This case study was published in "Community Development for Social Change" by Dave Beck and Rod Purcell.  It's written by Community Development Worker PJ Humphries and Assoc. Prof. Peter Westoby and highlights Community Plus+ Neighbourhood Centres in Brisbane.

Multicultural Australia operate the Redbank Plains Community Centre in partnership with the Ipswich City Council.  This is an excellent 6 month social impact study on the work of the community centre.

The Community Connect Worker program is a trial by the Department of Communities, Disability Services and Seniors in 12 Neighbourhood Centres around Queensland.  Extended until June 2019, the QFCA has recently compiled this report about the trial and its effectiveness in Queensland Neighbourhood Centres. 

Whitsunday Neighbourhood Centre played a significant role in assisting local residents affected by Tropical Cyclone Debbie.  This Natural Disaster Recovery Initiative assisted affected students with shoes and stationary packs.

This paper was written by QFCA Sector Development Officer Siobhan Delgado and was published in the journal "Parity" - The national publication of the Council to Homeless Persons.   

QCOSS and QFCA conducted a community consultation report into Queensland Neighbourhood Centres during October 2017, as part of the Queensland Government's Investment Management Standard (IMS) process.   

Neighbourhood Centre Evidence Paper produced by the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services as part of the Investment Management Standard in October 2017. 

Key Recommendations for Neighbourhood Centre funding from the Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS), Queensland Families and Communities Association (QFCA) and the Coalition of Community Boards (CoCB).  

PJ Humphreys is a Community Development Worker at Community Plus.  She has written an excellent Development Practice Thesis during her studies at the University of Queensland about Neighbourhood Centres and Community Development.  It highlights the need for Neighbourhood Centres to re-discover their key role as social reformers - an important feature of early settlement/neighbourhood houses internationally. 

Kelly Taylor is a Community Development Worker based in Brisbane.  She wrote an excellent Masters dissertation while at at Deakin University on "What approaches are Neighbourhood Houses and Community Centres in Southeast Queensland taking to adapt and survive under the current funding agenda?"   

The Queensland Families and Communities Association (QFCA) Results Based Accountability Trial was funded by the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services (DCCSDS) and designed to generate a shared understanding between DCCSDS staff and QFCA member organisations of Results Based Accountability and its application in producing an effective and practical outcome framework applicable to the work of community centres.

In early 2013, Charters Towers Neighbourhood Centre partnered with the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) program at Southern Cross University in order to explore the ways to enhance the viability and adaptability of Neighbourhood Centres during financially uncertain time periods. The research team, Dr Subas Dhakal and Prof. Robyn Keast, conducted a series of face-face-interviews and focus groups with staff members.  

This project and evaluation was conducted by Community Development Worker Chris Mundy in 2013 with a consortium of Neighbourhood Centres in the Moreton Bay Region.  The project explored the role of gender in Community Services and aimed to increase the number of men volunteering and engaging with Family Support programs.       

Neighbourhood Centres are on the front line of disaster recovery in Queensland. This project was commissioned by a group of Brisbane-based community and neighbourhood centres to analyse the role of these centres responding to local needs and issues including Brisbane’s flood crisis in 2011.

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The participating centres were: 

• Acacia Ridge Community Support Inc 

• Benarrawa Community Development Association

• Communify New Farm Neighbourhood Centre

• Sherwood Neighbourhood Centre

• West End Community House

• Yeronga Flood Recovery Centre

The first national survey of around 1000 Neighbourhood Houses across Australia.  320 000 people participate in a centre every week revealing a huge impact in local communities.    

2009 report by Gul Izmir, Ilan Katz and Jasmine Bruce of the Social Policy and Research Centre at the University of NSW on the impact of centres on children, families and communities.  

The QFCA and Neighbourhood Centres are funded under the Community Services Act 2007.  You can read the act here.