Local Community Services Association (LCSA), the peak body representing over 175 Neighbourhood and Community Centres (NCCs) in New South Wales, has launched a major advocacy campaign titled ‘Core Funding for Stronger Communities’.
Centres are struggling to keep their doors open and are cutting services because they don’t have ongoing core funding to cover staffing and operating costs.
72,000 people a week walk through the doors of one of the 175 Neighbourhood and Community Centre somewhere in NSW. These centres are the largest community-led social infrastructure network in the state – and yet the NSW government provides no ongoing, dedicated funding for the work that makes them possible.
The campaign notes that NSW is one of the last states in Australia not to support Neighbourhood and Community Centres through realistic core funding. Neighbourhood centres are at the frontline providing a multitude of services – community support, parenting support, domestic violence services, support for homelessness, financial counselling, food programs, community meals and social inclusion activities.
Mandy Nolan, Greens candidate for Ballina said, ‘I’m hearing from so many people who work in the neighbourhood centres that they are struggling to keep up with the demands placed on them.
‘Julie Williams, the manager of the Mullumbimby and District Neighbourhood Centre told me that in over forty years in the sector, and thirty-four of them in Mullum, she has never felt such frustration, anger, and despair, and disempowerment all in one go.
‘The NSW government has formally recognised Neighbourhood and Community Centres as essential social infrastructure. But recognition means nothing without funds to support this infrastructure.
‘We need the NSW government to commit to ongoing core funding for these services that are (barely) holding communities together.’
Beyond crisis
Julie Williams said, ‘Neighbourhood centres are not just the place to go in a crisis. They can help strengthen communities, working from a model of community development and community engagement that can support people into a more stable life.
‘What we do is really critical and important and we’re so tired of being ignored when it comes to funding. We can barely do the short-term fixes that people need let alone the proper work of helping people to move out of their crisis state into something stable,’ she said.
‘We need to rebuild the village, and that includes the village having eyes on our most vulnerable old people – like those who can’t afford Meals on Wheels and are coming in to access food because they’re making a choice between rent and food. The women living in their cars, the young people who are couch surfing – it’s the same thing.
‘If we see them, we can help them beyond food assistance – but we need recurrent, ongoing core funding to do that.’
Frontline service
Joel Orchard said, ‘Neighbourhood centres evolved to be a frontline service in climate disaster responses because they’re equipped to deal with that kind of need, yet they’ve never been adequately resourced to do that.
‘They’re now almost expected to hold that space between catastrophes, so that when there’s a new one, they’re there and ready.
‘But we know there’s nothing to support neighbourhood centres to maintain a base load of skill sets, human resource knowledge,and the professional skills that are required, not to mention the physical assets and resources that are needed.’
NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd said, ‘Neighbourhood and Community Centres provide irreplaceable support and expert care in their communities every day to vulnerable people who may otherwise slip through the cracks.
‘It is essential that the NSW government funds these vital frontline services, which are often the first service that vulnerable people engage with when seeking help. They provide wraparound care and services for individuals and families to help them heal, recover and prosper.’
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