Neighbourhood Matters is a founding member of the Surry Hills Network. This is a newly formed monthly gathering. The Network exists to help bring community organisations and service providers together to connect locally, opening up communications, collaboration and connections with one other. The agency includes such diverse groups as St Vincent de Paul, Northcott Public Housing Estate, Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, Oz Harvest, The Salvation Army, Mission Australia, Wesley Mission, Surry Hills police, Belvoir Street Theatre and City of Sydney.
The Network brings organisations together to discuss housing and food insecurity in the inner city, especially in Surry Hills. Covid highlighted some underlying issues and challenges in this area, so we wanted to bring together local organisations to work together to address these. The concept is simple: sitting in a room with like-minded people, sharing information and finding opportunities for collaboration which helps reduce replication and bring about better outcomes for the community.
“It’s great to be in room together with so many organisations that are on the ground dealing with the everyday real issues facing the most vulnerable members of our community. We are currently thinking through ways we can work together with other similar networks and share resources. We look forward to seeing new partnerships develop for the flourishing of our community.”