The Ballarat Community Hub

The Ballarat Community Hub is the Foundation’s vision of an affordable, modern working and meeting environment where the region’s not-for-profit, social service and community organisations can operate and collaborate on resolving key social issues.

The project began with the Foundation’s own experience of moving from one unsatisfactory tenancy to another. It became clear that in order to break the cycle, the Foundation would need to purchase its own building.

As they engaged real estate agents in their search, they discovered that countless other charities and NFPs in the region were also struggling to find suitable accommodation. Purchasing a new building wouldn’t just solve the Foundation’s own tenancy issues; it had the potential to offer a solution for the whole community.

In 2018, the Foundation purchased Chatham House, a three-storey building in central Ballarat, with a vision to create the Ballarat Community Hub.

Through 2019 and 2020, the Foundation undertook exploratory work to create and assess the vision for the Hub, engaging external consultants Deloitte to assess community need and the sustainability of the redevelopment.

Deloitte’s study found glaring gaps in suitable tenancy and meeting spaces for small organisations, who were either unable to afford commercial rates or unable to access adequate digital capabilities within their current operational environments.

‘Small not-for-profits and community organisations simply cannot afford commercial tenancy and meeting rates,’ says Ballarat Foundation CEO Andrew Eales. ‘And they are desperate for access to digital capabilities, particularly in light of the massive change in communications provoked by the Covid-19 pandemic.’

Deloitte’s report also identified the potential for revenue from tenancies and meeting room hire to be utilised as the Foundation’s corpus building activity, with the benefits to sustainably flow back into community causes through grants – creating a full circle of positive impact.

Responding to the report, the Ballarat Foundation formed plans to redevelop the building and to attract community and government support to bring the project to fruition.

The Foundation formulated a business case with a focus on creating an innovative, modern space where tenants could engage in problem solving and cross-organisational strategies. They developed building plans and obtained a planning permit from the City of Ballarat. Throughout the entire development process, the Foundation engaged in the GROW (Growing Regional Opportunities for Work) Ballarat program to support the use of local trades, services and young people.

In April 2022, the State Government of Victoria announced it would invest more than $1 million in the redevelopment project, praising the Hub’s ability to enhance and align with existing community needs and government plans. With this funding, staged redevelopment will begin in 2023.

However, the Foundation is already engaging not-for-profit organisations in the building. The Raven Collective, a start-up charity that supports women fleeing family violence, has taken up a tenancy, utilising the affordable rates to support the creation of their program.

The Ballarat Community Hub is a terrific example of how a community foundation can facilitate and create a long-term solution to an ongoing problem. The Foundation worked across sectors and levels of government to research, attract significant funding and ultimately implement plans.

The Hub is already delivering results for small organisations driving change within the Ballarat community; it has the potential to grow long-term program outcomes for decades to come.

Read more about the Ballarat Community Hub here.