Open access, honestly costed, and accountable on purpose.
Good community work is mostly turning up, keeping the books straight, and refusing to make people prove they deserve help.
Started by four neighbours who thought a food parcel shouldn’t need a form.
Riverbank Trust started in 1998, when four Yeronga neighbours began sharing surplus vegetables from a trestle table by the river. Within a year they had a roster of volunteers and a borrowed hall; within five, a debt and benefits advice service, because people kept asking about that too.
Nearly thirty years on, the trust still runs from a single weatherboard hall a short walk from the water. Six staff and around ninety volunteers keep the pantry stocked, the grants committee meeting, and the youth space open four evenings a week.
Four habits behind everything we run.
Listening
Nobody arrives to a checklist. We start by asking what’s actually going on.
Plain figures
Every account is published in full, including the years the numbers are less flattering.
Open access
No referral, no means test, no proving you deserve it. It’s the rule we defend hardest.
Staying in our lane
We do three things properly rather than nine things thinly, and refer on for the rest.
Six staff, deliberately.
Ana Petrovic
Centre manager — Runs the building day to day and signs off every grant with a second trustee.
David Nguyen
Family grants coordinator — Checks each application against the same written criteria and replies within a fortnight.
Grace Sultana
Pantry coordinator — Keeps the shelves stocked and the choice-based system running three mornings a week.
Marcus Webb
Youth worker — Runs the youth space four evenings a week and remembers every name.
Ask us a question first.
Plenty of people ring just to check whether they qualify. Everybody qualifies — that is the whole point.