Dallas Neighbourhood House (DNH) is calling for more space and hours to meet growing demand after tripling in size over the past two-and-a-half years.
Manager Leanne Cacoyiannis said the community house had reached full capacity despite expanding its programs to support residents with food relief, education and wellbeing initiatives.
“We’ve tripled in size in a matter of two-and-a-half years,” Ms Cacoyiannis said.
“We do 150-plus food parcels every week and a lot of social and health and wellbeing connection programs.
“We’re at total capacity. We’ve had to outsource a lot of our education programs because we’ve got nowhere to put them here. A lot of our programs have had to be put on hold.”
Despite the limited space, Ms Cacoyiannis expressed DNH’s wishes to grow even more.
“We want to be able to help our community. That’s what we’re fighting for. We’re wanting to grow. We want to employ more people here, whether that be more people who can work here, volunteer here. It helps everyone. That’s what Dallas Neighbourhood House is here for.”
Vice president John Rutherford said the committee was in discussions with council about expanding access to the site.
“The reason we’re looking for extra hours is to provide extra services,” he said.
“We’re in the process of change. Now we can see that there’s a need for expansion and further development. Discussions have been opened up with the council.”
Hume council has welcomed DNH’s business case, but Ms Cacoyiannis acknowledged the uncertainty ahead.
“They may say no and we don’t know where we’ll be if that happens,” she said.
Hume council told Star Weekly council officers were authorised to continue negotiations with DNH to extend the license for more operating hours. These negotiations exclude the early years and maternal and child health areas and, therefore, the programs and services that operate in this space will not be impacted.
“The negotiations also consider current user groups and regular hires as the negotiations are seeking to support the activation of underutilised spaces/times and for DNH to expand their service and run programs to maximise community benefit and the use of the facility,” council said.
