COHUNA Neighbourhood House, Kerang Neighbourhood House and Quambatook Community Resource Centre are the three neighbourhood houses making up the Gannawarra Shire network and will this week celebrate Neighbourhood House Week joining more than 1000 other groups nationwide with the theme of Stronger Together.
In Victoria, there are over 400 Neighbourhood Houses with 14 of these located in the Shires of Buloke, Gannawarra, Swan Hill Rural City and Mildura Rural City, together they form the Mallee Neighbourhood House Network.
The Stronger Together theme acknowledges the incredible strength that results when individuals unite for a common purpose.
Neighbourhood Houses are known by many different names including community centres, resource centres and learning centres, all are trusted and vital parts of their local communities.
Some of the Neighbourhood Houses in Gannawarra Shire are agents for government providers like Centrelink and VicRoads.
Although each house is different, they are all the same at the heart of their objectives of allowing local communities to strive to embody the essence of togetherness.
Cohuna Neighbourhood House manager Tanya Black said everyone in the Mallee network would be doing something to celebrate Neighbourhood House Week, recognising the invaluable contribution Neighbourhood Houses make to their local communities, empowering people to unite and achieve community goals.
“Here at Cohuna, we are having an open day on Thursday, May 16 where the community will be able to see our community garden, our can and container recycling facility and hopefully the new kitchen that is under construction,” she said.
Kerang Neighbourhood House manager Claire Fry said on Wednesday morning from 10am until 11.30am there will be an open morning where community members can come by and have a tour and find out more about what the group does.
“There will be cups of tea and cookies and we will be showing people around and telling them what we do and some of the programs coming up,” Ms Fry said.
