The 2015 Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania Conference is being held at Strahan Village, Strahan, on
Tasmania’s West Coast, Wednesday 23 September to Friday 25 September hosted by our Zeehan and
Rosebery Neighbourhood Houses. Over 150 delegates including volunteers, committee members and
staff – representing 31 Neighbourhood Houses and their communities across Tasmania will be making
the journey west this year.

Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania is the peak body for the state’s 35 Neighbourhood Houses, which are
situated in disadvantaged and/or remote communities throughout the state from Geeveston to George
Town, Zeehan to St Helens, and on King Island. The focus for this year’s conference is encouraging and
supporting community driven social enterprise. For all the communities involved this presents a great
opportunity to engage with other communities and experts around how we encourage economic
development at the most local level. In convening the conference in Strahan, Neighbourhood Houses
Tasmania and its Members have wanted to support by our presence an economic boost through the
conference and a vote of confidence in the West Coast communities and our Houses in Rosebery and
Zeehan. We’ve appreciated the support of a wide range of sponsors to make this affordable for us
including MMG Rosebery Mine, Aurora, West Coast Council, Huon Aquaculture, TAFETas and Avidity.

Matt Pfahlert will be sharing stories of his involvement in Social Enterprise from a community
organisation perspective, particularly around the role Houses can play in supporting and creating local
employment and enterprise opportunities. Matt has received widespread recognition as a social
entrepreneur, educator, and community leader; he is a recipient of the Churchill Medal, studying rural
based social enterprise in the US, Canada, and the UK.

Adam Mostgyl, 2015 Young Tasmanian of the Year and local Queenstown resident, will share his
experiences of using social media to effectively drive social change. Michael Higgins and Chris
Devenish will be relating their learnings from a study tour to the USA looking at community development
organisations over there. There are a number of workshops over the three days covering leadership,
crowdfunding, literacy, alcohol and other drugs support through Neighbourhood Houses, a panel
discussion on moving from food relief to sustainable access to affordable, healthy food, supporting
people with mental illness, and outcomes reporting.

Event details:

What: 2015 Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania conference
When: Wednesday 23 September 1pm to Friday 25 September 12:30pm
Where: Strahan Village, Strahan,

Download Program …
NHT_Confernece_Program_-_FINAL_20150918.pdf
John Hooper