Barrbunin Beek means ‘happy place’ in Woiwurrung language.

It's a gathering place in West Heidelberg for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to connect with Elders and each other, practice and celebrate culture and build community wellbeing.

It was established more than 10 year ago, delivers a range of programs and activities and promotes access to essential services for the local Aboriginal Community.

To make sure the work we do is meeting your needs, it's important that we regularly hear from you.

Since the Olympic Cults Cricket Club moved, Barrbunin Beek is the only tenant of the Barrbunin Beek building.

This gave us a chance to upgrade the building and provide more spaces to meet and deliver programs, which is great news for the community!

This was also a time when, with the support of the Committee of Management, we could take meaningful steps to be independent. As part of this, we invited conversations with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community to set a course for the future.

53 community members responded to a survey in 2023 to tell us what Barrbunin Beek meant to them and what they wanted from the gathering space in the future.

Community engagement in 2023 helped us to:

• develop an approach to working with the community to inform our purpose, mission and strategic direction
• make sure all voices are heard and valued
• ensure cultural safety
• develop and strengthen Barrbunin Beek's organisation model.

To give everyone a chance to participate, we ran a number of engagement activities.

• Online survey - this was promoted at large community events and on our Facebook page.
• Program participant conversations - we asked people attending our existing programs to complete the survey or tell us what they see as the future of Barrbunin Beek.
• Community consultation - we held community workshops with anyone wanting to participate.
• Yarning sessions - we invited Elders and members of the community to yarning sessions. These sessions were less formal, free flowing conversations capturing participants' perspectives on the space.

Consultation also occurred with the Barrbunin Beek Committee of Management.