Member’s forum February 2019 Regional Association of Neighbourhood & Community Houses

AGENDA 11.00-11.15 Short Break 12.30 -1.00 Lunch 10.00 -10.10 Welcome to Members and Acknowledgement of Country/ Apologies  10.10 – 10. 30 Community Development in Action – Food for thought (Sue Birch) 10.30 -11.00 Lancefield Neighbourhood House (Vivien Philpot) 11.00-11.15 Short Break 11.15 – 11.45 Growing Abundance (Ingrid Button) 11.45-12.30 Bendigo Foodshare (Cathie Steele) 12.30 -1.00 Lunch 1.00 -2.00 Open Forum

Community Development in Action – Food for thought (Sue Birch) Why is food an important issue for Neighbourhood Houses? What is our understanding of community needs?

Community Development in Action – Food for thought What is “food security” ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWp5OAdqzxY

Community Development in Action – Food for thought How can we develop “good practice” community development approaches to food security at the community level? 1. Local Food Connect (LFC) https://localfoodconnect.org.au/food-swaps/ 2. Castlemaine Community Lunch https://youtu.be/RWGcAtd9T0s

Community Development in Action – Lancefield Neighbourhood House (Vivien Philpot) Over many years, the Lancefield NH has been involved in a wide range of community development strategies to address the issue of food security. Vivien, the LNH Coordinator, will provide an overview of this work and the importance of providing sustainable access to fresh, locally grown produce.

Community Development in Action – Growing Abundance (Ingrid Button) Growing Abundance is an inspiring, multi-strategic approach to building the capacity of local communities to grow, eat and learn about local food production and distribution. Ingrid will share the GA story and the community development strategies that GA has used to provide accessible, sustainable, healthy, local food.

Community Development in Action – Bendigo Foodshare (Cathie Steele) Bendigo Foodshare collects food that would otherwise go to waste, and distributes it through charities, community organisations and schools throughout Central Victoria. Many NHs in our Network access food from BF to distribute within their communities and/or provide community meals. Cathie will provide us with an understanding of the work currently undertaken by BF and the requirements and challenges associated with providing a sustainable food distribution service in a rural location. .

Open Forum Updates Information Issues

NH Community Transport project NHCTP Project Scope and Methodology Significant decisions have been made in relation to the NHCTP scope and methodology including: Engaging 4 Project Officers/Teams to work with the Project Manager to develop the 4 models & resources Adopting an action research approach to support the development of NH CT programs while developing the models and resources

NH Community Transport project Neighbourhood House   Model Rushworth Community House Community Taxi Service Swan Hill Neighbourhood House Transport to health services in regional cities and Melbourne Maldon Neighbourhood Centre Linking small towns to existing services in a larger rural town Lancefield Neighbourhood House & Romsey Neighbourhood House Addressing the transport needs of financially disadvantaged community members to improve access to existing welfare and health services.

Participatory Action Research Process What do we need to do? What is happening now ? What would be preferable? How could we achieve this?

Project Milestones - December 2018 – June 2019 Partnerships established to develop 4 models using modelling tool February 2019 First drafts of models completed March Modelling workshop convened to provide the opportunity for the 4 NHs involved to provide input into the development of each model. Final drafts of models completed April NHCTP Reference Group endorses models May Draft Project Report Completed June Final Project report completed.

RANCH Mentoring Program Group approach – All Coordinators are welcome Based in Bendigo Every 6 weeks for approximately 2 hours First session late March /early April

Annual NH Survey DHHS will not be funding a survey this year NHVic will need to organise and resource a modified survey to be able to maintain annual data collection to be used for planning, evaluation and advocacy