Wednesday, 16 August 2023

West Footscray Neighbourhood House

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, Minister for Child Protection and Family Services) (09:56): I rise today to update the house on my visit to West Footscray Neighbourhood House last week with the member for Footscray in the other place. West Footscray Neighbourhood House offers so much to communities in the electorate of Western Metropolitan, and I was pleased to hear about and see all the ways that the neighbourhood house supports the community through playgroups, community child care and leadership initiatives which empower local people to make a difference. Their toy library was particularly impressive, as was Lily Torcello, who has run the occasional care centre at the neighbourhood house for a very long time across generations of families, she told me. The neighbourhood house is also very committed to better connected services with other child and family services, and it was great to see this firsthand.

It was also delightful to see the work that the neighbourhood house put into other initiatives, such as their community pantry and their community clothing library. The neighbourhood house provides direct assistance to community members in need through donation drives and other supports, kindly restocked by members of the community both in terms of the food and in terms of the clothing. Another interesting initiative that this neighbourhood house is offering many in the community in Western Metro is a date night childminding service to give parents who do not have access to other childminding the time to reconnect and spend quality time together. This is particularly popular.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Marianne and everyone else who makes the wonderful work of West Footscray Neighbourhood House possible and in particular to thank the member for Footscray for her advocacy for this great neighbourhood facility.