By Violet Li
Community Information & Support Cranbourne (CISC) has pulled out as a preferred tenant from the proposed Cranbourne Hub.
This means the community organisation will not move to the proposed hub on Lyall Street, and Casey Council will have to find one or more community service organisations to take its place.
CISC executive director Leanne Petrides said it was a “really hard” decision for the Committee to make, due to service incompatibility, and they “took it very seriously”.
The CISC Committee of the Governance had a “long” meeting where they went through a lengthy process of SWOT analysis of moving to the proposed hub and collocating with the other organisations and the library, and the Committee decided unanimously that CISC was not the best fit for the site and a more suitable community service site organization would ensure a more successful delivery of a community help with the library at its centre.
Cranbourne Hub was first proposed in 2023 as a “one-stop shop“, offering the community easy access to a variety of services in one location. Earlier last year, Casey Council identified two preferred tenant partners, including CISC, who were invited to participate in the co-design activity.
Ms Petrides said it was a really good process, which looked at how best to serve the Cranbourne community and to provide a landmark venture for the community as well, but at the conclusion of the co-design process, they elected to withdraw due to a couple of issues, namely the service incompatibility.
“One was about space. There was no room for us to take all of our programs,” she said.
“One of the biggest is our Christmas program, which takes up a lot of space. And, also, since we started the conversations around the co-design process, we have already increased our staffing footprint to include extra financial counselling and casework, really, really critical services for the Cranbourne community.
“We were already outgrowing the footprint that was being proposed.”
Other identified tenants for the proposed hub include Peninsula Community Legal Centre (PCLC), Connected Libraries, and Council’s Customer and Youth Services.
Ms Petrides said their clients were another consideration.
“Some of our clients are extraordinarily vulnerable, and they don’t always display behaviours that would sit well with other users of a community hub that includes a library where there would be a lot of children and parents,” she said.
“We would still want people to be able to access us, but there are times when, unfortunately, it only happens on extreme occasions, times when we have to lock our building down because of violence or aggression.
“We can do that safely where we are. If we were in the hub, there would be fewer opportunities for other users of the hub to be as safe as we would like them to be.”
CISC is located on Sladen Street in the centre of Cranbourne and was purposefully renovated during Covid by the Council.
“We’re in a pretty good space right now where we can do that safely with room to grow, with room to offer a whole variety of different programs in a safe environment for everybody,” Ms Petrides said.
She said they were aware that the decision to pull out would be potentially disappointing, but the council had been very supportive.
City of Casey Manager City and Asset Planning Keri New said while CISC had determined that the Cranbourne Hub did not align with their service requirements, their contributions to the co-design process had been invaluable in understanding how community service organisations could collaborate in an integrated space.
“Council maintains a strong and respectful relationship with Cranbourne CISC, acknowledging and appreciating the vital work they do for the Casey community,“ she said.
“Although CISC has confirmed that the Cranbourne Hub is not the right fit for their services, Council remains committed to supporting this trusted organisation, helping them continue to thrive and succeed in their current tenancy in Cranbourne.
“Future service partners for the Cranbourne Hub have yet to be identified.“
