Jan Phillips

Tell us about your experience in the sector?

I have worked for four years at Mooroopna Education and Education Centre (MEAC), Mooroopna’s own Neighbourhood House. I love the sector and what we can do for our community. The vibe here at MEAC is very warm and welcoming and we are working really hard to engage and work with our community in a positive, proactive, reactive, respectful, collaborative and engaged way. I have worked in community all my professional life and it is part of my DNA.

What makes being part of the Neighbourhood House sector so special?

The variation, joy and making a difference, that my job brings me every day is what makes this sector so special.

What do you hope to achieve in your time on the NHVic Board?

Greater understanding of the sector and having input into the governance.

What passions or interests take up your spare time?

I am a dynamic figure who can (in my mind) leap tall buildings in a single bound. I can pilot my (e) bike up severe inclines with unflagging vigour and speed and still appear flustered and fazed. I can cook two-minute noodles in 1.5 minutes. I can hurl slurs and filthy looks with deadly accuracy. I can have conversations where I not only say the right thing at the right time, but I can leave unsaid the wrong thing at a tempting moment. I have found that brain cells come and go but fat cells last forever. I am a deft hand at folding laundry. I have domestic goddess like style when doing housework. I can cleverly stitch people up. I can magically weave around uncomfortable issues.

OOPs I didn’t answer the question! I love all my family; friends and I am an active community member that loves getting involved in all thing’s community. I have travelled extensively, and I have even visited a Community House in Lisbon Portugal where I worked with locals to feed over 1500 people (awesome). I love reading and bike riding and I can now combine the two with my connectivity head phones where I listen to books ( and still hear traffic) and ride my bike. My greatest passion at present is being a ‘glam mar’ to my two-year-old grandson Ryder Richards what pure joy are grandchildren.

Tell us a quote that inspires the work you do?

"Be stronger than your excuses."