Meet Your Neighbour
MHCC's new approach to encourage organisations to meet, learn more about each other and find ways to work better together.
Who are the neighbours?
Your neighbours are those targeting the same groups or delivering similar or complimentary services in your geographic area, particularly sharing an interest in mental health.
Why it's important to meet the neighbours
It's all about community
We need a community working together to address need and our neighbours are part of that community response. No one organisation or person can meet all the complex and diverse needs of those who come to us for help.
There is so much happening - new services & new people.
The sector is so diverse and dynamic with new programs and services being established all the time in different locations and new staff and personnel coming on board in different agencies. We all need to keep up to date with what is happening, the services available and the people behind them. This helps us have confidence in our referrals.
Everyone is important
Sometimes those of us who run small but important and effective pograms either don't think that anyone else would be interested or wonder why some people have never heard of us. Because no one size fits all in our responses, everyone is important in providing a range of services and we need to keep talking about the services we provide and keep listening to what others can do. Sharing and learning from each other helps us all grow and improve, both big and small.
Start with those around you
Meeting your neighbours is the first step in the process of getting to know them and the services they provide and what better way to get to know your neighbours than to have them visit you, see where you are and meet your team? Experience has shown that through Meet Your Neighbour, referral pathways have been established, clients/consumers have been better matched to programs and responses to consumer needs have been more informed of options and services.
What happens at a "Meet Your Neighbours" event?
One organisation in a particular area volunteers to be the host (with different organisations taking it in turns to host future events). MHCC works with the host organisations to send out the invitations, manage the responses and to organise morning or afternoon tea.
The get-togethers are meant to be somewhat informal with input from the hosts and plenty of time for networking and sharing individually but a typical program runs like this:
- Chat over tea or coffee on arrival
- Welcome by MHCC
- Introductions of those present
- MHCC shares about our work
- Host organisation shares about their work
- Other organisations share about their work or particular projects (as time permits)
- Sharing and networking over tea & coffee and light refreshments
Those coming are welcome to bring any material about their organisation or projects to share.
How long do they take?
Usually 2 to 2 and a half hours. Meet Your Neighbour events morining events usually start between 10am and 11am to finish 12.30pm to 1.30pm and afternoon events start at 2.00pm to finish by 4.30pm. Check the details for each event to confirm the actual starting and finishing time.
How often are they held?
The frequency depends on those who are interested volunteering to host in each location or area. The aim is that different organisations will host each occasion so we get a chance to meet different neighbours over time.
Where are they being held?
Meet Your Neighbour events have been and are being scheduled all over Sydney and NSW. To check details of upcoming events, please enter the words Meet Your Neighbour into our What's On search.
Meet Your Neighbour opportunities scheduled for 2010:
NOTE: Dates of future eventsare subject to change. Please check our Whats On section and select MHCC Events for up to date details.
Anglicare Maroubra PHaMs 25 March – St John’s 339a Maroubra Rd Maroubra 10.15am
Centacare Griffith 26 March – 140 Yambil St Griffith 1.30pm
Aftercare Maitland 21 April – 2/541 High St, Maitland 10am
Neami Bankstown 6 May – Suite 102, 8 French Ave Bankstown 10am
On Track Community Services 28 May - 34 Cunningham St Tweed Heads South 2.30pm
Break Thru People Solutions The Entrance 16 June - The Entrance Community Centre Battley Ave The Entrance 10am
Break Thru People Solutions Parramatta 8 July - Level 6, 20-22 Macquarie St Parramatta 10am
Mental Health Association 15 July - Level 5, 80 William St East Sydney (Darlinghurst) 10am
ACON Newcastle 21 July - 129 Maitland Rd Islington 10am
Neami Smithfield 20 August - Suite 3, 327 Woodpark Rd Smithfield 2pm
Pioneer Clubhouse Balgowlah 31 August - Lot 2 Quirk Rd Balgowlah 10am
Home In Queanbeyan 21 September
Waminda Nowra 19 October
Aftercare Special Needs PHaMs Lilyfield 11 November
Our hosts so far:
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Around Sydney
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Around NSW
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Find out more information or volunteer to host
Contact Rod West at MHCC 02-9555 8388 ext 110 or rod@mhcc.org.au