Phillip Chen

North Richmond Community Health began supporting the Richmond community on Wurundjeri land in 1974. Then called the North Richmond Family Care Centre, it was an organisation built to support the diverse needs of the 4,000 strong community members of the Langdon Park Ministry of Housing estate. A group of progressive doctors approached the estate’s community-led Tenants Union in the early 1970s, and together they came up with the idea of a health centre that didn’t just provide vital medical services, but also fostered and supported the community. Since it was opened, North Richmond Community Health has been a place for people of all linguistic backgrounds, physical, emotional and mental abilities, faiths and cultures. For 40 years, the community has come to our centre to meet, receive care, seek advice, socialise and celebrate. In 1994, we received funding from the Victorian Department of Human Services to share its knowledge across the state, and the Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health (CEH) was formed. In the last 21 years, CEH has continued to develop their expertise in health and wellbeing, human rights, cultural competence and health literacy. North Richmond Community Health’s current building opened in late 2012. At that time, North Richmond Community Health was given the honour of an Aboriginal name by Wurundjeri Senior Elder Doreen Garvey-Wandin: Wulempuri-Kertheba, which translates from Woi wurrung as ‘staying healthy together’. As an organisation, we pride ourselves on our commitment to working with refugees, asylum seekers, newly-arrived migrants, people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, people who inject drugs and people of all socio-economic backgrounds. We are constantly reiterating that commitment and developing it. North Richmond Community Health has a long history, with many relationships in the community going back 40 years. We look forward to many more years of learning, working and building healthier communities.