SPAN Community House is a Cooperative community organization that has been well established in the Northcote/Thornbury area for 25 years. Beginning in 1978, SPAN was the latest pilot project of the Brotherhood of St Laurence's new approach to community services. SPAN was a culmination of this philosophy being applied to the 'active elderly' community. Until the early 1990's, even after the Brotherhood's 'pilot' period (1978-1982), SPAN activities centred on the elderly community. During this initial period, SPAN had a range of classes, programs and social action campaigns run for and by elderly people. SPAN's early objectives had a strong element of inclusiveness of all people into the community, giving the elderly an opportunity to cross differences in age and ethnicity through its services to people of all types. It is for this reason that the name 'SPAN' and the symbol of the 'people bridge' were chosen. A pivotal time of change occurred at SPAN between 1991 and 1995, where, for a combination of reasons, SPAN's services, clients and philosophy drifted away from an elderly client focus.

Today, SPAN is a House that offers low-cost quality activities and programs for people from a diverse range of backgrounds, ages, abilities and needs. SPAN has retained its commitment to the local community and to bridging difference and serving all regardless of "age, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation or gender". Its role as an organization that attempts to serve the disadvantaged in special ways has also continued, though this focus has shifted from being firmly placed on the elderly, to focus also on asylum seekers and people of a variety of physical and mental abilities. While the hope of SPAN becoming a truly self-managing organization was never quite reached (SPAN has always had at least one paid staff member), SPAN's commitment to and dependence on volunteers and a member-ran Board of Directors has continued to this day.
Interested in SPAN's History? Read the research undertaken by Latrobe University sociology honours student Daniel Milne as part of his SPAN internship. Click here to read it: