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Visit now to find up-to-date news and information on our work enabling place-based approaches to social and ecological justice.

Neighbourhood houses themselves are vulnerable to the risks of climate change and can experience disruptions during periods of heightened need. For example, when air conditioners or communications are interrupted during power outages, or when staff and volunteers are not able to get to work due to inaccessible roads or public transport. Neighbourhood houses need the support and resources to adapt and build organisational resilience so that they can minimise impacts on the health and wellbeing of their participants, volunteers, staff and the wider community.

In early 2022, the Centre for Just Places worked with a network of six neighbourhood houses in Darebin to co-design a climate action and resilience framework for neighbourhood houses. Together we developed the Darebin Neighbourhood House Network Climate Action and Resilience Plan. We used what we learnt from the process to develop a guide for other neighbourhood house networks. The guide is designed to support a network of houses through a collaborative process to identify their strategic priorities, advocacy priorities, and opportunities to collaborate to build sustainable and resilient houses and local communities, based on their strengths and the community’s needs.

Why work as a network of neighbourhood houses?

While priorities may differ at the organisational level due to the diversity of houses and their communities, strong place-based networks of neighbourhood houses exist that further build their capacity to respond to community needs.

Guidance document and attachments

Example: Darebin Neighbourhood House Network Climate Action and Resilience Plan

The Centre for Just Places supported a network of six Darebin neighbourhood houses to create a Climate Action and Resilience Plan.

Partners and contributors

This framework was co-designed by the Centre for Just Places and the Darebin Neighbourhood House Network with funding support from Melbourne’s Climate Journey. Melbourne’s Climate Journey is a community led project supporting Greater Melbourne communities to adapt to a changing climate, supported by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA, previously DELWP) and funded through the Supporting Our Regions to Adapt program.

 

For more information

Contact the Centre’s Climate Justice Coordinator – Community Partnerships and Development, Jack Piper, at jack.piper@jss.org.au.

Jesuit Social Services established the Centre for Just Places in 2021, with significant seed funding from the Gandel Foundation and the Victorian Government.

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