Dozens of people have turned out to show their support for Wagga's Sunflower House.
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The facility, on The Esplanade, is a drop-in style centre for people with mental illness and on Friday its new locally run management was formally launched.
President of Sunflower House Inc, Mark Horton, told Friday's gathering that "while we are Sunflower House, this is really 'Sunflower Home' to many people living with mental illness".
After receiving $275,000 in federal funding for the current financial year, Mr Horton said long-term support and arrangements were needed.
"Going forward now, my job is to make sure I can get into the governments and secure funding and work on building a model that can demonstrate to the government the cost savings they will have by having a place like Sunflower House because when people come here we can keep an eye on them and make sure they're safe, yet they live their own life here," he said.
"The future is very good. The challenge is very great, I'm not going to deny that. But we're grateful for the funding we've got and I'm confident we can put the model together.
"I'll be heading over to Canberra in the next six or eights weeks to start my case of making sure we get funding, but not just for the next 12 months.
"We've got to move on from this 12-month cycle. Mental illness does not just happen every 12 months. Just like we're open for days a week. We'd like to move that to five and ultimately seven days a week. Mental health doesn't have a holiday on Saturday and Sunday."