Hi Leanne here.

Neighbourhood houses are pretty cool right? We’re so lucky to have these hyper-local organisations funded by State (and local) government embedded in our neighbourhoods!

I thank my foremothers (because neighbourhood houses were started by women to support women) for their vision every day I come to work.

In a formal sense most neighbourhood houses run like community kindergartens, with a local community-based board setting the strategic direction and employing an Executive Officer to manage and deliver day to day operations.

But importantly, neither the board nor the EO are left to flounder …

The State Government, who provide the base level funding to 500 neighbourhood houses across Victoria also fund ‘networkers’. Julie Johnston is ours. She supports the houses in the north east of Melbourne, from Fitzroy out to St Andrews.

And yesterday, when I headed out to Watsonia Neighbourhood House for the North East Neighbourhood House Network AGM (a mouthful I know), I was reminded of how important this role is.

Speaking from my experience, when you are running a house it is possible to feel a bit overwhelmed and isolated on occasion (HR, OHS, seeking grants, board reports and management, contract management, room hire, compliance and all the other 20 gazillion bits and bobs associated with our micro-business can all sit heavily sometimes) … but hooray! this is where Julie comes in.

Julie helps all new EOs get on their feet, understand the ins and outs of their role and meet their colleagues so they feel connected and have others to talk issues through with. She helps new board members understand their role, and helps them with recruitment of EOs when needed - providing helpful context around skill requirements and interviewing. In an ongoing sense she is always available with practical and strategic advice when problems arise for the board and the staff.

She encourages and builds a kind, open, trusting and collegiate approach across the network and creates learning and sharing opportunities across the houses.

In a tiny local organisation like ours, Julie helps us contextualise our work and also helps us embrace bigger picture issues so that collectively we are one.

For example, over the last couple of years she’s built a shared network neighbourhood house understanding, advocacy platform and response around family violence … and is now fostering collective action on reconciliation.

Having such networkers, and a formal mentoring structure supporting our micro-organisations is genius really! And an integral part of the long-standing success of neighbourhood houses I think.

Anyway … thanks so much Julie for all your mostly invisible but greatly appreciated hard work.