Volunteers boost Glasshouse community vision
A COMMUNITY Christmas party, opening three days a week, and an influx of new volunteers are just some of the changes the Glasshouse Neighbourhood Centre has had in the last eight months.
Glasshouse Neighbourhood Centre president, Helen Brown, and secretary, Mel Kaese, gained their committee roles in November 2022, and since January this year have gained another six volunteers.
“We now have eight volunteers, but we started off in January with two volunteers and we were only open on Mondays from 9am-12pm and now we are open Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays 9am-12pm and we are looking at opening on Fridays,” Helen said. “We’ve got a really strong committee so that’s fantastic and we’re getting lots of hall bookings. Last month we had about 273 people use the hall, some community groups don’t get charged to book as well.”
Additionally, planning is now underway for the centre’s first community Christmas party on December 16, in conjunction with the information centre, the RSL, the community hall, and the local churches who will be singing Christmas carols to end the night.
“We came up with the idea in a general meeting, Helen approached the community hall, and we’ve hit the ground running. We just had our first meeting and now we are creating an agenda,” Mel said.
“We’re really trying to get some youth engagement in that as well so I would personally like to see some real teenage engagement because there’s not a lot of places for teenagers to go or have activities to do.”
The centre provides a number of services to the community, creating a judgement free zone for people seeking help.
“The centre provides emergency service support, transport, food, personal hygiene goods, internet – it’s quite vast what we provide, and it really is on a walk-in basis, we’re learning as we are finding,” Mel said.
“Being open to be able to provide support on a ground level, and to be able to provide the feedback on where the support is needed going forward is so important.
“We have our own idea of where the support is needed but someone who comes in may have a completely different idea.”
Both Mel and Helen reiterated that the centre is always accepting donations, such as non-perishable food and personal hygiene products, as well as offering new memberships which helps the centre stay open.
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