St Giles was founded in Launceston in 1937 as a response to the polio epidemic.
With close to 75 years of high-quality service provision, we are in awe of our beginnings and the foresight of those who founded St Giles at a public meeting in the Launceston Town Hall in the Spring of 1937.
We have flourished through two polio outbreaks, the de-institutionalisation of children's disability services, and are evolving to meet current disability reforms towards the provision of a National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Over the years St Giles has progressed from a residential home for children, to a community and family-centred approach to service delivery.
We no longer house children at Amy Road in Launceston.
Nor do we operate a school for children with disability.
We now provide services and support to children with disability and their families to ensure families stay together in their own homes.
St Giles was founded by the community for the community and this underpins all that we do.
Without strong community support from service clubs, businesses and individuals, the staff would not be able to deliver such an effective and diverse range of services.
With allied health campuses in Hobart and Launceston, adult group homes in the North, South and North-West and centre and in-home respite we are now a provider of multiple services for adults and children with disabilities.
Wherever there is a need within the disability community St Giles applies its ethos of 'whatever it takes' to make a positive difference.