Empowering communities to be the heart of inclusive social change

Community Plus+ arose out of a long history of community efforts on housing and tenancy, disaster relief, mental health and family support. What began as an organisation with a West End focus has now expanded to embrace Annerley, Yeronga and West End communities.

Renowned Queensland ethicist Dr Noel Preston recalls the genesis of West End Community House in the 1950’s when the West End Uniting Church Hall was first used for a range of activities to support local community members. This tradition continued informally for many years until in 1983 West End Family Care Services was established under the auspice of the West End Uniting Church.

The service gained its first government funding for a community work program in 1986. A home was quickly found in a Uniting Church residence at 111 Vulture Street, a space shared with the local Family Day Care Program. West End Community House had arrived.

The House quickly gained prominence through its support of residents negatively impacted by World Expo 88 and in 1989, with the support of the Department of Communities, a Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service (TAAS) was established.

The aim of this service was to meet the needs of local tenants, with the focus on at-risk people affected by the Expo re-development. In November of the same year, the House moved to its current premises at 4 Norfolk Road, South Brisbane, a heritage Queenslander owned by the Queensland Department of Communities.

During the next decade many well regarded local groups and activities were seeded through the House to support some of the most disadvantaged members of the local community. In May 2000 the House established the Kurilpa Kiosk in Boundary Street, West End, in the heart of our local area, to provide additional services to homeless persons through a caring and accessible information and support service.

Since 1983 West End Community House had been managed by West End Family Care Services under the auspice of the Uniting Church. In mid-2000 the community resolved that the management structure of the organisation should move to a separately incorporated body. In 2007 full management responsibilities of the service were transferred to West End Family Care Services Incorporated.

In 2011 West End Family Care Services was the auspice for Queensland Government funding to the Yeronga Flood Recovery Centre, which had been established by committed volunteers after the Brisbane floods earlier in the year.

Subsequently the Government proposed an expansion of the West End service to encompass Yeronga as well as Annerley and funded the additional services in 2012.

Since a West End name was no longer appropriate, in 2013 Community Plus+ was adopted as the trading name of the multi-centre service with each centre retaining its own local identity and presence.

Community Plus+ centres inclusion as key to empowering local communities to generate and share resources to creatively address the changes, challenges and opportunities our city is facing now and in the next few years.

Our vision

Empowering communities to be the heart of inclusive social change.

Our purpose

To harness the strengths, resources and capacities of local people to increase the wellbeing of all. As a community led organisation, we are part of creating communities that are equal, connected and empowered.

Our Values

• Welcoming all with respect, care and joy.
• Empowering others to learn, take action and grow.
• Staying connected to people, place and our past.
• Getting creative for healing, curiosity and transformation.
• Making a difference, changing lives and our world.

Our Strategic Objectives

Providing pathways for inclusion, preparedness and sustainable growth for resilient communities

• Continue to build positivity, hope and resilience with community by providing grassroots pathways for connection, support and opportunity.
• Identify and activate additional spaces across the southside of Brisbane, including priority areas: Annerley and Rocklea.
• Build an organisational-wide evaluation framework to celebrate and communicate the impact of our work.
• Attract additional funding through partnerships, grants, and philanthropic support and manage assets responsibly, to enable sustainable growth to invest in our community.

Connecting people with meaningful opportunities partnerships and focused advocacy

• Continue to grow meaningful partnerships with First Nations peoples to amplify their voices.
•  Facilitate partnerships and engagement of community members, especially vulnerable people, to ensure inclusion and a positive legacy from the growth and transformation of our city.
• Work in partnership to advocate alongside community members and organisations on key issues contributing to growing inequality locally, including the housing crisis and climate change.
• Build more connections with community members (including volunteers) and strengthen partnerships with organisations, locally, state-wide, nationally and internationally, to share resources and empower the communities we serve.

Investing in people, practice and systems as one Community Plus+

•  Enhance expertise of employees, volunteers and board through professional development.
•  Build internal and external communication systems and processes to ensure information, impact and lessons learnt are readily shared.
•  Strengthen how our team communicates our organisational identity and celebrate our people.
•  Develop the organisational structure to align and integrate the organisation for success.

As a community-led organisation we have a strong commitment to advocate for social justice and inclusion for the wellbeing of all in our local communities.  Community Plus+ Queensland Incorporated regularly works with a range of organisations and people. This includes local individuals, government agencies, elected representatives and political candidates.

While we acknowledge and thank these individuals, stakeholders and partners who support Community Plus+ at any given time, as an independent organisation we always remain neutral and non-partisan and will not endorse any individual candidate or political party.

To be able to do our work we will always look to engage all elected representatives regardless of political persuasion.

As we seek to advocate for our communities relating to key social issues, such as the housing crisis, cost of living, reconciliation and more, we may choose to meet with, discuss and potentially support a commitment made by a party or candidate where it aligns to our Guiding Principles, including our vision, values and strategic priorities.  A decision to publicly support a political party election commitment requires consideration by our Management Committee.

Community Plus+ is also a service provider delivering Neighbourhood Centres across Brisbane Inner south, QSTARS (tenancy advocacy support), Community Resilience & Recovery services and offers venue hire, with funding grants and support from all levels of government including current local and State Government agencies. Providing these services does not indicate any support for or endorsement of a political party or individual candidate.

If a candidate or party wants to support us, either with donations or through volunteering we encourage you to do so anytime. However, we ask that you speak to our manager about our relevant protocols during caretaker periods and respect our decision to not make a political endorsement associated with your support.

For example, if you would like to join us at a community breakfast, donate to community pantries and/or volunteer time at a community activities and events, we continue to encourage you to do so.

However, a request for an ‘in-kind’ recommendation or comment on social media following a donation, participating in a media event relating to election campaigning, or tagging us in posts that compromises our independence and neutrality is not supported.

It would also not be appropriate to provide opportunities for candidates to formally address groups attending community centre activities, although individuals or groups including political parties are welcome to hire our venues to run their own engagement events.

If you are a journalist or represent a media organisation and would like to discuss Community Plus+ and the communities we work in, our preference is that you contact Manager Mel Hilditch on 0488 084 558 and in the first instance.

This policy is effective from 5th February 2024

Community Plus+ Queensland is a members-based, not-for-profit organisation.

At our Annual General Meeting, our members elect the Management Committee. The Committee are the governing body of Community Plus+ Queensland Incorporated.

The Community Plus+ Queensland Incorporated Committee employs a Manager to oversee operations and support both the Community Development & QSTARS Tenancy Advice Teams.

Our presence and ability to support the well-being of our communities is funded through Queensland Department of Communities, Tenancy Queensland and the support we receive from our many community supporters and partners.

It is notable that in community settings, every government dollar received is multiplied many times by the financial, physical, professional, technical and moral support contributed by our volunteers, our board members and our service and corporate partners and donors.

Partners are a special part of our support. Partners are relationships with people and their organisations who want to share something with us. Partnerships are connections built and maintained around an intention, on a degree of mutual give-and-take.

We have many partners. Some services are delivered through more formal partnering where we collaborate with other providers to extend our capacity to service a particular need in our communities. Each provider contributes their particular knowledge, skills, resources and community focus and this purpose-built collaboration is an effective way for community centres to play their part in the bigger picture of delivering vital services across the inner southside.

Our Corporate Support Program

In this time of accelerating change one strategy is to seek to expand our corporate support base to ensure that Community Plus+ is able to respond to emerging needs. We are looking for partners who share our vision; those who understand the importance of serving the community; and who are willing to work with us to achieve positive benefits for our community.

Case Study: Our partnership with Jacobs

Jacobs, formerly Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), has been a partner of Community Plus+ since 2010. A leading Australian projects firm with global capability in strategic consulting, engineering and project delivery, Jacobs employs some 7,500 people from more than 40 offices. When they moved out of the city to West End they took being a good citizen in the local area to a new level.

Jacob’s high level commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility has enabled them and ourselves to build a partnership agreement that spells out our shared goals and intentions and is reviewed regularly. At West End Community House, their staff gain insights into the history and social fabric of the neighbourhood and they participate in volunteering projects. For example, small teams from Jacobs have worked shoulder to shoulder with local residents to clean up after floods and disasters or to brighten up a hostel for Christmas.  Jacobs has had a great deal of input to projects designed to enhance the sustainability of West End Community House.

Examples include:

• Staff volunteering each week at our breakfast for local boarding house residents
• Planning and engineering support for the development application for the West End Croquet Club we lease from the Brisbane City Council
• Professional graphic design of logos, brochures, flyers and other resources
• A generous donation of proceeds of the raffle at their global AGM and regular top-ups with funds raised at staff events
• Supporting a company team which entered the Brisbane to Gold Coast Bike Ride
• In 2014, the Jacobs–Community Plus+ partnership was the winner of the top award for Corporate Philanthropy from  the Queensland Community Foundation

From time to time Community Plus+ has major calls to action for key strategic projects. 

Community Plus+ values our partners. As corporate partners you will be acknowledged for your support. We will keep you informed about and engaged in the work your support enables us to do.

We have suggested some ways that we would be able to acknowledge your contribution, however we will work with you to achieve the optimum benefit for both our organisations.

We salute the many volunteers and professionals who help manage, support and plan our activities. Without our amazing supporters, we wouldn’t be able to provide a range of services that we are proud of.

Public Resources

Community Profiles

Flood Recovery

Reports