Northern Suburbs Community Centre Inc. is a not for profit organisation that operates vital services in the Northern Suburbs of Launceston including:
As part of DHHS's Neighbourhood House program NSCC's aims are to:
- Build Community (build and support community networks of inclusiveness, involvement, trust and mutual co-operation and develop community spirit)
- Support people and their families (build personal knowledge, skills and resilience and develop the health and wellbeing of individuals and their families)
- Enhance Choices (extend training and employment readiness to help individuals achieve economic independence)
Some of the more significant programs include:
- Family Links (Family Support)
- Extreme Team (Youth Service)
- Take-a-Break Childcare
- Vacation Care
- Northern NEWPIN
- The Goldies (Women's Group for the mature aged)
- Blokes United (Men's Group)
- Active Communities-Healthy Youth (Mayfield)
- Communities for Children
- Op Shops
- Numerous adult education courses
The Northern Suburbs include areas of significant social disadvantage and relative poverty including Rocherlea, Mayfield and parts of Mowbray. Disadvantage is linked to high concentrations of public housing, with Rocherlea having the highest density of public housing in Tasmania. People in these communities are isolated by poor transport links, lower rates of access to private vehicles, lack of comparable community resources and unfair social stigma.
Despite these barriers the Northern Suburbs community and the staff and volunteers of NSCC in particular, are rich in talented people with unbounded enthusiasm and a desire to work collaboratively for the benefit of the wider community.
Existing funding is largely provided by the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services, with supplemental income from special purpose grants from all levels of government and occasional corporate philanthropy and private donations.
Whilst this funding delivers some great services (including those mentioned above) that improve people's health, skills, and ability to access employment and other opportunities for social inclusion; the extent of need is much deeper than the current funding level provides for. Consequently NSCC would always welcome more volunteers and more donors.
I'd encourage all Launcestonians to become familiar with NSCC and its works.
Cash donations will be split equally between Family Support; Youth Services; Men's Health; Child Development and Special Projects including developing better transport options.
Transport has been identified as a key unmet need and priority for fundraising. This is because poor transport links are a huge barrier to effective participation in society for the people of the Northern Suburbs (and similar communities such as Ravenswood) where household car ownership rates are much lower than in affluent suburbs; significant numbers of residents are experiencing poverty and cannot afford the fares for the irregular Metro services (often forcing people to walk long distances to the City for services such as Centrelink); and there are large numbers of single parent families with young children for whom Metro bus travel is either very difficult or impractical at best.
