www.nht.org.au

Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania, the network of
33 DHHS funded Houses, their staff and the over
1400 volunteers in Houses are ecstatic about the
election commitment made at Risdon Vale
Neighbourhood Centre!
The commitment to increase annual recurrent funding
by $45 000 to each of the 33 currently funded
Neighbourhood Houses is desperately needed.
NHT and its Members have been meeting with elected
Members to demonstrate how vital extra recurrent
funding is to their communities. This $45 000 will mean
each House has the capacity to increase their staffing to
the equivalent of 2 FTE. This increase will make a
massive difference to what each House achieves for
their community. It will also prevent unemployment in
communities because without this funding increase
Houses will have to put valuable staff off, as the existing
non-recurrent funding for Houses ends in June 2018.
Houses have been under great pressure from increasing
demand and our advocacy has at times been quite
desperate. Some of our Neighbourhood House staff have
been in tears with local Members when discussing the
pressures they feel and how much they need the
support of extra staff to be able to do the work with
their community.
The government knows that Houses deliver for their
community. Community gardens, pathways into training
and employment, referrals to counselling/crisis support,
community lunches, NILS loans…… the list of programs
and supports Houses provide are too many to mention.
But the results speak for themselves.
The community is working together. Recent data shows
there is 4.4 FTE in volunteering on average for each
House, with 492 contacts with community members per
House per week. As a result of interaction with their
local House: 83 % of people are more confident; 71% of
people feel safer in their community; 81 % have improved
their family relationship; 89% are more connected in
their community.
John Hooper, Executive Officer of Neighbourhood
Houses Tasmania commented “The government have
seen this evidence, but also as local Members they’ve
met with participants and volunteers at Houses and so
they know the difference we make in our communities.
The awesome power of Houses is that we create ways
for people to connect together – whether it’s over
lunch, in the community garden or learning together in a
course. We know that when individuals and families and
communities are better connected everyone is better
off. That is why the Liberal Part today are investing in
our community development model.
However the government didn’t stop there – they have
also committed to a $2 million infrastructure fund to
continue the upgrading of Neighbourhood House
buildings across the state. This is much needed as while
many Houses have been refurbished under funding
committed by the previous and current government,
there is still much infrastructure improvement needed
to make Houses fit for purpose.
Our Associate Member, Phoenix House on King Island,
has been promised (finally after years of advocacy)
recurrent funding. This great community development
organisation and the people of King Island have for years
struggled from one one-off grant to another, with
constant stress of having to close. They are very excited
about the certainty this funding would give their
community.
Kate Beer, President of Neighbourhood Houses
Tasmania Inc, and Manager of Devonport Community
House said “I can’t tell you what these commitments
mean to my community and to all the Houses across the
state. This moves us to a sustainable and sufficient core
funding. We congratulate the Liberal Party for listening
to the 34 communities across the state and making this
commitment if they form Government”.
Kate Beer, President of Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania Inc