All across Victoria you’ll find neighbourhood houses and community centres that are also “Learn Locals”. It’s a little known term to describe places that offer adult education in a community setting, particularly with a focus on supporting people who may have experienced barriers to learning in the past.
Here in KenFlem, we are lucky enough to have two Learn Locals – Kensington Neighbourhood House and Farnham Street Community Learning Centre.
For the past two years, we have been working together along with Debney Meadows Primary School and a whole range of other community organisations to offer the “Debney Meadows Community Hub”. Located on the ground floor of the school, with access off the park, The Hub is a welcoming, supportive space offering learning opportunities for people of all ages – from pre-schoolers to parents.
The Hub is a place-based approach to supporting the education and wellbeing of families through the universal platform of a school. It hosts playgroups and homework clubs, after school activities, and multiple learning programs for adults. The Hub even hosts its own low-cost weekly produce market run by The Community Grocer.
Recently The Debney Meadows Community Hub was recognised for excellence – winning the 2024 Victorian Learn Local Partnership Award. This award is for a partnership project that creates pathways to education and employment for adult learners.
Using The Hub as a base, KNH and FSNLC have been able to offer digital literacy training, hospitality training and a very successful micro-business course that focuses on setting up a market stall business.
Through our partnership with Service Stars Community Jobs Alliance, over a dozen participants have completed Food Handling Training. Through our partnership with The Community Grocer, participants in our micro-business course have been able to run their own market stalls at the regular Saturday market. This is a great way to put learning into action – marketing goods, testing products, building customer service skills and handling payments. Several students have gone on to set up permanent stalls at the market.
A number of local women are also employed directly at The Hub, providing childcare while adult learning programs are running.
The Debney Meadows Community Hub is a great example of small organisations banding together to offer amazing opportunities for locals.
Big thanks to everyone on the Steering Committee for this project: Debney Meadows Primary School, The Community Grocer, Farnham Street Neighbourhood Learning Centre, Cultivating Community, Edmund Rice Community Services, The Venny, Community Housing Limited, Moonee Valley City Council, Paving The Way Forward.
The next KNH micro-business course will run in 2025. Call 9376 6366 for details.
The Community Grocer Flemington Market runs every Saturday 8.30am-12.30pm at Debney Meadows Primary School
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