Another year celebrating community

05 Nov Another year celebrating community

It has been another busy and exciting year for Camperdown & District Community House. We held our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 29th October 2025 and welcomed both Pat Robertson, Chair, and Mumba Chalwe, Manager, of Cobden & Camperdown Community Bank as our guest speakers. Pat and Mumba shared the ways community can support and engage with the Community Bank, and the many ways the bank has supported community over the years in operation. We are very lucky indeed to have a Community Bank and we encourage everyone in Corangamite to explore how they may support the good work they do and bank with them.

Memberships for 2025-2026 are now due, you can do so online HERE or pop in to collect a form and complete payment. Memberships are now $10 per person annually.

Highlights

Over the last year we have continued to grow and establish stronger community partnerships and development and delivery of programs and services in response to community need. Our regular/ongoing programming has continued in a stable and sustainable way that has allowed for opportunities to act on new opportunities that have emerged throughout the course of the year.

Some incredible and notable successes and expansion in the last year include, but are not limited to:

Community Value

Far exceeding the requirements under our service agreement with DFFH (Neighbourhood House Coordination Program/NHCP); we have provided over $886.90 of community value* for every hour we were open across the last year, and returned over $14.35 in community value for every $1.00 of NHCP funding.

Volunteers significantly contribute to community

Continuation of our wonderful volunteer program, and growth in volunteer engagement and participation, despite the universal downturn in volunteering in general. We have moved away from relying solely on ‘traditional’ forms of volunteering, which require ongoing commitment and considerable time, to also hosting a plethora of opportunities that cater to a diverse cross section of community, capacity and interests. Our volunteers contributed over $469,367.00 in community value* through their volunteering over the last year, an incredible contribution to civic life.

Grow Community program

Continuation of the Grow Community program in partnership with Innerbloom Gardening Therapy which has seen the management and development of the community garden blossom and provide a peaceful space for our program attendees, community and visitors. We hope to expand this program in 2026 by securing support from local services and support workers to refer clients to the program. We also plan to expand into cooking classes using produce grown by the program in 2026.

Corangamite Food Bank

We continue to expand the reach and visibility of the Corangamite Food Bank and have successfully established new distribution partners in Derrinallum, Skipton, Terang and Timboon. The service continues to grow, strengthen and receive local financial support. After years of advocacy, we secured a 2025-2026 budget contribution from Corangamite Shire for Corangamite Food Bank. This is vital security for the service as a financial base while we secure the remaining funds required to operate and grow the service into the new-year. Read more about the service, including overview of the amazing community donations received and future plans HERE.

Special events and workshops

Special events and workshop highlights include re-introduction of our Foodie Tour series of the Food Artisan Trail, the first since the pandemic, annual Easter Family Fun Day, two new mindfulness series supporting well-being (Botanic Mindfulness: sound bowl meditation and nature journaling and Winter Reset: sound bowl meditation) and the continuation of our painting workshop and Winter Warmer programs.

Food Rescue Market program

Ongoing development and delivery of our Food Rescue Market program in partnership with the Camperdown Uniting Church community meals team. Special thanks to Suzie Castle and Gwen George for going above and beyond and for sharing our vision for this program. This program has been a huge success, with a massive amount of food diverted from landfill returning to and being used by community. We are hoping to replicate this program in other areas across Corangamite in 2026. This initiative is supported by Ritchies IGA Supermarkets in Camperdown, Cobden and Timboon, Camperdown Woolworths and Western District Foodshare.

Completion of community art project

Completion of the ‘Stories that pave our way’ project funded by Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) resulting in the creation and installation of art pavers in the community garden hub, creating a wonderful intentional space to host outdoor workshops, our Grow Community program, visitors to the garden hub and more! Each paver tells a story of our community and those who participated in the project.

Knitting for a Cause program

Our knitting for a cause program continues to engage community knitters resulting in beautiful collaborative blankets which we donate to local charities.

Addressing financial barriers and future planning for sustainability

It must be noted that attendance and capacity to manage the costs of extra-curricular activities is becoming much harder for many in our community and attendance at events with a cost/ticket price is often dropping as a result of cost-of-living pressures and other financial hardship. We are working on a number of longer term fund raising and multi-year funding opportunities to bring in ‘seed funding’ to subsidise and/or cover the costs of running arts and culture workshops and events in order to reduce costs to community, ensure our local artists and facilitators are being paid and can continue to offer their services locally, and to provide more opportunities for our community to meet, gather, create and share in community building experiences,

Sector-wide campaign to increase State funding

As the world at large is going through significant financial hardship and recovery from the pandemic still ongoing, neighbourhood and community houses are of even more importance and play a vital role in supporting civic life, connection, opportunity and grass roots responses to issues impacting our communities. The new campaign “Keep Our Doors Open” coordinated by Neighbourhood Houses Victoria (NHVic) is calling on the State Government to increase annual funding to ensure NHs across the state can continue to operate and deliver for our communities. We call on our community to participate in this campaign. Find out how by visiting: https://www.nhvic.org.au/post/keep-our-doors-open-campaign

It is such a privilege to be serving our community through community development based principles, and we cannot wait to see how 2026 unfolds, we have big plans!