Loganlea Community Centre
This page contains a brief history of the Loganlea Community Centre and the Loganlea Community Association Inc.
In 2002 The Department of Housing, Community Renewal program was facilitating community meetings at Loganlea High School. From these meetings a strategic plan was developed for the Loganlea community.
Identified in that plan, by many residents, were issues with accessing the Community Centre. Over the following few years of the Community Renewal Program, a core group of residents evolved, many of whom had identified similar issues.
In 2003, Logan City Council announced that all community facilities managed by local groups, would, upon renewal of leases, be open to public tender. The Loganlea Community Centre was one of the first centres to go through this process. Prior to this the "core" group at Community Renewal (CR) became an incorporated association and when tenders were invited, this new association with support from CR, Logan East Community Centre and others, competed against seven (7) other groups (including the existing management committee) to become the successful incoming management committee. As a condition of the lease, the operations of the centre were mentored by Logan East Neighbourhood Association for the first two (2) years.
The group received the keys to the door in December 2003. There were no furnishings, not even a light globe. Council provided some chairs and tables on loan and Linda Fletcher borrowed a filing cabinet and desk from her workplace. Committee members brought in light globes and toilet paper from their homes and Cr Pam Parker allocated some funds to support the association in these early days - as she continues to do today.
Two community consultations were held in January and the information collected was collated and is still on file now as to what residents identified they would like to see happening at the Centre. These consultations were attended by around 100 people.
The Centre officially opened by this group that same month and was run entirely by volunteers (mostly those from the management committee at the time). A small grant of around $23,000, known then as "seed funding", from CR enabled the group to purchase desks, pens, photocopier, fax etc. Over the next few years funding was received from the following organisations:
- New building - CR.
- Part-time family support worker - Jupiter's (12 months funding).
- Community Capacity Builder (CCB) and administration workers - CR (2 years funding).
- Another family support worker position - Casino Benefit (12 months funding).
- Small activity grants - Learning for Life, for short term activities eg school holiday bike workshops, receptionist training, 3 people to a 2 day MYOB training
- Small grants from Cr Pam Parker
- Logan City Council - Lady Mayoress etc for blinds and air conditioning.
- Department of Heritage/Environment - water tanks and community garden.
- Volunteer grant - current - Jupiter's.
- Volunteer Small Grants – electronic whiteboard Grant
Numerous other submissions have been submitted, but have been unsuccessful.
Some quick points:
- CR based their Loganlea Facilitator at the Centre for two (2) days per week for a period of time (this contributed to rental income etc).
- New building officially opened in April 2006.
- Volunteers and previous committee members put in a lot of work in those early days, often led to burnout.
- Still three (3) original committee members on the committee in 2007.
- Became a designated "Family Centre" in 2006 under the Communities for Children Federal Funding. The money goes to other groups to provide early childhood activities.
- Working relationships formed - Salvation Army, Youth Family Services (YFS) and Lifeline and more.
The goal of the association has been to have an 'open door' so people can access the Centre and to have the needs of the community met, to provide affordable activities for families and to improve the quality of life in the community.
It is very important to the Management Committee that we keep the doors open of the Centre and to "be there" for our community.
Linda Fletcher
24 April 2007