Port Melbourne Neighbourhood Centre offers a variety of services:
Voices of the South Side
VoSS offers a suite of courses and training workshops for government and community organizations as a part of a small social enterprise that has been developed over 10 years.
The graduates of our program are trained in communication, public speaking and advocacy skills. They are skilled at using their knowledge and personal experience to educate the community and health workers, advocate on behalf of behalf of others and contribute to policy.
In addition, they are trained as community researchers who can collect information as peers from different groups that can be seen as traditionally difficult to engage.
We have completed a number of projects for the following clients:
- Consumer Affairs Victoria
- Australian Bureau Statistics Census
- City Of Port Phillip
- Star Health
“Port Melbourne Neighbourhood Centre was fantastic to work with, offering logistic and recruitment support to ensure our research sessions ran smoothly and were well attended. The attendees of the sessions provided fantastic insights by giving open and honest feedback about their personal experiences living in rooming houses. This research will play an integral role in helping Consumer Affairs Victoria better communicate with rooming house residents about their rights and responsibilities.” Shana Commack, Education and Online Services, CAV, 2017
An eight week course that teaches students from marginalised backgrounds how to communicate with confidence and find their voice. Participants learn about communication styles, professional behaviours, how to behave in meetings, public speaking and how to advoacte for themselves and others.
A four session course that teaches people how to design and conduct surveys, interview and engage with people from all backgrounds. There is a strong emphasis on safety, professional behaviour and how to manage personal reactions in confronting situations. We run courses for organisations who want consumers to conduct surveys for their organisations and collect data for evaluation purposes. This includes providing workshops for two local Councils to collect data for their Health and Well Being Plan and a local organisation collecting initial data in order to plan a five year health promotion project.
“The City of Port Phillip Community Health and Service Planning Department have utilised the skills of the community researchers and graduates of Voices of the South Side in a wide range of projects over the past few years. The community researchers have provided quality observation and interview-based research for the development of the Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan, Community Safety surveys, and Vibrant Villages research. Additionally, Council has utilised Voices of the South Side (VoSS) graduates in a variety of ways including as researchers, presenters and peer educators. On each occasion the project was exceptionally well-managed with the project objectives and key performance indicators met on time and to budget. ALICIA HOOPER, Coordinator, Health Equity & Social Justice, City of Port Phillip, 2017
Our graduates are employed to reach populations where they are more likely to give honest feedback to peer researchers. In addition to the eight week Speaking Out course, they complete the Community Research Course as outlined above. They are confidient to go to places where professionals may feel uncomfortable or too conspicious. VoSS can help to create the surveys, give feedback on what techniques would work to engage marginalised populations, do scheduling and pre and post debrief sessions. Our reserachers are ready to work at very short notice.
Our graduates have helped to create and facilitate a fun and innovative workshop designed to encourage government and community sector staff reflect on their own practice through hearing the experiences of service users.
Customer Feedback:
“Fantastic hearing real experiences and having a safe space for the sharing of stories is a broader community service. It gave me a good insight into how community participants experience services and how workers can help better.” Star Health, 2016
“VoSS created a ‘fishbowl’ activity to skilfully share the insights of people with lived experiences of homelessness for the launch of the Homelessness Action Strategy. Moreover, VoSS graduates provide valuable input into other community activities and Council events including Social Justice and Human Rights Day events. “ COPP, 2016
We have developed some great customer service and volunteer training packages and consultancy projects for Learn Locals and Neighbourhood Houses.
The Applied Reception Customer Service (ARCS) is a pre-accredited course that facilitates the successful understanding and acquisition of customer service, reception and office administration skills to the level that students/volunteers will be ‘work-ready’ upon graduation.
The successful implementation of ARCS customer service program can produce the following outcomes & benefits for your organisation:
- Development of an Administration & reception support model that allows Coordinator time to coordinate and plan & grow and improve NC sustainability. Week 1 model – 10 hours reception cover a week, week 20: 20-30 hours week.
- Skilled volunteers -> Improved customer service & administration efficiencies.
- Improved customer service & administration -> Higher satisfaction amongst all participants & staff using the centre.
Our customers include:
- Elwood NLC
- Churchill NH
- Myrtleford NH
- Star Health.
- The ARCS Basics training package
Includes a link to an online repository with a range of downloadable and customisable ARCS training resources, including:
- ARCS Course overview & implementation plan
- ACFE PQF course plans and session plans
- Detailed weekly lesson plans, presentations, teacher resources and student handouts
- Student workbooks
- Applied ARCS training tools.
- Reception procedure manuals
- Train the trainer resources
- Volunteer induction resources and templates
- Sample copies of ARCS promotional materials & certificates
- Support information for application of extra student contact hours
Benefits. ARCS training is a detailed, tailored and contextualised reception training program for the Neighbourhood House environment. This training package has been tried and tested (over 8 years) and Course and Session Plans approved by ACFE. This package will save you time and money (our estimate this package will take you a minimum of $3500 and 4 weeks to write and develop from scratch). The ARCS program has been demonstrated to have effective outcomes. Ready for the organisation to implement quickly and the trainer to take & run with.
We are also able to provide a range of services & products to assist you with the development & implementation of your ARCS program. Please contact us if you would like further information or a quote.
- Reception systems review
Includes:
- Visit and review of reception & administration systems & recommendations for improvement (up to of 4 hours onsite)
- Consolidation & rewrite of existing reception procedures manual.
Benefits: Having a complete procedures manual is essential for the delivery of ARCS training at reception. This support package will streamline and improve the efficiency of your systems and save you time & money by having an expert come in in and adapt this.
- Implementation & train the trainer package
Includes:
- Basic volunteer training package; plus
- Onsite trainer orientation and training (6 hours)
Benefits: You won’t have to develop your own train the trainer system, which will save you time and money. Ensuring an effective implementation of high quality or relevant training delivery.
- Intensive support and implementation (6 months)
Benefits: This is a complete training package for maximum success in ensuring effective implementation and outcomes for your ARCS program.
- Basic Volunteer training package, plus –
- Visit and review of reception & admin systems & recommendations for improvement
- Consolidation & rewrite of existing reception procedures manual
- Staff Recruitment support including Position descriptions (including up to 6 hours onsite as required)
- Volunteer recruitment support (including up to 10 hours onsite)
- Marketing support (including branding & design)
- Train the trainer ( including up to 10 hours onsite)
- Troubleshooting (phone and online)
Click here for more information.
VENUE HIRE
Room & Computer lab hire
Looking for a space to run a course or hold a meeting or a class?
We have newly renovated community spaces which can cater for small groups to large workshops:
Meeting room
Suitable for meetings, groups, classes up to 20 people.
There are plenty of tables and chairs as well as whiteboards and audio visual equipment.
Computer Room
Computer room with 10 PCs, data projector and printing facilities. All are networked and connected to the Internet (ADSL).