What are Neighbourhood Houses or Community Centres?

Neighbourhood and Community Houses and Centres bring localpeople together to look at what opportunities or needs exist intheir community, and then more importantly, work together ondoing something about it.There are 35 Neighbourhood and Community Houses locatedaround Tasmania.

This means that within Neighbourhood Houses on any given dayyou might see:• a young parents’ playgroup;• a community meeting to address a serious problem in their

community;• a volunteer gardening and home maintenance crew heading

out to assist the elderly and people with a disability;• planning for a community fun day;• a community shed or garden full of people working away; or• a group of people talking over a cup of tea.

Some of our programmes are;

• School Breakfast Programme – across Gagebrook, Herdsman’s Cove, East Derwent and St Pauls Christian School Primary School and East Derwent Middle and Senior School

• Adjunct Childcare – to support those attending on site courses• Parents R Us – early parenting discussion and learning group• Computer training – to build computer literacy• Chefs at Home – cooking and home budgeting training• Top Gear – learner driver programme• Integrated Family Support Service – to support referred families in crisis• Needle and Syringe Availability Programme• Waterbridge Food Co-op – food security project with gardens, pantry and cooking classes• School holiday programmes• Pete’s Community Workshed• Crafty Craft – social inclusion programme• Emergency relief – including Food Bank and Second Bite Services• NILS providers – for no interest loan scheme• Job Active work for the dole providers – we support community doing practical hands on activities• Community based training programmes are delivered on site

The Gagebrook and Bridgewater Community Centres purpose is to work as a community operated organisation, building community capacity in socially isolated and disadvantaged local areas.

Our goals are: • Achieve quality services that improve the well-being of the community • Enhance the well-being, independence and self sufficiency of all residents • Provide for the safety and support of all residents who are at risk of abuse or neglect • Build and support community networks • Build and support the personal skills, knowledge, abilities and resilience of each person in the community • Support and extend training and employment readiness opportunities

Gagebrook and Bridgewater Community Centres

HERE’S SOME NUMBERS TO SHOW THE IMPACT OF WATERBRIDGEPantry Survey of 50 random customers showed that 45% of participants were certain that they had increased their vegie consumption since coming to the Food Pantry, another 25% said that maybe they had increased consumption.

Pantry Visitors: The pantry is open 16/hrs a week and averages 183 visitors/month and growing monthly

Volunteers: Waterbridge averages 502 volunteer hours/month in the cooking, gardening and pantry activities. The Value of Volunteering Calculator valued this as $280,554 to the Tasmanian community each year5

Engagement/Inclusion : 450+ attendees at first annual ‘Spring Food Festival’, vs anticipated attendance of 150-200. In March 2016 Facebook Likes = 1182+ and increasing weekly, engagement average is 593/day. Website unique views since launch is 5,145. Educational events are held fortnightly and average 10-20 participants

Garden Produce : From bare dirt in Feb 2015, the Gagebrook garden produced 156kgs of edible produce in March 2016, and 290kgs in total since January 2016.

Healthy Frozen Meals : Fast Foodies produce 70-100 meals a week, net profit per meal averages 56%. Blind taste-test at the local library rankings: 90% looked healthier than a leading frozen meal brand, 88% said tasted better and 80% said better value. There is large potential to grow sales given the low price and high quality vs junk food and supermarket frozen meals.