Kate Finlay is the administrator of Doreen Community Voice, a social media site devoted to community issues.
We started Doreen Community Voice on Facebook in January, exclusively for residents. We were amazed when membership grew to 300 in just three weeks and are thrilled that more than 1300 people are now members.
One aspect of the Voice is watching out for each other. We just got a $1000 grant from the City of Whittlesea for crime prevention. It is crime prevention at a local level, where we watch out for unusual activity in the community, warn people to keep an eye out for unfamiliar cars and just generally watching your neighbour’s back.
People get different things from the Voice, whether it be just to chat and keep it light-hearted, seek opinion and recommendations for products and services, or to seek support when needed.
The Voice is an important platform for everyone to discuss both the positive and negative aspects of living in such a beautiful new area. Public transport, schools, crime prevention, community engagement and awareness are all topics discussed in some way each day.
Since the Voice emerged, other Facebook pages and groups involving Doreen have emerged, including a local Doreen business page, an action page to lobby for the Whittlesea police station to become a 24-hour station and — one close to my heart — a lost and found animal welfare page to broadcast whenever we’ve found or lost a furry loved one.
The Voice has gone through its ups and downs, yet has matured into a popular and important social media forum.
With social media intertwined in our day-to-day lives, Facebook has become the ideal catalyst for people to keep in touch and up-to-date, and for community groups to develop.
Along with my fellow admins, Peter Phillips and Nicole McLeish, I love that the people of Doreen use the Voice for all the different issues all day every day.
It’s a pleasure to be involved with such a strong community base. We always say DCV would never have taken off and been this successful without the Doreen residents.
