Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

After 17 long years as an itinerant community and social justice service on the Blackall Range, the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre has at last found a spacious new permanent home in Bicentenary Lane, Maleny. The Centre will be officially opened by the State Government in April but the MNC will be holding a public open day on Saturday 20 March to showcase the new centre to the Maleny community.

“Volunteering – an important part of life for Rhonda Hetzel”

Rhonda (left) with volunteer recepionist, Claire.

WHEN Rhonda Hetzel took on the task of coordinating the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre four years ago she added another level of professionalism to the way it was run, and with its new, purpose-built building in Bicentenary Lane the centre is flourishing. Rhonda took time out of her busy schedule to explain the role of the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre to Hinterland Times Editor, Michael Berry.

“We were given a grant for this Centre because of the lobbying of Carolyn Male. But we don’t own it. We lease it for a peppercorn rent, on Council-owned land . Although we’re in a government building that we don’t own, the Department of Communities has been very good to us. We are an unfunded centre which means that everyone who works here is a volunteer. We don’t have any paid staff.

“We got a gambling fund grant to furnish the building, but we need money to run the centre. It probably costs $25,000 a year to run the centre so we need to get sponsorships for some of the programs we’re running. We definitely need community support to keep us going “We’ve been told this is your building now. You make it work for you. That’s my philosophy anyway –to get the community engaged with the neighbourhood centre, and to connect up with other local organisations. We need to get people in here having their meetings, and making use of the building. We get paid rent, and that’s one of the ways we will pay our way.

People still ask what is the neighbourhood centre and what does it do. There are several centres on the hinterland including Beerwah, Mooloolah, Landsborough and Conondale.

“Basically what they all do”, says Rhonda, “is they respond to the needs of the people who come through the door. They also reflect the type of skills of the volunteers. So for instance they might focus on the older people or their youth or life skills.

“In Maleny we are very focused on youth because we have the flexi-school, and one of our aims this year is to establish a youth program.

“When the neighbourhood centre was first set up it was for homeless people, people on the dole, youth -all those people who slip through the cracks and we fail to see them, or don’t want to see them. What I love about being here is that we’re actually saying to all those people we respect you enough to have this beautiful building and this is your place. So we’re not telling them they’re insignificant and invisible anymore.

“Over the past year our clientele has changed. We now get pensioners and old Maleny dairy families coming in and saying they can’t cope. So, we’ve developed programs to help those people. We take them out on bus trips. We have morning teas for them. We teach them how to clean their home easily in a green way without buying all those chemicals that cost a fortune. We talk about cooking from scratch and different ways of shopping and all sorts of things that really do help to support them.

“We’ve got a free legal service that operates every fortnight and is manned by volunteers – most of whom are Maleny lawyers. It’s a two hour session. Anyone in the community can ring up. It’s free and not means tested.

Head teacher at the flexi school, Brad Owens, with teachers

The flexi school is located in its own suite of rooms in the centre. It takes young people who don’t fit socially into the local high school. It is incorporated within the state education department and it liaises closely with Maleny High School staff. Head  teacher is Brad Owens assisted by John Mays and teacher’s aid, Carol Ferriday.

Our bus is also used to pick up food from the food bank in Brisbane for our emergency assistance. When people don’t have anything to eat, they can come to us and we will give them groceries.

Homelessness is a problem in Maleny even though some people don’t believe it is a problem. There is the presumption that this is a wealthy community and therefore there is no reason for anyone to be homeless.

Rhonda says there are about 20 homeless people at any one time. They are mostly young people but there are also women over 60.

“When there are homeless people in town -which is always”, says Rhonda. “ they can come here and have a shower. They can wash their clothes and dry them. That situation is dire because there is no emergency housing anywhere in Queensland. There’s nowhere to send them. There are no vacancies in hostels. We have lots and lots of people couch surfing in Maleny, or sleeping under the bridge.

“We have two people who work in the building who are paid by other agencies. One is a family relationships worker. She works with families with children aged up to eight years. She looks at how the family is functioning and tries to help them. It might be for a short time or it might be for years. We also have a family relationships hub, where couples may be breaking up and we can offer them counselling – that’s an outside service we can offer.

“We’ve also got a community development worker three days a week and she works with other centres. She has experience in community and youth work and is a great help to me.

One wonders how Rhonda survives if she’s not paid. Her background is writing and she still writes for Burke’s Backyard magazine, as well as writing a book. She is also regarded as the most popular female blogger in Australia, getting paid for advertising on her blog site.

“It’s a struggle to fit everything in”, says Rhonda who spends three days a week running the centre as well as countless hours at home. “This is really a full-time job, but I have a lot of eggs up in the air and I hope I don’t drop too many of them”, she adds with a laugh.

“Whatever I do, I do it to the best of my ability, whether I am paid for it or not. Volunteering in the community is a very important aspect of my life. I have had a good life and I want to give back some of what I’ve had. That is why I am here and I hope that because I do my best, people will respect it and I will be seen not just as a volunteer but as an important member of the team.
Contact: Rhonda Hetzel, rhonda@malenync.org.au

Humble Beginnings…

The Maleny Neighbourhood Centre began in 1993 when a group of concerned Maleny residents recognised the need to develop supportive responses to families, young people and people with special needs. The organisation was incorporated in 1994 and became the first community association in Maleny that had a specific purpose to address poverty and social disadvantage in the area.

When they started, the organisation rented a small space in the RSL Hall, which limited its activities. So, they focused on active projects out in the community and not in the Hall. Over the years the MNCA has moved several times, always looking to develop programs and services that respond to the community within the limitation of the premises they were in.

They are now operating five days a week Monday to Friday from their own purpose-built building at 17 Bicentenary Lane.

“A Vision come true for Howard Buckley”

Howard Buckley, key founder and long term president of the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre.

MALENY RESIDENT Howard Buckley has been at the forefront of setting up and guiding the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre over the past 17 years – it’s a vision come true for this dedicated community worker.

“The journey of the neighbourhood centre has been about people in the community being there for other people in the community”, says Howard. “They have struggled together to try to do things for other people, and to work with other people to make things happen. So, having a new centre will enhance that immensely.”

Tertiary trained in community welfare and social planning, Howard has spent 25 years in community development. He is currently managing a youth service in Deception Bay. It was a youth crisis 17 years ago that sewed the seed of a neighbourhood centre in Maleny.

“Back in 1993 when the neighbourhood centre first began it was a time when there had been a spate of suicides” says Howard. More than 100 people turned up to a meeting and out of that the neighbourhood centre was formed.

“There’s been one core thread right throughout”, adds Howard,” and that is about people’s commitment. Without setting ourselves above any other community group, a neighbourhood exists because the people involved want to see other people in their community get help.

They want to give to their community and I guess that’s the heart of what a neighbourhood centre is all about – social justice. The head part of the centre is about the planning and the strategies we use to get there – essentially partnering with other organisations, particularly with those on the Coast because we don’t have those resources in Maleny. For example, mental health – we’ll never ever get government funding to provide a mental health service in Maleny, and it’s a problem that’s growing in our region. So, we create the hub so that they can come here to provide those services.

The new building is a dream that began in 1998 when again, a group of concerned people began planning a “space” that could be a hub for community services in Maleny, particularly for young people.

“We developed a concept plan for a new centre called Centre for Youth Community and Arts Development (CYCAD). It would provide a shared home for the MNC and the Maleny Flexi School. Carolyn Male took the CYCAD plan and knocked on the doors of every State Government minister in an attempt to get funding for the proposal. Eventually in September 2006 the then Treasurer Anna Bligh dedicated the funds to make the concept a reality.

This began a long process to find suitable land, building designs, and eventually making the whole project become a reality by building it!”

“Being here from the very start I have seen some difficult times for the MNC –judgementalism, ignorance and even malicious attacks on the centre from people who don’t understand what we do. At times we wondered how we were going to continue so I guess this is a moment of celebration, not only for what we have achieved but how we have achieved it. Having this wonderful building is certainly an exciting phase in our history, yet it is just another chapter in our story of how people working together in a respectful way can achieve good things for other people”

A volunteer management committee is headed by Howard Buckley, and after 17 years he says it’s probably time for him to take a lower profile.

“My passion is working with young people and maybe in the future I will work with the flexi school on a voluntary basis. Professionally I started in youth work 25 years ago and now I am managing a youth service, so I guess that’s a thread for me – continuing to work with young people.”