Category: Uncategorised

Keep Our Doors Open

Posted on October 8, 2025 by - Uncategorised

Back the Campaign to Secure the Future of our Sector

Imagine every neighbourhood in Victoria thriving — where people of all ages and backgrounds can access support, build skills, find connection, and belong. Neighbourhood Houses are the heart of these communities — offering vital services, education, and a welcoming place for everyone.

​But right now, Neighbourhood Houses are at breaking point. Nearly half of all Houses in Victoria have recorded a loss for two years running. The Neighbourhood House Coordination Program (NHCP) no longer covers the true cost of employing a manager for the funded hours, and inadequate funding has become the number one wellbeing issue identified by managers across the state.

​Years of underfunding mean too many Houses are operating with limited staff and stretched resources — despite growing demand and a rise in complex safety issues, including mental health crises and instances of violence. Houses are being forced to cut open hours, reduce programs, or fundraise just to turn on the lights. Unless government acts, more doors will close — and communities will lose trusted, safe and inclusive spaces they rely on every day.

​It’s simple: without sustainable funding, our doors will close. With fair funding, we will continue to be the safe, welcoming places every Victorian community needs.

You can help

Pop into CNLC Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and sign a postcard to the Minister, Ros Spence MP. We will hand over all postcards to local MPs in mid-December. If you can’t visit in person, you can sign online at https://forms.gle/rGLJsnsmLJJkoqLN9.

More resources

Visit the Neighbourhood Houses Victoria campaign page here for Fact Sheets, Social Media assets and more: https://www.nhvic.org.au/2026-campaign

Incorporating lived experience into student placement

Posted on October 23, 2023 by - Uncategorised

Guest Blog – Penelope Smith, Victoria University (VU)

Victoria University (VU) prides itself as one of the most culturally diverse universities in Australia. Our Masters of Global Public Health attracts a diverse cohort, with a high number of students from migrant, and refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.

Within our degree we have capstone units. Some of you may know it as placement or practicum. A capstone unit is one where the knowledge gained through the academic studies is put into practice in the real-world environment. For us this is a Professional Project: a discrete piece of work to be undertaken in 150 hours at one of our Industry Partners.

Tony Milne, Executive Officer of CNLC, and I have a long working relationship. As a public health professional with a long history of work in advocacy and activism, Tony was often my ‘go to’, to enrich the learnings of my Public Health higher education students (both undergraduate and postgraduate). He has provided graduate addresses, guest lectures, curriculum content (detailed here) and now, while at CNLC, an opportunity for one of our students to complete their Professional Project.

I have been involved in Public Health education and capstone units for over 15 years. In the last year while starting my PhD at University of Tasmania, examining the lived experience of overseas trained health practitioners of colour working in the Australian health system, I have felt challenged on how we authentically design and ethically support all our students undertaking their capstone unit.

Due to a strong long-term working relationship with Tony built on trust and mutual values, we saw an opportunity for an exciting and innovative Professional Project for one of our students, Jebbeh Manubah, at CNLC. This opportunity enabled Jebbeh to use her lived experience, as a refugee who travelled to Australia, in a powerful way.

Our central goal was for Jebbeh to provide insights and advice on how CNCL could incorporate lived experience as a strength within the CNCL workplace policy. Using Public Health Knowledge, the support from an innovative Learning Designer Nick Lekakis, and critical reflection on our ways of working, we supported Jebbeh to do just that – with incredible outcomes for all.

Recently, I was able to present on this piece of work at the CAPHIA Teaching and Learning forum on Kaurna Country (Adelaide) and the VU Teaching and Learning forum on Naarm (Melbourne). The response to the work has been positive, with excellent discussions particularly at CAPHIA about how we can begin scaffolding early in our public health degrees to support students to use their lived experience in a powerful way in their capstone unit and following that in their professional work.

We have seen from other professions, such as drug and alcohol services, the rise in recognition of lived experience in the workplace. This has resulted in a significant increase of people who can join the workforce. While this work is contested and unfinished, it does challenge us more broadly in Public Health to how we consider lived experience as powerful in the workplace.