Neighbourhood house workers flock to Deloraine conference

Accommodation in the Deloraine and Westbury areas is filling fast for September 22–24 when the Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania conference will be held in Deloraine.

The 2021 conference keynote address will be Learning from stories: women in community leadership, and the conference will be opened by Tasmania’s deputy premier, Jeremy Rockliff.

The Deloraine conference will be the first opportunity to get conference attendees together since 2019, with the September 2020 conference having been held online because of COVID-19.

Deloraine House manager Deb Smith said the conference would give a big boost to Deloraine.

‘At Deloraine House we’ve been preparing for this exciting event,’ she said.

‘We have organised an excursion to the Mole Creek Community Garden for interested attendees on September 24, after the official close of the conference.’

The conference will include half day master classes for neighbourhood house managers and board chairs, a hypothetical about crisis management and resolution, and workshops around meaningful stories on issues that matter.

The conference dinner theme will be Meandering Country and a special feature will be the Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania Expo, to be held at the Community Complex Rotary Pavilion from 10.30am – 3.30pm on September 23.

In a letter to Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania, Mr Rockliff confirmed the Tasmanian government’s election commitment of investing an additional $5.7 million into the Neighbourhood House Network and community facilities. 

‘These include providing $2.8 million over two years to neighbourhood houses to employ new family and community support workers; increasing funding to the peak body, Neighbourhood House Tasmania, with an investment of $400,000 over four years to improve its capacity to support the House Network; and extending the Neighbourhood House Capital Improvement Program with a further $2 million investment,’ he wrote.