Our History

In the beginning... there was the Yackandandah Learning Exchange.

In 1985, a motivated group of local people recognised the need for educational courses and activities to be held within the community. They formed a committee to plan, coordinate and run courses and activities for the Yackandandah Community. Course tutors consisted, mainly, of talented and skilled people who lived within the district. The committee ran a diverse range of interesting courses and activities such as aerobics, yoga, Italian cooking, nature walks, family fishing days and animal care field days. The courses were all self-funded and all work done on a volunteer basis until 1989 when a program coordinator was employedfollowing a grant from the Continuing Education Centre.

In May 1990, a meeting was held to discuss the formation of a Rural Neighbourhood House Network (RHN) in Yackandandah, twelve months later the Yackandandah RHN held their first meeting. The two committees ran in tandem for over a year, working cooperatively so as not to duplicate services. On 12th October 1992, the two organisations merged to create the Yackandandah Community Education Network (YCEN). This merger allowed the consolidation of resources and funding which allowed the organisation to focus on providing the community with; quality general interest courses/activities, vocational courses, self-help and interest groups, plus continue to be a drop-in / referral centre.

In 2014, it was recognised that YCEN was moving away from providing Adult Community Further Educatoin (ACFE) funded courses and more into a community development role. This lead two

major developments -

1. YCEN forming and auspicing of the Yackandandah Community Garden, and

2. the creation of the Community Op Shop.

At the 2014 AGM, a resolution was passed to rename YCEN as the Yackandandah Community Centre (YCC), to reflect the changing nature of its role within the Yackandandah Community.

YCC activities included going for and winning the Guinness World Record for making the Longest Line of Bunting, holding the first and establishing the High Country Christmas Fair as an annual fund raiser, and through the Eco-Living Grant, installing a variety of sustainable energy saving building modifications as well as running several sustainability courses at the Centre.

In 2015 the centre was relaunched as a Community Hub not only as an educational centre and the moving of the Maternal and Child health office to the Yackandandah Kindergarten, also gave another room that could be hired by community groups and organisations. Indigo FM received funding from YCDCo and the Indigo Shire to revamp their studio. The Eco-Living Grant work in the building started in 2014 was also completed. By 2016, YCC becomes financially strong due to money raised from the Op shop takings and hiring of the ‘Hot Office’. The YCC committee then looked into ways of furthering community developments by supporting new groups and organisations with a Grant Scheme. Reconstruction of the front garden, seating and new front stairs was completed.

In 2017, the YCC Community Grants Scheme program was implemented, giving new and upcoming groups a help in starting up community based programs. So far covering a great diversity of areas, twenty five group recipients have been funded over the years to date excluding the break due to COVID. In 2019 and 2020, as the centre was closed due to COVID restrictions so the opportunity was taken to complete some building refurbishments, in part due to water damage. The refurbishments included; painting, new flooring and some new signage. Following this, during 2021 and 2022 YCC invested in an upgrade to the multi media devices in the Meeting Room, this included; an installation of a large smart-TV, camera and ceiling microphone allowing the capability to host ‘Zoom’ or virtual meetings, all this we offer for free to use for Community groups.

Most recently YCC continue to auspice the Yackandandah Community Garden as well as the Yackandandah Women’s Shed, offering guidance and support to these two wonderful community groups. YCC works alongside community to help connect services and resources to community groups, this is most notable through our annual community grants program. We are continuing to strengthen our community resilience by working with TRY, CFA and YCDco to ensure that our town is ready for whatever the future holds, we also actively coordinate the maintenance check of our towns 14 defibrillators on an annual basis.

YCC will continue to evolve with our town needs, pursue projects in community development and always work towards strengthening community bonds by connecting individuals and groups at every opportunity.