Neighbourhood House Week is an annual national celebration, recognising the important contribution over 1,000 neighbourhood houses make in local communities across Australia.

In 2021, it was held from Saturday 8 May until Friday 14 May.

Given the extraordinary efforts of neighbourhood houses during Victoria's 2020 coronavirus lockdowns, in Victoria this year's theme was 'Honouring our community heroes during COVID'. The aim is to shine the light on those who went above and beyond to support others during this unprecedented time in our state's history.

During Neighbourhood House Week, neighbourhood houses are encouraged to run COVID-safe activities and events, and share their own local heroes through social media. It's also a chance for people who participant in neighbourhood houses to say thanks!

About the theme

Our sector's staff and volunteers worked incredibly hard under very difficult circumstances, to support their communities during the lockdown periods. With the sudden surge in unemployment, anxiety, and social isolation all putting the health and wellbeing of Victorians at risk, our 400 neighbourhood houses and 16 networks proved their resilience and determination.

During the lockdown periods:

• 96 per cent of neighbourhood houses continued to deliver for their communities in some capacity while many other services closed completely
• 45 per cent ran food relief programs, responding to a significant rise in demand due to sudden unemployment and forced isolation
• Those which provide childcare continued this service for essential workers and vulnerable parents
• Many adult education providers adapted to online delivery to keep their students engaged
• Many houses provided some of the following services:
  • shopping deliveries for groceries and medications
  • wellbeing calls
  • support hotlines
  • letterbox drops
  • social media engagement
  • online social gatherings
  • technology training and support
  • device hire
  • mask creation and distribution
  • scrubs creation for health care workers
  • administrative support (e.g assisting people with obtaining permits etc)
  • relaying official COVID information in English and other languages

Above all else, neighbourhood houses provided a continued sense of community, which was incredibly important during the long periods of forced isolation, as well as some much-needed certainty for those doing it tough. For this, we say thank you! You are all heroes.

In later 2020, Neighbourhood Houses Victoria started a COVID Heroes campaign to shine a light on the leaders within our sector. To find the posts on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, search #COVIDNHHEROES

How we celebrated

Here are just a few of the celebrations which took place across the state: