The Dungog District Community Centre is preparing to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
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Initially opening its doors in 1982 the centre has changed a lot since its early days according to the current manager of the centre Kate Murphy.
"It started off in an old shed across the road," Ms Murphy said.
Beginning as a completely voluntary service operating out of a small shed, the centre now has paid staff including a family worker, youth worker and a Services Australia help desk.
The Centre has started many different initiatives that it's since given to the Dungog community, including Dungog's Neighbourcare, Tocal Field day, the Growers Market, pop-up book stores and Dungog's Out Of School Hours Childcare.
One of the centre's biggest achievements was helping out during the 2015 floods that Dungog experienced, according to the current president of the Community Centre Committee Alan Shrimpton.
"After a major disaster most community centres fold within about three to five years," Mr Shrimpton said.
The centre also stayed open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Ms Murphy.
"We were open everyday through the lockdown, even when Council chambers were shut," Ms Murphy said.
"We were able to help people who had lost their jobs due to COVID just to keep on top of the rent."
Another major achievement that the centre has had is remaining independent for 40 years, which is a rare thing for a community centre according to Ms Murphy.
Remaining independent has meant the community centre has been able to provide a more personalised service rather than being taken over by a bigger organisation.
"It's a really good thing for a little absolutely independent community centre to last for 40 years," Ms Murphy said.
"We provide a really great face to face service for people. Lots of other organisations might get funding to fo stuff in dungog but they don't necessarily come here and have a presence here."
Being a part of the Dungog community has let the Community Centre help about one-third of all of Dungog, according to Mr Shrimpton.
"For me, that's the motivation to be on the board. You see how good the staff are," he said.
"I think it's because they're part of the community, it's just an amazing job."
To celebrate 40 years of helping the Dungog community the centre is having the movie Oddball shown at Dungog's James Theatre on Sunday, August 21.