Mary-anne Evans
We’ve had the unfortunate experience the last few years at Bucaan of running at a loss. This last year a net loss of $101,000. It was actually $140,000, the loss we ran at. And that’s having existing staffing to manage the house and the garden. And there’s no increase in funding coming. We lobbied hard for an increase in funding, and so far we’ve not seen any funding being offered to us. And we just can’t employ people to manage the space without that funding.
Lucy Breaden
How much funding are you seeking?
Mary-anne Evans
To run the garden with two part-time staff and to do all the activities we do and events is around $170,000 a year.
Lucy Breaden
And have you lobbied the state government for that?
Mary-anne Evans
We’ve let them know what’s happening and we’ve certainly lobbied state government for much more than that because the garden is one of our programs and activities. So we run 47 activities through the house, including the garden. And we’re only funded in theory for 1.8 staff. Yeah, it’s not enough. We can’t do what we’re doing as much as we’re doing without an increase in funding, especially because there’s been so many changes in what we deliver and the expectation on houses. There’s been a real shift from being a social cuppa and chat place to moving into core service delivery and prevention.
Lucy Breaden
Have you had any word back from the state government about whether they can offer you that funding in the upcoming budget?
Mary-anne Evans
No, we’re still hopeful because that budget hasn’t been announced, but they’ve not let us know that there is anything there yet. We have got people in our community that are also speaking to politicians. They’ve started a petition to try and save the space. So they’re just community members trying to do that off their own back. Last week, I had people ringing as soon as we announced it. And by the end of the week, I was just a big wet mess because people were crying and I was crying. And it’s really hard to see our community members that have worked so hard to get that space to where it is now and those activities functioning as well as they do and giving back to community so much. Yeah, seeing them suffer because they know that this closes pretty close without funding.
Lucy Breaden
So tell us a little bit more about this community garden and why it is just so important to the area and to the families there.
Mary-anne Evans
The space is available for anybody to access at any time. So it’s an open garden. It’s very pleasurable to sit in and to contemplate life or to walk around and pull some weeds. It’s accessible, so wheelchair accessible as well. We’ve put a lot of work into the space and we currently man two days a week to run our community lunch, our community garden, volunteering day and our play group. Lots of other activities happen there as well. But the space is really, really special for our community and has been well loved for the last 12 years since I’ve been here and well before my time.
Lucy Breaden
And it sounds like, and it feels, you know, you’ve mentioned the cost of living crisis we’re in that neighbourhood houses and community centres have never been more important, especially in lower socioeconomic areas.
Mary-anne Evans
Exactly. When I first started here, Lucy, there were 60 people a week accessing the house and we see around 900 people a week now through our activities and programs. So there’s certainly a higher need and there’s certainly, and I’m not just talking about cost of living, people are feeling isolated and they need somewhere to go where they can connect with other people in their community too.
Lucy Breaden
Oh, certainly. I visit mine regularly and I absolutely love it for that, you know, connection with other families, with little ones as well.
Comments are closed.