About

*The Tailrace centre will be closed Easter Friday and Easter Monday. Please join us instead on Easter Saturday and Sunday.

 The Tailrace Centre 

“Where everything comes together.”

In 2008 The Tailrace Centre was constructed by New Directions Church.  It was at that stage Tasmania’s largest home-owner project.  It is a social enterprise with the proceeds going to building healthy, happy and loved kids and families.

“There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
Nelson Mandela 

Australian children are not doing well.

 Snapshot of some of the problems facing our children
1 in 3 Australian girls will be the victim of sexual assault
1 in 6 Australian boys will be the victim of sexual assault
The number of children in out of home care has doubled

The number of reported abuse has tripled in the past decade
In one study 25% of 5 year old girls wished they were thinner.
One third of Australian children are overweight. In Tasmania 63% of children aged 4- 12 do not eat the recommended daily serves of vegetables.
100 young Australians will kill themselves this year, with Tasmania having the second highest rate in the nation.
Teen pregnancy is on the rise with Tasmania having one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy.

Sexually transmissible infections have increased fourfold

One in ten Australian children live in poverty.
Almost 100% of 15 year olds in one survey had been exposed to online pornography.

In the 2006 national census 45.5 per cent of the Tasmanian population were identified as living in areas of high socio-economic disadvantage.  This was the highest percentage of all states and territories and well above the national average of 28.5 per cent.  

In 2010, 61.7 per cent of Tasmanian Government schools (57.4 per cent of students) are located in areas identified in the bottom 3 deciles indicating that these schools provide services to socio-economically disadvantaged communities

In 2008-09 Tasmania had the second highest youth offender rate in Australia behind the Northern Territory

In 2008 New Directions built the Tailrace Centre to be a both a home to the community at large and a social enterprise raising funds to create change “For the Sake of KIDS”

The Tailrace Centre provides space for a wide range of community and support groups that meet a range of human needs: 

•  Mums Paradise – support group for mums of preschoolers;
•  Women and men support group;
•  Marriage support groups;
•  Sexual assault support groups;
•  Healthy lifestyle support groups;
•  Parenting support groups;
• Kids Clubs for 12 year olds and under;
• Youth groups;
• Young adult community groups;
• Shine a self esteem group offered to State Education schools;
• Youth events sponsored by New Directions and the local West Tamar Council

New Directions also sponsors a number of events during the year that place value and dignity on children:

• The Enchanted Evening for girls
• Warrior Night for boys

The facility was designed to specifically embrace and facilitate activities for children. Without the facility it would be extremely difficult to conduct these events that children have come to love.  Both events now have a ceiling on them in terms of attendance because of their popularity.

The Tailrace Centre positively employs young people prioritizing young people who have never worked before, training and equipping them with the attitude and skills needed to be a good employee.

Kids Paradise was incorporated into the Tailrace Centre as an important part of the social enterprise.  Whilst privately owned Kids Paradise and Tailrace work as one entity “For the sake of Kids.”  Kids Paradise was incorporated into the vision of the Tailrace because we wanted a playground where children could feel safe, where they could have their imagination released and where kids could be kids.  We see the birthday parties as a way of placing value and worth and dignity upon the life of a child.  It is not just a business.

The Tailrace Centre provides space and in doing so financially supports

• Baby Mum – an organization committed to helping teen mums;
• Bravehearts – an organization that is commited to educating children to protect themselves against sexual assault.

        
The Tailrace Centre sponsors entrepreneurial hubs for young people wanting to develop their own business.  Audacious Media is a media business sponsored by the Tailrace Centre.

Finally, through the influence that the Tailrace Centre brings New Directions  lobbies for legislative and cultural change that will protect our children.  There really is no greater gift to a society.

How are all these activities of compassion and empowerment financed:

The people of New Directions have contributed millions of dollars to creating a space for the community to be loved, cared and empowered.

This represents hours of hard work in marketplace ventures and a generosity beyond the norm.

It has also been funded by organizations and individuals that have chosen to utilize the centre for their business events, conferences, training events, balls, dinners, celebrations and weddings.

We have tried to position ourself in the middle of the market.  We offer beautiful flexible facilities, our pricing is competitive with other venues but not excessive, we have gone out after the best chef in Tasmania to provide amazing food and we train our staff to love and to serve. We are committed to providing a quality of service that values and embraces your dream but goes beyond your dream or service and affects the life of many other people.

When you choose to use the Tailrace Centre you are helping to finance:

• Healing for a young girl who has been sexually assaulted;
• Education within our state schools that will stop children being sexually assaulted;
• Community for our youth so that they can have their need to belong met;
• A group where a young mum who is struggling with the demands of young children can have space and time to gain strength to be a great mum to her kids;
• A teen mum where she can gain the skills and support so that she can be a great mum;
• A couple struggling in their marriage to find a way to love again and provide stability and love to their family.

New Directions, incorporating the Tailrace Centre welcomes partnerships that will help the children of this state and this nation.

Become a partner of the Tailrace Centre by:

• Choosing to regularly book the Tailrace Centre for events for your business, personal interests and receive our regular client rate;
• By joining us on facebook;
• By being an identified partner on our website;