Neighbourhood house participants are being put front and centre through a new survey to help state government better understand their needs.
By undertaking a state-wide survey of people who access their services, Neighbourhood Houses Victoria hope to gain valuable insights that will help inform program improvements.
Neighbourhood houses offer programs and activities such as food banks, community gardens, arts and craft classes, health and wellbeing activities, government services, maternal child health and occasional childcare.
Along with surveys, tech upgrades will also be funded so Neighbourhood Houses Victoria can conduct the surveys more often and improve data collection.
This will help programs across the state to tailor their services and offerings to better meet community needs.
Carers and Volunteers Minister Ros Spence said funding neighbourhood houses was important to help keep community spirit high.
“Neighbourhood houses provide a safe place for people to upskill, get creative, give back to their community, and most importantly, create meaningful connections with others,” she said.
“We know the true value of the service neighborhood houses provide is immeasurable – it’s impossible to quantify the way they can pull someone out of the depths of loneliness and into a welcoming and nurturing environment.”
On Wednesday June 5, Minister Spence was joined by Tarneit MP Dylan Wight at the Grange Community Centre (GCC) in Hoppers Crossing to launch the statewide survey.
Established in 1993, GCC is a community hub that supports more than 1200 people each week.
In 2023 alone, the centre delivered 138 social connection and recreational sessions; 174 health/wellbeing sessions; approx 440kg of food relief/pantry items and approx $6,000 worth of food and grocery vouchers among many other services.
“Grange Community Centre does fantastic work and we’re making sure they can continue supporting the community,” Mr Wight said.
More than $43 million in funding is provided every year to support more than 400 neighbourhood houses across the state.
The 24-25 state budget provided $2.5 million for neighbourhood houses to deliver food relief activities, with more information about these grants to be available in coming months.
