Building a strong community for all

Education, information, participation, a sense of common ground - these are all part of what makes a vibrant, inclusive and sustainable community. The vision behind the Huon LINC is to build on these concepts to help develop a strong community in the Huon Valley.

Walk into the Huon LINC and you might see a group of mature-aged people learning to use the internet in the Online Access Centre, while in the Library a group of three-year-olds are enjoying Story Time, a couple of teenagers are playing chess, and a group of people of varying ages – say 18 to 38 – are working on modules from their VET course.

In the Grape Room, a literacy volunteer is working one-to-one with a young man applying for a traineeship. Down a corridor lined with art from the local Aboriginal community is the Peach Room, where a Mission Australia trainer is delivering the Language, Literacy and Numeracy Programme.*

The Huon LINC Advisory Board could be meeting in one of the rooms. With representatives from right around the Huon Valley, the Board is committed to ensuring the LINC works effectively towards fulfilling the potential of the local community. Our stroll through the Huon LINC shows that it is well on the way to achieving its vision. Clients, staff, volunteers, all are engaged in exactly the kind of activities that will build a strong and sustainable community.

* Mission Australia rents space at the Huon LINC to deliver this free course aiming to remove barriers to employment.

From the Chair of the Advisory Board

I’m looking forward to seeing the Huon LINC develop and change as the needs of the Huon Valley community develop. In my working life I’ve seen massive change and that pace of change won’t slow; so it is exciting to be a part of a group designing policies and programs that will make sure the LINC moves with the times.

The aim has been to develop the Huon LINC as part of the mainstream of learning and education and not as an adjunct. This is demonstrated, for example, through Hobart College delivering the VET program from the Huon LINC.

We are already becoming the learning and development hub for the entire Huon Valley – working with Dover, Geeveston and Cygnet, the LINC is really part of life in the whole Huon Valley.

A prosperous and sustainable future for our region depends on information, knowledge and the development of a community that embraces lifelong learning as a key value and has easy access to that learning. And it is our mission here at the Huon LINC to bring this about. We are excited to see it happening.

Garry Langford
Inaugural Chair of the Huon LINC Advisory Board.

This is the right place for me.
- VET student, Hobart College program at the Huon LINC