Woodend Neighbourhood House

About

We offer courses, workshops, and spaces to hire. We’re big on building activities to connect the Woodend community and supporting them to have a go. It’s a fun place to be!

Story

We offer courses, workshops, and spaces to hire. We’re big on building activities to connect the Woodend community and supporting them to have a go. It’s a fun place to be!

Founded in 1983 out of the adversity of recovering from the Ash Wednesday bushfires, the house was originally a community drop-in centre, staffed by Red Cross and, when it was mooted to close (just 2 weeks after the fires)local volunteers, led by the determined Shirley Perrott, kept it open and moved its operations to a little corner of the Mechanics Institute. It became an Incorporated Association on 4 July 1984, with the title of Woodend Creative Living Centre and was open one day a week. Ten years after its founding (1993) it was operating 4 days a week, with lots of community activities and opportunities for education and training. Now, here we are, 30 years after its incorporation, open almost full-time, offering over 40 courses or activities, having on average 85 people walking through our doors every week, assisting smaller groups to grow and develop, supporting community advocacy and continuing the tradition of community-led action through our place in this community's life.

The purpose of the Woodend Neighbourhood House is to provide a friendly, safe, respectful and caring environment, where all people from our community can come to:
- share friendship, knowledge and skills,
- develop community cohesion, actions and advocacy,
- build sustainable partnerships, projects and activities,
- strengthen their participation in learning, activities and meetings, and
- find support, respect, acceptance and opportunity.

Mission

Continuing to: Create, build, strengthen and connect our community.