GIVING the community a voice is a key issue for Nambucca Labor Councillor Susan Jenvey who is running for Mayor and Councillor in the upcoming Local Government Elections on 4 December.

This can be supported, Cr Jenvey said, by reinstating a Neighbourhood Centre in Nambucca and increasing the focus on community development.

“I understand Neighbourhood Centres are a soft entry point for people to gain access to community information and services.

“They are places where people, who have been hurt by a system that can be harsh, find a way to navigate better outcomes for themselves through connection to others who have also experienced similar hardships.

“There is support and healing in this connection.

“The value of Neighbourhood Centres is that they are underpinned by concepts of social justice and equality.

“These include aspects of social life related to gender, race, the environment; and situations where relationships are unequal between individuals, groups, and organisations.”

Cr Jenvey said that Neighbourhood Centres can be a place of acceptance within the community.

“As we don’t all have what we need to live well, maybe they are places where people can reckon with what it means to distribute power more equally, even if that is simply access to free bread, the use of a laptop, seeing that someone is okay, or a domestic violence referral.

“Reinstating a Neighbourhood Centre is important in the Nambucca region.”

Despite rising house prices and changing demographics, Cr Jenvey said there are still significant and persistent levels of disadvantage in the Nambucca community.

“Having a grass roots organisation like a Neighbourhood Centre means you can try to devise solutions to your own problems.

“This is true community development.”

Cr Jenvey said there were examples across bordering LGA’s of Neighbourhood Centres being used effectively to support the community.

“If we look at our neighbouring regional councils, we see that Bellingen Council has established Neighbourhood Centres on Council owned land in both Bellingen and Urunga.

“In Coffs Harbour – the whole community village is on Council owned land.

“So, connection to Council is a starting point for reinstating a Neighbourhood Centre.”

Cr Jenvey also advocates for reinstating a Community Development Officer position for the area.

“On other community-based policy, against my strong opposition, the last Council removed resources from the position.

“Council should reinstate this position, as they have a leadership role to play between NGOs in the community sector, as well as, feeding up the chain to lobby on behalf of these organisations for strategic planning and government funding.

“Loneliness too is a pandemic that costs all communities billions of dollars.

“Often those people that are the most advantaged get funded for the best connections, rather than funding going to the most disadvantaged.

“If we are going to have development and continue to be focussed on real estate, we need Neighbourhood Centres to make sure people don’t miss out.

“Council has a significant role to play in community wellbeing and this is an inclusive agenda I’m happy to prosecute.”

 

By Andrea FERRARI