Neighbourhood houses campaigning tokeep their doors open

BALLAN Neighbourhood House is among many urging people to support the Keep Our Doors Open campaign demanding increased funding for the sector.

Unless state funding is increased, many neighbourhood houses may be forced to wind back programs or close their doors permanently, sector leaders say.

Ballan Neighbourhood House manager Mary Francis said neighbourhood houses, or centres, are increasingly playing a vital role in providing important services in local communities, but existing funding levels are failing to recognise or match this.

“The reality of it is all of these neighbourhood houses are generally small to medium not-for-profit organisations and we are doing so much heavy lifting around front-line service provision particularly in regional and rural communities,” Ms Francis said.

Vital services being provided by the state’s 400-plus neighbourhood houses – including four in Ballarat and others across neighbouring shires – range from food relief programs to programs that combat social isolation, maintain physical wellbeing or help locals find work.

Neighbourhood houses are urging people to fill in one of the campaign’s Keep Our Doors Open postcards either physically or online and lobby state politicians to improve funding.

“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.

“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.”

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.

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.”

“There’s only a finite time that organisations can eat into their cash reserves,” Ms Francis said.

“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.”