Neighbourhood Houses use a community development approach, which is an inclusive, fair and responsive approach to creating solutions within communities. This approach encourages active participation, consultation and involvement by individuals and groups of people to make changes in their communities on issues that affect them. It is about drawing people together to unite and run with a possibility.

The role of Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania is to support Houses in their work by, for example, providing advocacy and lobbying to government on social issues of concern; sourcing or developing resources and training opportunities; delivering an annual state wide Conference; supporting regular regional meetings of Houses.

The program...

Community service organisations find themselves at a critical juncture in their operations following the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. For front line services such as Neighbourhood Houses this is particularly true.

Neighbourhood House staff and key volunteers are dealing with their own, personal struggles with the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions, while at the same time trying to support their local communities. 

The Team Care workshops are designed specifically for Neighbourhood House workers to support their mental health and wellbeing in the workplace and promote healthy team relationships.  

This training program is designed by a qualified mental health social worker to facilitate learning and reflection with regard to the acute and ongoing impacts that COVID 19 has upon the people that provide services to the community. 

The purpose of engaging in a process of reflection and discussion is to foster connection and cohesiveness amongst team members, with the understanding that individuals in those teams will have had a diverse range of personal experiences during the recent period of lockdown, and continuing social restrictions. 

Following these discussions, we will examine self-care from a team perspective, rather than the traditional individualised approach to self-care. The identification of workplace-based fulfilment factors is designed to create shared language and intention amongst team members to work together in a manner that is harmonious and supportive. 

The training is designed as a starting point to building a strong foundation for team support and reflection. Through this training the teams will develop the skills to come together and work through issues that arise. Self-care is an ongoing process and this is particularly true in a team context.