The door is always open at Outlets Co-Operative Neighbourhood House
Outlets Co-Operative Neighbourhood House, fondly known as ‘Outlets’, is a not-for-profit organisation that’s been part of the fabric of Newport for over forty years. It is one of the oldest Neighbourhood Houses in Victoria.
It commenced its services in 1973 when it was known as ‘The Fun Factory’, offering out of school hour programs to families.
Since then it has grown to provide a diverse range of programs with a community development and educational focus, including occasional childcare, disability support, activities for seniors, multicultural groups, health resources and school pathways.
The Mason Street site’s facilities include meeting rooms, a multipurpose room and a children’s playground.
A familiar face at Outlets is the director, Therese McKenney OAM, who first worked at Outlets as a facilitator of craft workshops and has been part of the organisation for 35 years.
Therese is passionate about Outlet’s community development work, being a beneficiary of such support herself many years ago.
“While our programs are targeted at the disadvantaged, all members of the community are welcome.”
THERESE MCKENNEY
“Thirty-five years ago I moved from Sydney to Melbourne as a sole parent with my son. I had no family, no connections,” Therese reflects. “I realised that my son needed to build a social network, so I took him to a childcare centre on Norfolk Street, Yarraville. I later became a director at Norfolk Street.”
Therese was also a keen crafter and one day a chance encounter with a stranger made her think that perhaps she could turn her hobby into a business. She completed a ‘Train the Trainer’ course, sent out her resume and was engaged by thirteen community centres to teach the making of Christmas crafts and toys.
“After that I visited Outlets a lot, teaching everything from knitting to sewing to quilting. I joked that I might as well have brought my bed in here, I was here all the time facilitating these workshops,” laughs Therese.
“Later on I was asked whether I was interested in being the director. I jumped at the opportunity - it meant that I could apply my corporate accounting skills and my experience in working in Neighbourhood Houses to impact the lives of other people in a meaningful way.”
The goal of Outlets is to provide emotional support, information, services and referrals for the alleviation of poverty, distress, misfortune, destitution and helplessness.
“While our programs are targeted at the disadvantaged, all members of the community are welcome,” explains Therese. “Basically we help people when they’ve gone through a big change in their life - whether it’s from having a child or needing help with a migration form. We provide emergency relief and social connection to thousands of people every year.”
As a cooperative, Outlets relies on member donations, grant submissions and Council funding to keep it operating.
Therese smiles, “Our hope for Outlets is that it’s a friendly, welcoming place where people in our community feel comfortable to drop in whenever they wish.
“The door is always open and we are here for them.”
