On October 1 community ownership of the Hub on Barker Street turned one! It has been a year since hundreds of people invested to buy the $2 million dollar building making it community-owned for good.
To celebrate the Castlemaine Community Investment Co-operative will launch its new guide How Our Community Bought a Two Million Dollar Building on Thursday October 22 at Castlemaine’s Phee Broadway Theatre foyer. The event will take place at from 5.30pm-6.30pm and members and supporters are invited to come along and help them celebrate.
Co-op director Cath Jolly said it has been a year of firsts for the co-operative, culminating in this guide for other communities.
“Our guide will be available on our website, but our members can pick up a free limited-edition print copy as a thank-you at our local launch”.
The Co-op is also helping Judy Horacek present her award-winning Melbourne International Comedy Festival show ‘Everyone on the bus fell down (not just me)’ at 7pm, after the launch. Tickets are available through Humanitix.
The Co-op guide of how the community bought the Hub was written to help other communities wanting to purchase their profitable buildings. It was funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation who will also help launch it across regional communities nationally.
“We’ve been contacted by around 40 communities already wanting to know how we did it,” said director Jeanette Pope.
“The Paul Ramsay Foundation is helping us spread the word. The guide will hopefully provide inspiration to others and reduce the effort they need to put in to working things out.
“We can’t wait to see what others do next,” she said.