About Us

Mission: MarionLIFE Community Services is a not-for-profit community organisation that strives to provide meaningful, flexible and responsive care, support and pathways to individuals and families in need.

Vision: We aim to express the love of God through relationships and services that enrich lives, maximise independence and provide hope.

The provision of crisis assistance is important to meet people’s most basic human needs and their ongoing involvement in the community is of equal importance to rebuild confidence and develop lasting community relationships and supports. This is one reason MarionLIFE offers a variety of support groups, a community garden, men’s groups, community meals, financial counselling and community education courses on top of emergency relief food and material assistance.

MarionLIFE continues to be the community services arm of Marion Church of Christ today, but was separately incorporated as a not-for-profit in 1991, and is a registered charity. We are a largely volunteer run organisation and acknowledge that without the time sacrifices and passionate willingness of our volunteers we would not be able to achieve what we do. MarionLIFE is not a welfare organisation but a community of people who work together to achieve the mission and vision of the organisation.

MarionLIFE’s ethos is to work from a place of community strengths rather than community needs.  We seek to uncover and utilise the strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development. We want to support communities; not cure them.  We want to discover what our community cares enough about to act on. Only then do we want to determine how, as one community, we can act together to achieve these goals.

MarionLIFE Community Services Inc. is a registered charity in Australia with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. Our charity registration can be viewed online here.

MarionLIFE Community Services Inc. is Accredited at Certificate Level of the Australian Service Excellence Standards.

MarionLIFE History

MarionLIFE was established by Marion Church of Christ in 1985 under the directorship of Keith Horne.  The centre was established with the thought in mind that, “although they were a small church, they wanted to be a community church”. In response to the needs in the surrounding area, they bought a nearby house and set up the centre which is MarionLIFE today. As recorded in reflections from 1994, when the community centre was originally bought in 1985, 40% of the surrounding houses were occupied by sole-parents, with also a high rate of unemployment and older people in the area.

While it has been around for over 35 years MarionLIFE was officially incorporated in 1991 as a not-for-profit organisation.  It has been known by other names including the Marion Church of Christ Welfare Centre and the Marion Community Centre before it was officially given the name of MarionLIFE Community Services Incorporated.