Welcome aboard Nadine

The Boyd Community Hub has welcomed Nadine Ford to the role of community animator.

Nadine brings a wealth of experience to Boyd, having worked in community development for the past nine years in her native New Zealand, the UK and Melbourne.

After working for the Shire of Cardinia in Melbourne’s south-east for the past three years, she said she was excited about starting her role with the City of Melbourne.

“When I went to the interview I wrote a whole action plan for the centre because I really wanted the job,” she said.

“What appealed to me about the job is that it’s about activating the space and about being creative and innovative about the tools you can use and the City of Melbourne is so progressive so I was really excited about that.”

With Southbank still establishing itself as a growing community, Nadine said she was particularly excited by the challenge of finding ways to encourage residents to leave their apartments and connect with their neighbours.

While she has been busy juggling a number of responsibilities as she settles into her new role, she said her long-term priority was addressing the needs of young families in Southbank.  

“I’m particularly focusing on all the young families. So looking at ways that we can provide opportunities for parents to connect with other parents and provide opportunities for their children to make friends to also engage and play,” she said.

“That would probably be my priority. Let’s get these young families out of their apartments and hanging out!”

Nadine replaces Natalie Warren, who has taken up the role of community animator at Kathleen Symes Library in Carlton having been in the role at Boyd since its establishment.

According to Nadine, her predecessor passed on plenty of valuable advice to help her settle in, particularly surrounding relationships with the community and her colleagues.

“She really stressed the importance of building meaningful and solid relationships and getting to know people and making the effort to go kind of a bit further than just sitting there and doing your own work,” she said.

As for how she’s settling into her new role, she said she was thoroughly enjoying working with a great team in a great area.

“All of the staff here are a bit kooky. Maybe it’s just because I’ve never worked in a library before but I like it!” she said.

Southbank Local News wishes Nadine all the best in her new role.