My adjournment is to the Minister for Carers and Volunteers, and I ask that the minister joins me in Northcote to visit with our wonderful network of neighbourhood houses. The inner north is home to a hardworking and tight-knit community of neighbourhood houses run by a mix of staff and volunteers. Their commitment to supporting vulnerable residents, those wanting to upskill or people simply looking to connect with one another is second to none. Whether it is Jika Jika’s free food program, Span or Alphington Community Centre’s community lunches or Bridge Darebin’s family playgroup, our neighbourhood houses are somewhere that everyone is welcome.
There is no doubt that rising cost of living is putting pressure on households right now, and many residents in Northcote are turning to our neighbourhood houses or other wonderful services like Darebin Information Volunteer & Resource Service in Preston as a shoulder to lean on. DIVRS are angels, providing community support to between 150 and 200 households each week, including access to their food pantry, providing advice about cost of living and running energy relief drop-in sessions. Over at Span Community House in Thornbury the weekly food relief program supports residents at the Agg Street housing estate, helping to put food on the table for community members who need it most, and their suite of sustainability programs, like their repair, re-use and recycle hub, is empowering our community to think more about avoiding waste, reducing our carbon footprint and contributing to the circular economy.
As the member for Northcote I have been incredibly proud to support the work of our neighbourhood houses and see wonderful initiatives like the Alphington men’s shed, Jika Jika bicycle repair and Span’s edible and Indigenous garden all funded by the Allan Labor government. We have also been proud to work closely with them on getting the word out about the ways in which our Labor government is supporting households with cost-of-living relief. Many of our neighbourhood houses have assisted residents with processing four rounds of the state government’s $250 power saving bonus.
They have also helped to provide information on the Victorian energy upgrades program and the sick pay guarantee, all key initiatives that put more dollars back into the pockets of Victorians.
The Allan Labor government will continue to support cost-of-living measures for Victorians, including through transformational reforms like free kinder, free TAFE, discounted and free dental, discounted driver licence renewals, our priority primary care clinics and the more than 60 different savings to be found on the savings finder in the Service Victoria app, which traverse energy, utilities, health, transport, education, recreation and more. Our passionate and dedicated network of neighbourhood houses are a crucial part of the picture when it comes to supporting Victorians, and I look forward to introducing the minister to the wonderful souls that keep them humming in the inner north.
Answer 21 March 2024:
I thank the Member for Northcote for her support of neighbourhood houses and look forward to seeing the important work being done to support the local community.
Neighbourhood houses are important place-based social infrastructure where people come to connect, learn and contribute to their local community. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the challenges that the community sector, including neighbourhood houses, face with increasing costs.
I am pleased to confirm that the Allan Labor Government continues to provide strong support to the neighbourhood house sector, with more than $43 million recurring funding each year through the Neighbourhood House Coordination Program. This includes funding to around 400 neighbourhood houses, 16 networks and the peak body, Neighbourhood Houses Victoria.
In 2022, the Government reaffirmed its support for the valuable work of neighbourhood houses by increasing our ongoing annual funding commitment by $6.6 million each year and providing an additional $19 million over three years. The government also increased indexation for community service organisations to 5.45 per cent, from the 3.29 per cent originally announced in the 2023-24 State Budget.
The Government’s Community Participation and Support initiative has seen additional support provided to neighbourhood houses in the inner north. In 2023-24 the Alphington Community Centre is receiving $100,000; Bridge Darebin is receiving $100,000; and Jika Jika Community Centre is receiving $50,000 to expand its activities and maximise their community impact.
The 2023-24 Men’s Shed Funding Program also allocated $10,000 to the Alphington Men’s Shed, which is a program of the Alphington Community Centre providing both men’s shed and women’s shed opportunities. Similarly, the 2022-23 shed program allocated almost $5,000 to the Jika Jika bicycle shed, a program of the Jika Jika Community Centre, which provides bike programs and workshops for all ages.
In addition, since 2020 the Government has delivered more than $50 million to strengthen the food relief system and deliver more food to people in need. This includes allocating more than $16 million in strategic investments to strengthen food relief infrastructure, organisational capacity and collaboration across Victoria’s community food relief sector.
I wish all neighbourhood house staff and volunteers across the state well, and I look forward to getting out and visiting houses across the state this year.
……………………………………………
The Hon. Ros Spence MP
Minister for Carers and Volunteers
