Zara’s House in Newcastle conducts needs assessments for refugee families and focuses on location, needs, volunteers and child-minding. They emphasise providing central services and tailored support, noting trauma and differing needs depending on the family’s history and aspirations.
St George’s Road Community Hub in Shepparton highlights the importance of connection and networks for refugees. Their community garden, growing cultural plants, fosters learning, relaxation and English language development whilst promoting safety and diversity.
Darling Heights State School in Toowoomba demonstrates how partnerships with over 34 community organisations enrich refugee families and create broad pathways into the local community. Face-to-face engagement, relationship building and bilingual support ensure access to programs and help overcome isolation.
The Hub Census 2025 highlights the significant role community hubs play in building belonging, strengthening early learning, and supporting pathways to participation and employment.
This report highlights key outcomes, participation and impact from across the national community hubs network in 2025, reflecting progress at a national level and the ongoing support hubs provide to families through schools and local communities.
At the six-month mark of 2025, we look back on some of the stories of impact from our hubs network. The first half of 2025 has brought encouraging momentum – from sustaining a strong national footprint of 98 hubs to continuing the vital support hubs provide to families throughout the school year.
The National Community Hubs Program (NCHP) was established in 2013 to engage newly arrived communities at risk of limited access to education, health and social services, and opportunities for economic independence.
Scanlon Foundation Research Institute Narrative 10 – Community in the Classroom
The purpose of this, our 10th Narrative, is to highlight the success of the work of Community Hubs Australia in primary schools and to consider whether the premise behind them could be applied in a secondary school context.
Knowledge Translation to Support Early Learning of Refugee Children and their Families
The research presented in this report is based on a three-year study that focussed on developing understandings and resources to support current and future community hubs and centres with the settlement and early learning of refugee children and their families.
