North Richmond Community Health
For decades, North Richmond Community Health has tackled some of Victoria’s toughest health challenges head-on, from operating Victoria’s first Medically Supervised Injecting Room to providing essential healthcare for more than 3000 residents of the largest public housing estate in Australia.
Projects delivered:
Communications leadership for Australia's highest profile community health organisation.
When every leader knows their story, the organisation has a stronger voice.
“From the start, Fireside’s ethical, respectful and caring approach set them apart from others in the communications landscape. This team has been transformative.”
– Simone Heald, CEO, North Richmond Community Health
The challenge
NRCH operates in one of Australia's most complex health environments. They run the country's only Medically Supervised Injecting Room, serve the nation's largest public housing estate, and work with some of society's most vulnerable populations – all while managing intense public and media scrutiny.
With new leadership in place, NRCH needed a communications partner who understood this complexity. Instead of someone advising from the sidelines, they needed someone who could work alongside their internal team, help build capability, and provide strategic thinking when the pressure was on. Manage the day-to-day media enquiries. Lead their crisis management. Drive government relations and deepen community engagement.
Most importantly, they wanted a partner who could help them tell their story more effectively – making their vital but sometimes misunderstood services clearer and more compelling to the audiences that mattered.
The goal was building a communications function that could handle whatever came next, while developing internal expertise along the way.
How we solved it
We embedded ourselves in NRCH's team, working hand-in-glove with their staff to help them communicate more clearly and confidently. And to be honest, we never really left. As a retainer client, this is an ongoing relationship, and a great example of how we like to work best. Right in there at the coalface.
From high-level PR strategy to hands-on execution, we've been in the trenches with the NRCH team for years – helping define their vision, sharpen their voice, and manage some seriously complex public discussions. We've run workshops with their CEO and executive team, built up their internal comms capability, and helped them get ahead of problems before they escalate.
The beauty of these long-term partnerships is that you never know what the deliverables will be. It changes day by day. Over the years, we've guided NRCH through a major organisational restructure, helped them handle government relations, and fielded some pretty intense media questions about their drug and alcohol programs. We've also wordsmithed and designed their entire 2024-27 Strategic Plan.
The result: A leadership team that can now step up as confident public advocates, and a communications operation that stays ahead of the game.
What we learned so far:
What we learned so far:
- Nothing beats being on-site when driving an organisation's communications – face-to-face conversations and real human support are where it’s at.
- Sustainable change requires taking leadership on a gradual, well-staged journey. Rush the process and you risk discarding what's already working in pursuit of what could be perfect.
