From House to Home: Community Creating a Sense of Belonging

In last month’s issue, we told how co-founders Roz Holt and Rebecca Cason finally achieved their goal. They secured funding to cover 12 months of rent and overheads, allowing them to move into a place they could call home and create a space for women to connect.  

If this was a movie, picture the scene. Roz and Rebecca are so excited because they’ve signed a 12-month lease for a heritage-listed home, 720 South Pine Rd Everton Park. They get the keys to the property and are opening the door to start building their community. But each room is empty. The kitchen has no fridge, not even a kettle. They only had a few tables and four sewing machines from Roz’s business, The Craft Nest Project. Their excitement was soon deflated.

The phone call that changed it all

But just like in the movies, it was then that Roz got a call from Michelle, one of The Nest’s founding members. As luck would have it, Michelle’s boss was downsizing and had a house filled with heritage furniture. They were moving into a modern place, so the furniture no longer suited them. Would The Nest like it? The furniture suited the feel of the space but it was the handmade decorations The Nest volunteers made that transformed the house into a home.

How the community answered a call for help

To fundraise, in addition to running workshops upstairs at Everton Park, Roz ran them in other locations like Woodford Folk Festival. It soon became clear that this wasn’t sustainable and they needed to maximise the revenue potential of their own space.

Plans were developed to concrete under the house so that workshops could be run in a larger, open space. Roz recalls, “We managed to publish a website and through our Facebook page we did a call out asking for help from the local community. Over twenty people turned up! I’d never met them before but half stayed with us for years”.

Local tradie Reoz Cy Taurua of Tommy T Concreting came to the rescue. He felt a personal connection with the initiative because he’d been brought up by a single mother who, from lack of family support and community, had become drug dependent. He managed to enlist support from suppliers and reduced the cost of the project from $15000 down to just $6000.

The first Nest Haberdashery

By the end of 2016, Rebecca had left the organisation to raise her family and Roz was managing a handyman business, operating her Art practice and had a part-time job at Spotlight. Roz’s Mum, Gladys Foley (who was in her early eighties) stepped in to shoulder the responsibility of The Nest’s operations. It was truly a grassroots effort, 100% volunteer-run, with no paid staff.

But it was Roz’s experience working at Spotlight that gave her an idea. She realised that textile resources people donated to The Nest were mostly unused and people were donating more than The Nest could use. As a self-funded organisation, selling surplus materials provided some financial stability and so they started selling haberdashery from the front verandah two days a week.

The organisation hit a critical moment

However it wasn’t enough to secure the organisation’s future and over the next few years, Roz continued to apply for funding. But as a small independent organisation, opportunities were limited and she was often told ‘your idea is too out-of-the-box’.

“It was so frustrating. There was a funding pool for community centres, but that was based on giving out welfare. We didn’t want to do that because we believed there were better ways to support and empower people. We also tried to access the same funding pool as Men’s Sheds – thinking that the concepts were similar, but we were told – women don’t need a space to connect. They told us, “you’ve got libraries, cafés and your kitchen tables”.

For four years The Nest continued to evolve organically, subsisting on fundraising initiatives and volunteers’ shared passion to create a space where women could connect through craft. However, the organisation was on borrowed time. Public demand for The Nest’s services was beyond the capacity of the residential house they’d leased. Without secure funding, the organisation was in jeopardy and by 2019 it was clear that full-time strategic leadership was needed. 

A funding lifeline arrives

Local MP Tim Mander introduced The Nest to Wesley Mission and the organisation was successful in getting a $40,000 grant to cover wages for a year.
With financial support behind her, Roz adopted a new revenue approach and wanted to create a social enterprise based on the things The Nest volunteers loved.

The timing was perfect because it saved The Nest in its current situation but as luck would have it, prepared the organisation for the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic that was just around the corner.

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