January Recap
Left to right: Dr Caitln Barr (Sound Fair), Dr Belinda Young, Amar Singh JP(Turbans for Australia (T4A)), Premier Jacinta Allan, Kamal Singh (Turbans for Australia)
What a way to kick off 2025! January has been a big month for us at Mums of the Hills, filled with meaningful conversations, new connections, and exciting opportunities to advocate for this community. Here’s a little recap of what we’ve been up to and what’s coming next.
Dr Belinda Young, Caroline Walsh and Dr Caitlin Barr attended two events at Government House that presented opportunities to raise awareness and build relationships with some pretty inspiring individuals and organisations. The setting was beautiful, and the conversations were even better. From mental health and community resilience to grassroots support, it was a chance to highlight the unique challenges and opportunities in the Dandenong Ranges.
One of the biggest wins? We had the chance to personally invite Premier Jacinta Allan to visit the Dandenong Ranges. We’re hopeful this visit will open the door to conversations about the needs we see, hear and talk about in the MotHs online community group every day.
We also met some amazing people like Nicolas Amado, Member of the Victoria Youth Parliament, 2024, Amar Singh JP from Turbans for Australia and national AOTY 2023 (local hero), and many of the other Australian of the Year Alumni. These connections have already sparked exciting ideas for potential collaborations that could bring even more support and resources to our community. It’s inspiring to meet so many people who share a passion for making a difference.
Caroline Walsh (MotHs Treasurer) and Dr Belinda Young at 24th January Government House event.
Meeting with Senator Lisa Darmanin
MotHs had the pleasure of welcoming Senator Darmanin to the MotHs Hub this month too. As it was our first introduction with Senator Darmanin, the meeting was a great chance to share what we do and chat about the challenges and opportunities facing our community.
We talked about MotHs mission to reduce the factors that cause isolation—whether that’s through social events, business networking, or hands-on workshops like chainsaw safety and car maintenance. We also highlighted the bigger issues at play: family violence, unreliable telecommunications, lack of long daycare, limited family-friendly job opportunities, and struggles with mental health and financial wellbeing.
There were some key challenges we raised about the future of MotHs as well:
Charitable Status: Despite our impact, the idea that "mothering" isn’t a worthy cause for charity makes it tough to secure funding (while making our blood boil).
Online Moderation: We’re increasingly concerned about Meta’s decision to remove fact-checkers, raising the issue misinformation. Many of our members state that they are only on Facebook because of the Moths and so the further disintegration of this platform poses a serious threat to our online future. Strong moderation will be critical to keeping our community safe during these uncertain changes and thankfully, we’ve got a strong team to manage this. The role of moderator can be emotionally demanding and can take a toll that is not properly acknowledged or supported.
Telecommunications: When telecommunications are down, the sense of isolation and disconnection in this area can be extreme. We urged Senator Darmanin to push for federal and state collaboration to hold telecommunication giants accountable for coverage outages. Despite being considered an essential service at the federal level, telecommunications are not included in any state’s essential services act. We also discussed how new satellite technology could help bridge the gap, though our towering trees present a unique challenge.
Changing Perceptions: We want to encourage women’s participation in team sports and practical skills training—activities that not only create connection and resilience but also shift gender norms and change perspectives on women in our community. Funding to do this is needed.
Keeping MotHs Going: Our work goes far beyond the online group. The concerns we raised about Meta pose a significant risk to our core mission—reducing isolation. Our ability to bring people together, share resources, and support families could be compromised by changes by social media giant Meta, that are outside of our control. Funding is needed to continue our work, support our staff and online moderators, and invest in alternative means of communication to ensure our community remains strong and accessible.
A MotHs App: With our huge online presence, we’d love to develop our own platform to better connect, share resources and event information, and promote local businesses. We have big ideas that could be replicated for other communities, but we need the funding to make it a reality.
Having a Seat at the Table: With 7.6k engaged members, Mums of the Hills represents approximately 6% of the voting electorate of Casey. This is not an insignificant portion of the community. We believe our expertise, insights and lived experiences could add real value to high-level discussions on the issues affecting this region.
We’re not stopping there—we’re hoping to meet with Federal member for Casey, Aaron Violi MP, to keep the conversation going.
January has been all about building networks and momentum, and we’re feeling positive about 2025. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank our paid community and business subscribers for helping us stay afloat. Stay tuned for updates on our upcoming meetings, plans and events.
Dr Belinda Young with Dr Kirby White, 2021 Local Hero and Australia Day Ambassador.