Eight members for an advisory group are being sought to help shape a new ‘social impact-focused community hub’ at the Old Byron Hospital site.
Not-for-profit Northern Rivers organisation, Social Futures, recently secured management tenure from Council, and they say they aim to create a ‘vibrant for-purpose hub, connecting Byron residents to social, wellbeing, arts and culture, and educational services’.
CEO Tony Davies said his organisation’s Byron-based housing and homelessness service met daily with local residents, ‘feeling the impacts of the pandemic, job losses and the housing shortage’.
He says, ‘Few community service providers are able to find office space in Byron Bay. The social impact hub will bring essential community services right into the heart of town’.
Community needs
Mr Davies said the volunteer advisory group would meet four times a year, for up to two years, and will ‘look at community needs, service gaps and opportunities, then deliver on a shared community vision for the hub. This includes identifying and recommending tenancy applications best suited to community need’.
They would also ‘make recommendations on site fit out, landscaping and operations requirements’, and ‘provide guidance on how any profits can be distributed back into local community groups and projects’.
Mr Davies added, ‘We are particularly keen to hear from people in Byron with a long history of involvement in community organisations’.
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