Lively

Lively Lively brings young and older people together to connect and support each other.

A decade of impact at Lively 💛🔥We’ve helped create meaningful connections and positive change for so many over the years...
12/12/2025

A decade of impact at Lively 💛🔥

We’ve helped create meaningful connections and positive change for so many over the years.👥

11/12/2025

We wrapped up our final tech help session at Mornington Library💻🐚✨

The feedback from the senior learners was overwhelmingly positive and clear that this program has become a valued part of the library community. Both learners and Tech Helpers are keen to keep it going, and we’re hopeful it can continue from February with the current helpers employed by another organisation. The library will share updates with learners as things progress.

Many participants have been attending for years — including Sandie, who has come to rely on the support these sessions provide.

Our final Tech Help Session at the South Yarra Senior Citizens Centre 💻⚡Our 1:1 tech help sessions were a real success, ...
09/12/2025

Our final Tech Help Session at the South Yarra Senior Citizens Centre 💻⚡

Our 1:1 tech help sessions were a real success, and it’s been a pleasure partnering with the City of Melbourne. The senior learners formed friendships with the Helpers with some of them coming to these sessions for 3 years!

Goay told the Helpers, "I appreciate each one of you and the hours you spent ensuring the seniors are not left behind in this digital age."

Kerry said, "When you didn't grow up with tech and didn't use it through working life it is really hard to remember each step."

A huge thanks to the wonderful Farhad, Centre Support Worker who always welcomed our Helpers and made them feel at home, and of course a huge thanks to our amazing Helpers!


Danute and Cherry's friendship is still going strong 🔥For Danute, the change from Lively to Hireup was seamless and hard...
04/12/2025

Danute and Cherry's friendship is still going strong 🔥

For Danute, the change from Lively to Hireup was seamless and hardly changed her experience of her service — a testament to how responsive the team at Hireup have been in accommodating Lively's service as their own, and how hard our team have worked to ensure continuity of service for as many folks as possible.

In their first session through Hireup, Danute and Cherry enjoyed some of their usual activities like donating things to the Op Shop, collecting groceries at Coles and having a coffee at home over a yarn. Cherry says, "It is lovely to be able to continue supporting Danute in meaningful ways which aid her and assist her in keeping some independence."

Lively might be winding up, but we are so grateful that Hireup , an organisation with similar values and ethos to Lively...
27/11/2025

Lively might be winding up, but we are so grateful that Hireup , an organisation with similar values and ethos to Lively, is supporting our Helpers to continue do this work at Hireup!

The Lively HQ team has been working in overdrive to re-home our programs and thankfully several provider partners will be transitioning to Hireup, meaning some members can continue to work with their Helpers undisrupted.

A huge shout out to Hireup for helping these relationships to continue and being incredible collaborators!


LIVELY BIDS FAREWELL⭐It is with mingled sadness and pride that we announce that at the end of 2025, Lively will be closi...
20/11/2025

LIVELY BIDS FAREWELL⭐

It is with mingled sadness and pride that we announce that at the end of 2025, Lively will be closing its doors, after ten years of life-changing programs.

For the past decade, Lively has brought together older and younger people to support one another, developing a new entry-level employment model that enables young people to support, connect with and learn from older community members. We are immensely proud of a decade of impact, with 2025 our biggest year so far as we supported almost 1,000 older people through our in-home and community tech help programs, which expanded to include tailored offerings for speakers of Mandarin, Vietnamese and other languages.

The need for our programs has never been greater. As the aged care sector struggles to meet workforce shortages and realise the community and government’s expectations for person-centred care, Lively attracts hundreds of applications every year from big-hearted young people who are eager to provide flexible, relationship-centred support and companionship. We believe as much as ever that the Lively model offers a powerful contribution to a more positive, life-affirming aged care system

However, facing an increasingly challenging funding environment and systemic barriers to grow our model in the aged care sector as it operates today, we have reached the difficult conclusion that we can no longer sustain our work.

Our top priority now is ensuring that our members and our Helpers are looked after, and we are making every effort to minimise the impact of this change on the young and older people who are part of our community. To ensure that our learning lives on, we are also working with Good Flock, a national initiative working to shift how Australia thinks about ageing. We encourage anyone who is keen to draw on our insights to reach out to Good Flock

This moment prompts many emotions for our team: deep sadness about the end of high-impact work; pride in a decade of nurturing intergenerational connection; concern for the wellbeing of our team and community; frustration with the barriers thrown up by an innovation-stifling aged care sector; gratitude for the many people and funders who have given us a leg up along the way.

But good ideas never disappear; they just change form. We trust that, with thousands of people now having glimpsed the potential of this good idea dreamed up ten years ago, the seeds of something new and beautiful already exist within each of us touched by it.

We’ll be waiting to see what will bloom next.

20/11/2025

Community Tech @ Kensington Community Room 📱🏘️🌳

Lively's community tech programs have been in demand and we've been focused on making them accessible for vulnerable members of the community.

Together with City of Melbourne Libraries and cohealth , we recently ran a 5 week Be Connected program in Kensington.

The group got to know each other and were really thankful for the practical lessons to help them be more independent, as well as the social interactions.

Co-design in action 💡📱Lively is fortunate to have a research team from Monash University and Swinburne University of Te...
13/11/2025

Co-design in action 💡📱

Lively is fortunate to have a research team from Monash University and Swinburne University of Technology conducting a 12 week study on our Mandarin program to co-design a framework for culturally responsive digital literacy initiatives. Today we met for a co-design session at naarm ngarrgu library with Lively Helpers and staff mapping out the Helper experience and discussing possible solutions for challenges.

A huge thanks to City of Melbourne Libraries for hosting and participating in the co-design.

Community Tech in Mandarin at Kathleen Syme Community Centre 💻✨ Our Chinese participants had a fantastic time at the Com...
06/11/2025

Community Tech in Mandarin at Kathleen Syme Community Centre 💻✨

Our Chinese participants had a fantastic time at the Community Tech workshop, learning how to become email experts! 📧💡

Our Helpers made the session engaging with a quirky online game about email safety, where everyone tackled multiple-choice questions on how to spot and avoid scams — with plenty of laughter along the way. 😄

Many shared that they wished they’d known about the workshop earlier — and can’t wait for the next one! 🇨🇳👏

Danute and Cherry’s foodie adventure 🥘✨The two hit the Vic Market for a hearty haul — bacon bones, pig trotters, lambs f...
04/11/2025

Danute and Cherry’s foodie adventure 🥘✨

The two hit the Vic Market for a hearty haul — bacon bones, pig trotters, lambs fry, bacon, and a few other tasty bits. Before heading home, they each grabbed a borek and enjoyed a cosy cup of tea when they got back to Danute’s.

The following week, they baked a cheesecake using Alexa’s recipe 🍰 While it baked, Cherry got to try Danute’s famous Lithuanian beetroot soup — made with those very bacon bones and pig trotters from the market. A wholesome way to wrap up their session! 💕


31/10/2025

Yesterday’s Cyber Security Forum, hosted by Darebin City Council , was a huge success! 💻🦠

The day kicked off with insightful talks from Commonwealth Bank, Vic Police and Darebin Libraries, unpacking common online scams and real-life scenarios. One highlight — a video clip of AI “Trump” delivering a fake speech — showed just how easy it is to make anything look real!

After lunch and networking, MC Jacinta Parsons kept the energy high with a fun “Spot the Scam” game show, where quick thinkers won prizes for catching dodgy emails. The day wrapped up with a Q&A panel that helped answer everyone’s burning questions.

Lively Helpers were there throughout, running a Tech Help booth in multiple languages alongside students from Preston High.

An informative, engaging and empowering day all round!👏


Community Tech @ Kensington Community Room 📱🏘️🌳Our wonderful Vietnamese speaking helpers, Dang and Mel started up a new ...
30/10/2025

Community Tech @ Kensington Community Room 📱🏘️🌳

Our wonderful Vietnamese speaking helpers, Dang and Mel started up a new program as a City of Melbourne outreach program, funded by Be Connected. The group of learners were fully engaged, listening intently as Dang explained things in a fun and relatable way. One learner, Huong, shared: “Thank you so much to Lively for making this program for us. We need it and appreciate it so much!” 💛



Address

Our Community House, 552 Victoria Street
North Melbourne, VIC
3051

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+61390704746

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