Neighbourhood House Week 2016

May 9 – 15

FROM OUR CEOLinkwest would like to say a warm thank you to all Centres

who took part in this year’s Neighbourhood House Week (NHW).

NHW is a reminder to Centres that they are part of a 1,000 strong national network, with every single Centre working hard to support, develop and engage their local community.

Neighbourhood Centres and Community Resource Centres across the State ran 33 inspiring activities between 9 – 15 May 2016, attracting over 1,100 participants, and making this WA’s most successful NHW to date.

Neighbourhood Centres and Community Resource Centres are an essential part of the community, and it is important that we all work on ensuring that this message is received by local and state government. NHW, and the grants provided by Linkwest, aimed to strengthen the collective voice of Centres by raising their profiles – and all participating Centres felt it achieved this.

Moving forward, Centres need to continue reminding government, and their communities, that they matter. We all need to work at raising the profile of our network to show off the amazing work our Centres do and to demonstrate their importance to local communities.

Next years’ NHW is due to run during the first week of May and we encourage every Neighbourhood and Community Resource Centre to join in, and make our voice even louder.

With Community Resource Centres joining the Neighbourhood Centre network, we look forward to an amazing year of celebrating and promoting all Centres and their important work.

JANE CHILCOTT Linkwest CEO

Neighbourhood House Week (NHW) is a nationwide initiative to celebrate the role of community, neighbourhood, family, resource and learning centres in the community.

While Centres do great work year-round, NHW provides a real opportunity for them to showcase their great work and extend their reach to those in the community who may not yet be aware of what their local Centre has to offer.

In 2016, Linkwest provided a number of small grants to encourage NHW activities in Linkwest member Centres and members of the Association of WA Community Resource Centres (AWACRC).

The theme Grow Together, Eat Together gave Centres the chance to explore what “growing” means to them. While the events that ran as a result of this initiative predominantly had a foodie focus, each Centre added their own twist.

The aim of these grants was to support Neighbourhood Centres and Community Resources Centres in raising their profiles and sharing their wonderful work with the world. Linkwest developed and provided all the event resources, including the logo, the website, and promotional material.

The result has been an inspiring combination of growing gardens, friendships, and communities.

THE BACK STORY

Boddington CRC’s Long Table Lunch

THE LAUNCHSudbury Community House, Manjimup Family Centre and Manjimup Community Resource Centre hosted the NHW 2016 Launch Events, guaranteeing a fabulous start to the week’s activities.

The launch event at Sudbury Community House, on Wednesday 11th May, provide a fitting example of the significant role played by Centres in their communities. Sudbury Community House, a thriving

Centre, has been offering opportunities for learning and growing for over 30 years to their vibrant, multicultural community. The Launch featured a combination of art, craft, and food that brought people together in the celebratory spirit of the event.

Among the 80 attendees were the Hon. Tony Simpson, Minister for Local Government and Communities; Ms Simone McGurk, MLA, Shadow Minister for Community Services; and Ms Janine Freeman, MLA.

Linkwest Chair, Dr. Nicky Howe and CEO, Jane Chilcott, also joined the festivities, and were both rather delighted with the success of the day.

Manjimup’s World on a Plate – Multicultural Feast brought in 160 participants! As part of the Launch, which was organised in partnership with the Manjimup Family Centre and Manjimup CRC, the Centres provided ingredients to 15 chefs, representing 10 nationalities, and gave them free rein to cook up a storm.

Lucky Manjimupians had the chance to dig into all the yummy food while connecting with new and old friends. It was also a chance to celebrate other cultures, near and far, through the magic of food.

Above: Sudbury Community House launch Below: World on a Plate launch in Manjimup

THE EVENTSCentres got wonderfully creative with the activities and events they ran during the week.

In addition to much cooking and eating, there was Irish dancing, plenty of crafts, and a bit of pickling.

The events offered Centres the chance engage with local decision makers, as well as giving Councillors and MPs the chance to venture into the heart of community. Local newspapers, magazines, and radio stations advertised these events and ran features on some of the activities. Every one of the participating Centres agreed that the initiative was successful in raising the profile of Neighbourhood Centres and Community Resource Centres. Here’s a few of their stories...

Manjimup Community Resource Centre’s Let’s Get Pickled workshop was enjoyed by an enthusiastic group of people from the Manjimup Shire Community. Some participants had knowledge of food preserving and

joined the workshop as a social activity, where others were complete novices. Stellar Violet’s Lucinda Giblett delivered a very informative and fun afternoon, where partakers learned how to prepare vegetables for preserving, make a preserving liquor, properly sterilise containers, and make preserved lemons by simply using salt. Participants were from diverse backgrounds and shared stories about food, celebration and tradition.

The Beekeeping for Beginners talk at the West Arthur Community Resource Centre on Thursday May 19 was a very enjoyable and interesting evening. One of the surprises of the evening was the

diverse range of people who attended including people from a long distance, one even travelling from Mundaring to attend.

Graeme Wilkes, the presenter, brought along his family who are all involved in the bee keeping hobby/business. Graeme and his grandson, Tyler, had built a perspex showcase to house a bee display for the event, which was a real hit with everyone on the night.

“The parents had no idea what a Community Resource Centre was and now that they know, they have said that they will look out for them in other towns.”

Yongergnow-Ongerup Community Resource Centre celebrated the event in proper style with a Community High Tea,

on Sunday 15th May. In addition to plenty of tea and cake, there was a special “Best Dressed” award.

Greenbushes Community Resource Centre brought their community together with Winter Warmers and Japanese Cooking.

Michelle Spargo from South West Women’s Heath delivered a healthy cooking workshop, and children and teachers from the local Greenbushes Primary School joined in the fun.

“The event was a wonderful way to raise awareness of the role and value of Community Houses.”

West Stirling Neighbourhood House’s event, The Long Table Breakfast, was planned in collaboration with Transition Town Stirling (TTS) to precede the Swap, Share, Shuffle (SSS) booked to

be held at Centre.

It was envisaged that both events would support each other and bring new people to the Centre while encouraging greater participation for the sharing of local produce, grown in backyards in the neighbourhood.

It was a very happy event with mostly new people to the Centre, who were very interested in taking part in this community event, meeting new people, learning about the Centre and sharing sustainability information.

The Spiers Centre spent Neighbourhood House Week setting up their very own community garden. The community worked together to

plan and design the garden, and to plant seedlings.

As a result of this initiative, the Centre has now established a Gardening Group.

Busselton Family Centre used their event, Gather Share Grow, as an opportunity to educate their community about wholesome diets and

lifestyles. A Dietician from WA Country Health Service (WACHS) gave a demonstration of labels on everyday items and portion sizes.

South West Women’s Health then explained and introduced the Live Lighter Program and revealed the fat content of everyday items. A clarification of how healthy foods are more cost effective and faster to prepare than commercial take-aways was also given.

Dumbleyung Community Resource Centre entertained community members, both small and large, with a showing of Inside

Out, at their Movies in the Garden event.

Lucy Fernandez of Tara Academy of Irish Dancing came to Jerramungup Community Resource Centre on the 12th of May to conduct

3 sessions of teaching the primary students from Jerramungup District High School how to do the steps of some well-known Irish dances.

Children and adults alike learned taps, knee lifts, and sevens as well as the sequence of steps for the reel.

Harvey Community Resource Centre got Painting and Planting for a Positive Future! The Centre wanted to take the opportunity to offer their community a

positive experience after the devastating fires that affected so many.

At the event, participants got to decorate their own plant pots, plant seeds, and provide life back to the town of Yarloop.

“The evening generated a great buzz in our community”

Wellstead Community Resource Centre’s Multicultural Meal Night, on the 13th of May, was a fantastic evening at the community hall.

Participants were asked to bring a dish of personal/cultural significance to share with others. This resulted in an extremely diverse array of dishes including fish curry, sweet and sour pork, Turkish chicken, vegetarian nachos, quinoa salad, bacon and egg pie, Irish stew, spaghetti, tomato soup, German butter cake and apple tea cake. Guests shared stories about their heritage and dish while dining together.

“Friday, the 13th May 2016 was a good night, despite the date. Over 20 people got together in the Wellstead Hall, sat around a table and had a meal together, a meal that everybody had cooked.

We had all age-groups: from baby to seniors. There were people originally from Germany, people whose ancestors came from Wales (England), Scotland and lots of other parts of the world.

The sub-heading of this evening was: ‘ Grow Together, Eat Together’. And that was exactly what we did! It was such fun. Everybody talked to anybody and in some cases you had an opportunity to talk to people completely new to the community. But talk to each other we did and learned about the other person and welcomed each other.

Stephanie and Caitlin, as usual, did an excellent job of organizing it all and made sure that everything went smoothly.

It was nice to see that lots of people helped a bit with the cleaning up in the kitchen, women and men, I am happy to say!

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I am quite sure the others did as well. So, maybe we can do it again sometime?”

– Anna, Wellstead resident

Norwood Neighbourhood Association’s Grub from the Ground Autumn Harvest Party kicked off with a composting and

worm farming workshop organised by the City of Vincent and delivered by Kim Frankowiak, a partner and supporter of the Norwood Neighbourhood Garden.

About 15 people attended this workshop, and most of them did not previously know about the Association or the Garden. As well as seeing the Garden as part of the workshop, they were invited to have a cuppa and some cake, fill out a survey, and find out about plans for the Centre. Children played in the playground while adults mingled and ate and made pizzas in the wood-fired oven.

Beacon Central Community Resource Centre celebrated mums with a Post Mother’s Day Craft day, on the 11th May.

Primary aged kids got the chance to make their mums some thoughtful gifts and lucky mums got to take home vases, mugs, oven mitts, and flower pots. Healthy snacks kept energy levels up (and diabetes down)!

“Everyone enjoyed a very relaxed and happy day in celebration of neighbourhood and community.”

The Community Cooking Showcase run at William Langford Community House, on 10 – 11 May, involved a

variety of cultural cooking showcases.

These were led by local community members, who demonstrated, with the help of the group, the preparing and cooking of a dish from their home country. The showcase featured dishes from Sri Lanka, Iran, Sudan, Persia and Indonesia.

THE NUMBERS

“The opportunity to hold this event has assisted us in bringing the community together and into the CRC to showcase our services.”

THE NUTS AND BOLTSContinuous improvement is the name of the game for us at Linkwest, and so we always ask for honest, constructive feedback on our projects and initiatives. The Neighbourhood House Week ‘project’ was no different and while kudos abounded, there were also suggestions for next time:

“The application process was lovely and straight forward.”

“The process was all very effective and made things very easy.”

“The resources for the event were fantastic and really helped promote our event.”

“The grant process was simple to follow with plenty of options available for ideas.”

“(The project) allowed us to show case our centre in a very positive and friendly atmosphere.”

“Love the theme – it made planning an event so easy.”

“Help Centres to coordinate effort better, which would make the event for interesting for the local media.”

“In the application package it would have been easier to have more space to create an itemised budget for ‘other expenditure’.”

“Budget a bit complicated to complete in acquittal.”

THE GRANT PROCESS

THE TIMING OF NHW

“Thank you – the funding was marvelous and the time of Neighbourhood House Week is great for us. It’s actually the peak of our farming seeding season but our seniors and a lot of other people in our community aren’t directly involved in farming and need something to look forward to during the cold months.”

“The timing of the event in May was great for the Centre”

“Good time of year – not too hot, not too cold.”

“For a primarily farming community, May is not an ideal time.”

“Mid-May not the best time for grain farming communities to hold events – after mid-June would be better.”

“Time of the year seems to be quite hectic. Volunteers Week, Neighbourhood House Week and Families Week all running together.”

Salad Days at Brockman Community House

LinkwestThe Peak Body for Neighbourhood Centres in WA.

ABN: 51 172 714 842

a: Suite 3, 37 Hampden Rd Nedlands WA 6009t: (08) 9485 8929 / 1800 818 991 f: (08) 6389 0377

e: office@linkwest.asn.au w: linkwest.asn.au facebook: facebook.com/linkwest twitter: @LinkwestTeam

Publication Date: June 2016