um, but certainly, you know, we’ve had some amazing festivals and events. We’ve had amazing outcomes here. We’ve had some amazing just days of, of community lunch and, and just seeing community atmosphere kind of happen every day is, is a pretty good memory. Um, my most recent has been, um, you know, some young kids in the area who popped in and asked about what they could maybe do to help out in the centre. Um, and then just earlier this morning have popped in with a pile of egg cartons that we use for our food hub program. So we get delivered in about four-hundred kilos of rescued food weekly and some of that’s eggs in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, cartons, some destroyed, some that we can’t use. So egg cartons really help us to, um, make sure that we give out eggs to families.
Samantha Figueroa: Oh, wow.
Ash Castro in clean cartons. So yeah, she rocked up with a whole, you know, it’s a good thirty or forty sort of cartons of eggs which is, um, helpful, yeah.
Samantha Figueroa: Wow, that’s awesome.
Ash Castro: And that kind of stuff just happens on a daily and it’s, you know, it’s just seeing who walks, what walks through the door is, um, yeah, pretty heartwarming.
Samantha Figueroa: Yeah, that’s amazing. How do you see the future of the Warrawong Community Centre?
Ash Castro: So I see that there’s still some way to go. So I guess there’s a lot of change that, that’s about to come. I think the Warrawong Community Centre has a place in this community for life. Um, I guess it’s a matter of how we, how we adjust, um, to the changes that are coming. You know, I think about the community centre having a relationship with people in the community much like a family. Um, and if there’s to be a change in the family, it’s going to take some time to adjust. So I do hope that moving forward the, the changes, um, and the community find a place and, and a happy medium together and I guess I hope that my role is to help facilitate that and, and could act as a bit of a glue or a bit of a bridge between all that.
Samantha Figueroa: Yeah. So what about the services, um, that are currently running here at the centre? What’s gonna happen with those when, in the meantime while the new…
Ash Castro: Yeah, so in the meantime we’re, we’re working really hard to try and find, um, a way to maintain that. Um, so we run, um, a community lunch and, and four other food initiatives here every week. So a, a kitchen that kind of, um, meets code is not easy to come by when you have, when you’re a non-profit organisation, so we’re working really hard to try and, try and find a space that’s primarily accessible but also meets code and allows us to maintain our essential services. Um, that’s proven to be extremely challenging, um, and it’s something that we are still working towards finding. I guess the commitment that, um, that I have to the community, and also the volunteers have to the community, is that our services won’t change. So no matter what it takes, we are going to do our best to maintain our essential services.
Samantha Figueroa: That’s wonderful.
Ash Castro: Yeah.
Samantha Figueroa: It’s really great.
Ash Castro: Yeah.
Samantha Figueroa: Yeah. So yeah, there’s, I mean, there is lots of good coming, but yeah, like you said, it’ll take time to adjust to
Ash Castro: Yeah.
Samantha Figueroa: new and different. And this centre has certainly been, um, like a second home to a lot of people in the area.
Ash Castro: Yeah, yeah.
Samantha Figueroa: Yeah.
Ash Castro: We are, we are doing a questionnaire at the moment, and we’ve called it the Voice of Warrawong, so VOW for short or for um, yeah, abbreviated. And we’ve been asking people in the community just for their, just their views and their voice around what Warrawong means to them and what’s working, what’s not working, and some, and some feedback that, this is to help me kind of, um, align what I need to be doing over the next five or so years. Um, but I guess a lot of the feedback that we’re getting is the community centre is a second home for some people and sometimes it’s their first home. So it’s the address that they put on um, that they put down for mail to be sent to, ah, it’s where they come for a shower, it’s where they come to feel safe or it’s where they’re coming in transition time. So in times of um, uncertainty or, or transience, the centre is home for a period of time. Um, some of the feedback that we’ve had is that the centre also looks like home because it kind of matches there, you know, the environment that, that we’re surrounded by. So it’d be really interesting to see how the new centre kind of fits into that mould. And I guess that’s where we need to be careful around, you know, that, that change happening and how we make sure people are still feeling really welcomed
Samantha Figueroa: Welcome.
Ash Castro: And part of it.
Samantha Figueroa: Yeah.
Ash Castro: And all that. So
Samantha Figueroa: Yep.
Ash Castro: Yeah.
Samantha Figueroa: I mean the, you know, the space, ah, will be, yeah, will be different, so, um, but, yeah, I think it’s the people in the place that are going to make it so [laughs].
Ash Castro: Absolutely, yeah. Absolutely.
Samantha Figueroa: So long as you continue to have these awesome volunteers and you guys.
Ash Castro: Yeah.
Samantha Figueroa: doing all this stuff with this community.
Ash Castro: Yeah. I feel like, yeah, the community. Yeah.
Samantha Figueroa: hopefully will still find their home.
Ash Castro: Yeah.
Samantha Figueroa: yeah, at the new centre.
Ash Castro: And you know we had; we had a huge response from I guess our other community. So just on, on the memories I’ve, um, I went a bit blank but, you know, Christmas last year, um, you know, we pulled together a drive to create 150 Christmas hampers to give to the fam-, to families in the community, people in the community while we were closed for two weeks. Um, there was a huge pooling from the community, um, from, from the business, from businesses in the area, um, to just other people in the community, you know, with donations of food or, or with, um, finances. Um, you know, we had some people from, like, local government officers popping in to help. Um, and then, yeah, a whole army came in to pack those hampers and we ended up doing 164, um.
Samantha Figueroa: Wow.
Ash Castro: hampers that we gave out before the end of the year, so.
Samantha Figueroa: Wow, that’s amazing.
Ash Castro: Yeah. So I think that sort of stuff, you’re right, the people are here and, and that can sort of, um, you know, kind of help facilitate change and what that looks like. So yeah, and the rest, the rest is time. Yeah. In any change, I guess it’s time. But, um,
Samantha Figueroa: Yeah.
Ash Castro: I’ve certainly had an, an amazing, um, introduction to the centre and to the community, and it’s people like Maxine and the members of the community that I’ve gotten to know over these last ten months who’ve kind of schooled me on, you know, this is what we need, and this is what we’re looking for in a space like this. So, um,
Samantha Figueroa: Yeah.
Ash Castro: I hope I don’t let anyone down and I’m really keen to yeah, sort of be that good moving forward.
Samantha Figueroa: Thank you very much for your time today, Ash.
Ash Castro: Pleasure.
Samantha Figueroa: Is there anything else that you’d like to add?
Ash Castro: Um, no, I guess, you know, we’ll just see what the future holds. Like, you know, I guess uncertainty is, is, is hopeful as much as it is scary, um, but like this community’s been through a lot. So I guess I, I’m hoping that the, the future is looking, um, you know, like less of a challenge and less barriers and more, you know, um, more outcomes and more kind of, um, shifts towards a, a better wellbeing.
Samantha Figueroa: Yep, excellent. Okay, thanks for your time, Ash.
Ash Castro: You’re welcome, pleasure.