LETTER

Thank you to Neighbourhood and Community Centre staff and volunteers 

An open letter to those on the frontline of the community-led  flood response

It has been a difficult few weeks in many communities in Queensland. 

We want to acknowledge the devastation and extend our sympathies to all those who have been impacted through personal loss and through bearing witness to the grief and loss in your communities. 

We know staff and volunteers at centres in flood-affected communities have been dealing with increased community requests for help, decreased fundraising abilities and lost revenue, limited spare resources and reduced availability of staff. We acknowledge the recent floods are not in isolation from other disasters and the compounding effects of bushfires, droughts, cyclones and COVID-19 are still very much being felt by communities and the neighbourhood centres who work to support them throughout the year.

Despite the challenges, every day in our work with Neighbourhood Centres we see local frontline workers working for their communities to provide ongoing emotional support, increased food provision, welfare checks and emergency relief, information and referrals -- along with many other much-needed supports.

The work of our sector is powerful and strengthens communities. This is never clearer than in times of crisis.

Our most sincere thank you. 

From all of the team at NCQ, 
Em, Chris, Natasha, Laurelle, Geoff, Jane, Taylor and Mel.

NEWS

Premier Announces Flood Recovery Funding Campaign at KENG
GIVIT, The Australian Red Cross, The Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul Society Qld, and Lifeline receive funds

On March 6, Kingston East Neighbourhood Centre in Logan hosted Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, as she announced the kick start of the Flood Recovery Funding Campaign. A total of $2.1 million dollars was announced with funding divided between GIVIT, The Australian Red Cross, The Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul Society Qld, and Lifeline.

Unfortunately, no flood recovery funding has yet been announced for Neighbourhood and Community Centres.

Read the full story here.

NEWS

Survey demonstrates Neighbourhood Centres Respond Immediately when Severe Flooding impacts Communities

Of the 140+ neighbourhood and community centres across Queensland, 97 are located in LGAs impacted by recent flooding.

When flooding hit Queensland communities earlier this month, neighbourhood and community centres were already embedded in the community, allowing them to immediately respond to the urgent needs of local people before any other services arrived.

NCQ conducted a survey to understand what programs and services were being offered by different centres and the key resources needed by centres in the coming weeks and months. 42 centres responded.

Of the centres who responded, 93% of them were providing information and referrals to people impacted by flooding.

76% of centres were providing emotional support and/or counselling.
69% were providing material aid and emergency relief
69% were checking on and/or identifying vulnerable people
69% were providing food support e.g. ready-made meals, tea and coffee, food packs
52% were providing lounge space e.g. peer support, activities, phone charging
45% reported they were supporting other providers by acting as a connector at the time of the survey, and this appears to have increased in the days following the flooding.

Many centres also supported people to find accommodation, provided tenancy and/or legal support and advice, provided showers or washing facilities and coordinated new and existing volunteers. Two of the centres that responded also acted as evacuation centres.

Read the full story here.

NEWS

Politicians Visit Neighbourhood and Community Centres following floods

The week following Queensland's flooding disaster, politicians from every level of government began visiting neighbourhood and community centres to view first-hand the extraordinary work centres are doing to support their communities.

On March 3, Mark Bailey MP, Graham Perrett MP & Tanya Plibersek MP visited Yeronga Community Centre. The following day, Graham Perrett  MP visited St David's Neighbourhood Centre, and both Councillor Steve Griffiths and Peter Russo MP make phone contact.

Two days later, Kingston East Neighbourhood Centre hosts Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Shannon Fentiman MP, Cameron Dick MP,  Mayor of Logan City Darren Power and Councillor Mindy Russell. They take part in the community BBQ and announce the Flood Recovery Funding Campaign with funding to GIVIT, The Australian Cross, The Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul Society Qld, and Lifeline.

The same week, Amy MacMahon MP met with NCQ to understand the state-wide picture and discuss the state budget asks, and visited West End Community House. 

There were also visits by Shannon Fentiman MP & Councillor Miriam Stemp to Kingston East Neighbourhood Centre and Graham Perrett MP to both Sherwood Neighbourhood Centre and Yeronga Community Centre. Jason Hunt MP visited Caloundra Neighbourhood Centre, Charis Mullen MP and Milton Dick MP visited Gailes Community House and Mark Bailey MP visited Benarrawa Community Development Association.

Leanne Enoch MP, (the Minister for Communities and Housing and Minister for the Arts and Digital Economy of Queensland), has also been visiting centres. 

Neighbourhood Centres Queensland and neighbourhood and community centres are continuing to meet with MPs to discuss our 2022-2023 State Budget asks, with increased resourcing for neighbourhood centres ever more vital given the impact of compounding disasters in our communities.

Read the full story here.

NEWS

Neighbourhood Centres speak about the need for urgent extra funding for community-led flood recovery

When NCQ spoke with frontline neighbourhood centre staff in flood-affected communities, a common theme arose: the urgent need for additional funding to allow them to better support the community. 
Without any flood recovery funding from the government, some centres turned to fundraising efforts, and some staff used their own money to provide essentials for the community.

They generously shared the following insights:
 
“For emergency relief we have to physically fundraise on top of our normal jobs. We need to go out and organise fundraising functions, to raise the funds to pay for people in emergency relief roles.” 
Neighbourhood Centre Coordinator 

“Last time [2011 floods], we had no funding for six months. We had no wages, no money from the government, we were running only on community support. We were often purchasing things people needed with our own personal money. This time round we come with a building, paid staff and we are able to mobilise really quickly. Since Sunday morning we’ve had our doors open, ready to give assistance in any way we can."
Neighbourhood Centre Worker 

“When we went down to respond in the first week, we had no funding, but we’re a local community service with strong ties to our community members and we wouldn’t have it any other way.” 
Neighbourhood Centre Coordinator 

“We’re the ongoing role after the emergency services leave. The aftercare is a big part of a disaster. When it first happens, it’s all over the media and there’s tonnes of support at the start but then [that support] dissipates to nothing, that change is quite significant.” 
Neighbourhood Centre Manager 

"Community centres need more funding. In a disaster like this, we’re 100% ready to go in an instant, but we still have people coming through the door who need our regular services. These might be people who are sleeping rough or having substance abuse issues among many other things. The work… doesn’t just stop. For example, during COVID we gave out over 40,000 meals, alongside the other work we do.”
Neighbourhood Centre Worker 

Read the full story here.

NEWS

Neighbourhood Centres host and support Pop-Up Community Recovery Hubs

Local knowledge essential to efficacy

In the days and weeks after the floods, the Queensland Government announced Pop-Up Community Recovery Hubs to be opened for people affected by the flooding in south-east Queensland.

Pop-Up Community Recovery Hubs were formally hosted on the premises of the following centres: 
Kingston East Neighbourhood Centre
Picabeen Community Centre
Sherwood Neighbourhood Centre 
West End Community House
Yeronga Community Centre
Zillmere Community Centre

Other Pop-Up Community Recovery Hubs were set up on non-centre premises but were often reliant on the support of neighbourhood and community centres to provide local community knowledge and expertise, connections, and coordination.

Em James, CEO of NCQ observed: "Neighbourhood Centres often support an ecosystem of service providers, and many of the larger organisations and government agencies who provide immediate crisis support are reliant on the local expertise and connections of neighbourhood and community centres to effectively help the community. As place-based organisations, Neighbourhood Centres are there when the floodwaters are rising and are there long after the floodwaters recede." 

Em also acknowledged the work of their local Neighbourhood Centre, saying “As the waters were rising around my neighbourhood on Sunday 27 February, my local community centre mobilised to open over the weekend of the flooding to support our community. They’ve since been open 7 days a week to support local people, and are now co-ordinating multiple organisations and agencies in their role as a Community Recovery Centre. It’s this local knowledge, rapid response and community focus that makes Neighbourhood Centres so important in what they do."

As Pop-Up Community Recovery Hubs begin to close, how to fund the continuing support the community needs in the months and years ahead is top of mind for frontline staff.

Read the full story here.

NEWS

How the team at NCQ supported our members during the floods

While Neighbourhood and Community Centres have been working tirelessly on the ground to support their communities throughout the floods; NCQ has been working to better resource and connect centres while advocating for sector-wide funding and recognition they deserve. 

In the week following the flood events, NCQ:

• Launched a private, members-only Facebook group for centres to connect with each other, share resources and help each other respond to their community needs and interests.
   
• Collected, created and shared disaster-focused information and referral resources for community members, compiled by our disaster resilience team Natasha and Laurelle. 
   
• Conducted a survey to help us understand Neighbourhood and Community Centre’s response to the flooding and their needs during this time. Alongside the online survey, two of our team members Geoff and Taylor phoned centres across 97 flood-affected LGAs to gather as much data as possible.   

We have been using the survey information in ongoing weekly meetings with the government. These meetings are part of our advocacy work for flood recovery funding; to actively communicate to the Department and Ministers the critical role of Neighbourhood and Community Centres in disasters and the need for centres to be better resourced to support their communities in the coming months. We also reiterated our sector’s 2022-2023 State Budget asks, which if delivered by the government, would increase the resilience of the community in times of disaster.

NCQ are also working with our members and strategic partners to incorporate learnings from the flood recovery into the State-wide NCC Strategy for Disaster Resilience, to be launched in 2022.

Read the full story here.

NEWS

Meet Melinda McInturff from Yeronga Community Centre

4 March, 2022

Say hi to Melinda McInturff, Community Development worker with Yeronga Community Centre and this month's Frontline Hero. She's currently working hard to help her community recover from the recent flooding events.

The Yeronga Community Centre has been a constant source of support in the community since 2011 and is currently providing people with a space to take refuge from the devastation that has occurred in their homes due to the recent flooding. 

“We provide ready-made meals, tea and coffee, we have computers with internet access, phone charging stations, board games and a place to wash clothes. The centre is so important for people to just be able to come and sit down for a minute, to try and take their mind off what is happening.” 

In the current floods, the centre has been inundated with the kindness of local businesses and residents, offering to volunteer time, resources and donate food vouchers and other goods. With extra hands on board, the Yeronga Community Centre was able to make 300 sandwiches just this morning and distribute them onto the streets to flood-affected homes and clean-up crews.

Read the full story here.

NEWS

Corrie McColl delivers Community Action for a Multicultural Society

17 March, 2022

We’d like to introduce you to Corrie McColl, coordinator of Bundaberg Neighbourhood Centre. Corrie's the one pictured in the bright blue shirt!

Corrie is part of a team that delivers the ‘Community Action for a Multicultural Society’ (CAMS) program, which focuses on supporting and connecting migrant, culturally and linguistically diverse people who have moved to Australia. Not only do he and the team at the Bundaberg Neighbourhood Centre run multiple programs in this space, but they continue to offer support long after people have settled into jobs, residences and social groups. This work has also proven crucial to the safety of migrant populations during COVID and other disasters. 

“Any migrant that wants assistance for pretty well anything contacts us in their first instance. We work to help them to connect with community, socialise, reduce isolation at home. We introduce them to sporting groups, mingling opportunities and we even have a migration agent that comes in to help people navigate through the visa application system. We’re most people’s first point of call and then we help them to connect out to other services.” 

Read the full story here.

EVENT

What impact do Neighbourhood & Community Centres in Queensland have on their communities?
Join us for the launch of the Sector Impact Report 2021 on April 5

Tuesday 5 April, 12:30 pm - 1:15 pm

Did you know that in 2021, Neighbourhood and Community Centres in Queensland produced $4.81 in community value for every $1 invested by the State Government?

Each year, NCQ undertakes the largest Queensland-wide survey on the state of the Neighbourhood and Community Centre sector and delivers a comprehensive report on the community value and impact of centres. 

This year, we invite neighbourhood and community centres, partner organisations and stakeholders to the online launch of the Neighbourhood and Community Centre Sector Impact Report 2021. 

We'll share an overview of important insights from the report, thank participating centres and allow time for audience Q&A.

Please register your attendance for event updates and reminders.

RESOURCES

Disaster Information and Financial Support for Individuals and Families

Updated 8 March

When the floods hit, our disaster resilience workers Natasha and Laurelle compiled a disaster-focussed information and referral resource for accessing financial and other assistance for people in the community. This was shared with centres updated regularly.

Link tracking shows the simple resource has been downloaded hundreds of times.

Download the A4 printable PDF here to share with those impacted by the floods here.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Housing and Neighbourhoods Manager

Encircle

Job posted on: 17 March 2022
Applications close: 6 April 2022

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Community Development Workers x2

Encircle

Job posted on: 18 March 2022
Applications close: 8 April 2022

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Psychologist / Team Leader - Murgon

Graham House Community Centre

Job posted on: 10 March 2022
Applications close: No deadline - please apply as soon as possible

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Community Development Manager

SANDBAG (Sandgate and Bracken Ridge Action Group)

Job posted on: 15 March 2022

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Community Development Manager

SANDBAG (Sandgate and Bracken Ridge Action Group)

Job posted on: 15 March 2022

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Treasurer - Management Committee (Voluntary)

Logan East Community Neighbourhood Association Inc

Job posted on: 24 March 2022
Applications close: 8 May 2022

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Community Development Officer

Ipswich City Council

Applications close: 27 March 2022