Building community capacity in King Valley

3 Sept 2025

"We're proud of how these ideas have all come together."

Since embarking on the Upper Murray Regional Neighbourhood House Network's "Enabling Communities: From the Heart of the Community" project, King Valley Community Centre (KVCC) has seen major growth in services and opportunities for local people.

Manager Jill Graham said, “We have had so many ideas and things that have come out of projects we wanted to happen. We now have services we haven’t had before. Doing the Enabling Communities project got it all started and we are becoming a great community facility.”

One big step forward was the purchase of a storage container, made possible through support from the NAB Bank. This has become the hub for the community resource centre, storing clothing, bedding, infant needs, kitchen items and even test-and-tagged electrical goods, ready to support people in emergencies such as natural disasters, house fires, or for those sleeping rough. Any excess donations are sold through a monthly pop-up op shop, run alongside the Lions Club market.

Building on this, KVCC secured a Victorian Government Community Food Relief Grant in 2024. With this, they have established wicking beds and converted tobacco baskets to grow fresh produce for food relief, cooking programs, and community meals. “We currently have a great crop of rhubarb and cannot pick quick enough,” Jill laughed. Weekly community meals now provide connection as well as nourishment, and the grant has enabled improvements to the kitchen, the purchase of new equipment, and vermin-proofing of the space. Toiletries will soon be added to the resource centre.

Partnerships have also strengthened, with local police supporting the project through welfare checks, delivering food orders, and referring people into the program.

Reflecting on the progress, Jill said, “Just seeing all these ideas now coming together, having services that we haven’t had before, is what I am most proud of.”