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“Without an increase in funding many of the 400 neighbourhood houses in Victoria may not be able to keep their doors open,” Ballarat East Neighbourhood House manager Sarah Greenwood-Smith said.<\/p>\n
“We have had a fantastic response to this campaign from the local community. We delivered 55 postcards to Michaela Settle MP in late October and we will have another big pile to give to her when we catch up in mid-December. People in our community want to help keep our doors open.”<\/p>\n
Data shows that each week more than 185,000 Victorians access community support and local services through the state’s neighbourhood houses and 94 per cent of them report improved physical wellbeing, while 96 per cent report improved emotional wellbeing as a result of participating.<\/p>\n
But the Keep Our Doors Open postcards state: “around half of all neighbourhood houses in Victoria are running at a loss. This cannot continue. We are asking to urgently restore funding for neighbourhood houses with a 25 per cent increase”.<\/p>\n
“There’s only a finite time that organisations can eat into their cash reserves,” Ms Francis said.<\/p>\n
“The current amount of funding is not sustainable for our business-as-usual costs. I would ask the community to jump up and take the call to action.”<\/p>\n