The premises at 39 Landsborough St will be used as a space for community activities and classes to run from, while 261 High St will remain an education and assistance hub offering food relief, financial assistance and pre-accredited courses.
The Landsborough St location will now also be home to senior citizens programs.
ENH president Trevor Crane said the unification of the two organisations under the ENH umbrella has taken the pressure off the senior citizens.
“I think initially they were a bit wary of the changes but I think they’ve now realised that we’re here to support them in any way we can,” Mr Crane said.
ENH manager Sarah Peake said they hadn’t had to make any changes to the pre-existing senior citizens timetable.
“The funny thing is that their regular programs just meshed in with our timetable and not a single activity of theirs clashed with ours,” she said.
The vastness of the new Landsborough facility is the first thing you notice when you walk into the building.
Ms Peake said they previously had limited capacity on just about every activity they were offering from High St.
She said the building had been converted from a small four bedroom house.
“We had so many scheduling constraints because we were restricted by our room capacities,” Ms Peake said.
“The new building is just so much more spacious: there are more rooms and the kitchen is much larger, which means we can really expand on our numbers and meet community demands.”
It took all of last week for the volunteers to set up the new building, which encompasses a hall, a stage, two kitchens, 14 bathrooms, a large outdoor area, a reception area, offices and several recreational rooms.
Ms Peake said it was all hands on deck.
“We were very fortunate that all of the volunteers were willing to pitch in and help out with the move,” she said.
“I did 14 hours of overtime on top of my regular full-time hours last week. When I walked out of Landsborough St on Friday afternoon I just cried – I think it was a mixture of absolute joy and pure exhaustion.”
Now that they have ample space, ENH hopes to introduce an extensive range of activities, classes and events to their schedule.
Already they have managed to hold a free community dinner, with students from St Joseph’s College cooking up a feast for more than 50 impressed guests.
Just as the population of the community is expected to grow, Ms Peake said they had a long-term vision for facilitating that growth.
“Right now is a teething period for us,” Ms Peake said.
“It’s a time for us to think about how we can grow and what kind of obstacles are in the way of that.
“Already this morning we have identified that we will need a lot more volunteers, particularly as we do now have two locations to take care of.”
For more details about volunteering with the organisation, email info@enh.org.au
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