A brief History of Morwell
Neighbourhood House
The original location of Morwell Neighbourhood House was on Doolan Street, from March 1982 – April 1986. It was during these years that the House applied for and was successful in securing a small amount of funding for the first coordinator of the House. The House also became incorporated in 1984.
In 1986 the Ministry of Housing made available 17 Symons Crescent and, later on, number 19 Symons Crescent. During this time a Childcare Co-ordinator was employed and the House brought in a policy to pay its Tutors, who had previously worked on a voluntary basis. At Symons Crescent the neighbourhood house continued to flourish under 3 coordinators, a child care worker and many tutors and volunteers. There were, of course, some problems, such as insufficient funding. The small venue meant child care was limited and only one program could operate at any time.
21st December 1988 saw the official opening of the second house. There was great anticipation as the second house opened. This new addition meant that the House could now offer a more flexible program that catered for the community needs; it also meant that the participants could benefit from using the class 2 child care they were now able to offer.
Here you can see just a snippet of what was on offer at Symons Crescent. There were English, craft, Child care, computer, and creative writing classes.
2012 saw the changing of the guard. The coordinator of 20 years Ann Robinson retired. Tracie Lund was employed to step into Ann’s shoes. With great enthusiasm, Tracie embraced the role and set about making some significant changes while maintaining a commitment to the legacy Ann had developed over the last 20 years.
Since July 2012, Tracie has actively embraced a new ‘family’ at Morwell Neighbourhood House. Tracie works alongside and for the Committee of Governance. Priority is always towards the community. The program has been completely revamped with a focus on community strengthening and engaging. Neighbourhood House members actively engage with the house Coordinator in projects and awareness days, such as Social Inclusion Week and the Emergency Services & Family Fun Day.
Social Inclusion Week – Aims to foster a stronger sense of belonging among communities, schools, workplaces, families and friendship groups. The Latrobe City Council actively supports Social Inclusion Week so we jumped on board and opened the House for a BBQ lunch.
Emergency Services Family Fun Day – Was an opportunity for locals to meet and become aware of local Emergency Service workers in a non-emergency environment.
In November 2012 we opened the house to ‘thinking outside the wheel’ initiative run by local university students. “We were very proud to support the Thinking outside the wheel project. The Objectives was to assist youth of low socioeconomic backgrounds to develop an understanding of the broad range of benefits of up-cycling waste by giving them free push bikes made from recycled parts.
