We’re super thrilled that Clare is going to run her Artful Painting and Drawing art class right here at ACC next term. We’re always getting enquires from people wanting to do art, so it is great to be able to offer this service. And especially so with someone as lovely as Clare.

The class will run on Monday afternoons from 1-3pm. The cost is $225 for 5 weeks ($45 per session) or $450 for 10 (the full term). Classes will start on Monday 10 July.

If you’d like to find out more about the content of the class you can visit Clare’s website swirlart.com.au. To book in give her a call on 0423 453 160.

Our garden has been spruced up by a delivery of compost. And we’d like to thank the volunteers who moved it into place, spreading it out across our site. And thank Darebin Council for the delivery. This year again we are receiving the FOGO compost - which is the compost made from our green waste bins … so … it’s entirely possible that your carrot peelings and cauliflower leaves (if you put them in your green waste bin) are now right here in the garden at ACC! Isn’t that a nice thought.

We’re about to (well in the next month we hope) plant more indigenous plants 🌱 out in our front corner garden that has been looking a little sad … we will give them the chance to settle in over winter and be ready to burst into life in spring! Fingers crossed.

If you are keen on gardening we have a lovely group of garden enthusiasts here on a Friday morning from 10am who help weed, rake leaves, save seeds, plant out beds, thin seedlings … and all the things. And anyone is very welcome to come along and help us improve our outdoor spaces, help grow community food and meet nice people! We’ll reward you with a delicious morning tea at 11.30am (catered by our CWA friends) to thank you for your contribution!

We were very excited to see that the State Government election commitment of $100,000 to support all the programs we run here at ACC, as announced by our local member Kat Theophanous, was in the budget this week! Hooray.

We always have a long wishlist of projects and programs that are just awaiting funding … and so we’re thrilled that we’ll be able to get cracking with them. Thanks Kat.

Last week Kalimna and I headed off to Silverwater Resort at San Remo for the annual Neighbourhood Houses Victoria (NHVic) Conference. NHVic is our peak body.

There are 400+ neighbourhood houses in Victoria, and of those, 25% have had new Executive Officers come on board in the last 3 years - so it was not just a chance to catch up with old friends (the last conference was pre-Covid times) but also an opportunity to talk to people new to the sector. Including Jen - who many of you will remember! She started our Women in the Shed program and has recently been appointed to run Garfield Neighbourhood House in Cardinia Shire - it was lovely to see her.

And we got lots of great ideas. Costa Georgiadis from Gardening Australia kicked things off with a talk all about how he goes about pitching gardening … making the stories engaging and entertaining. It was a great reminder. Jacinta Parsons from ABC radio was the keynote speaker at the dinner and talked about her chronic illness and how important community support is. And in between we heard from the new ACNC commissioner, got an update on the progress of the First Peoples Assembly in Victoria from Reuben Berg (amazing that we already have a fully operational Voice structure here in Victoria, that is well on the way to working toward the practical implementation of Truth and Treaty and we haven’t really heard much about it) and also talked and heard about community gardens, social enterprises, volunteering … and got inspired about all the things that we do day to day in neighbourhood houses.

It was a fabulous learning experience for both of us.

Hi Leanne here. We’ve had a busy couple of weeks with lots of new things happening at ACC.

Last week our Women in the Shed and AAA Bowls programs started up for the term. It was lovely to welcome new faces and people who have been along before. Women in the Shed is full but we always welcome people to AAA Bowls - if you know anyone who might be keen! It is a wonderful program that is led by Jill and supported by a team of generous volunteers from Alphington Bowls Club.

On Wednesday last week we started up our Podcasting 101 course. And there is still 1 spot available - we can catch you up - it is not too late. We have Declan Fay teaching the course. He has an amazing wealth of knowledge in this field, having worked extensively in comedy and radio and on a variety of podcasts including writing the narrative podcast Crossbread and he is a fabulous teacher and story teller. If you are interested you can book in here.

Our community mornings on Fridays are going great - we have a regular crew of gardeners working with Clare to keep our grounds shipshape and productive - and we have had an influx of crafters this month from GenU - it has been wonderful to connect up our organisations more and also to meet some lovely and enthusiastic new knitters, crocheters and stitchers. In the afternoons our AAA Arts group is growing and evolving with Clare leading the way and Hazel and Corrado volunteering weekly.

Speaking of which, our partnership with CWA Alphington has been super - we had sausage rolls and chocolate chip biscuits for morning tea last week - delicious!

In addition to this we have a new Men’s Support Group running on Monday evenings in the Shed and Yoyo in building up her Violin classes. She is currently studying at VCA and is just lovely if you think violin is your thing! If you are interested in either of these please don’t hesitate to email us info@alphington.org.au.

Over the last two weekends we’ve also run two workshops - Recycled Timber Design and PIllow Talk. We trust everyone that attended had a great time and walked away with new skills and knowledge. It is fabulous when local community members come along and share their skills and talents with the community!

We’re also busy working with the Yarra Neighbourhood Houses and Yarra Council on a Climate Change Resilience Plan - similiar to the one we did with Darebin a few years ago. Connecting our community, responding quickly to need, making sure the most vulnerable are looked after and out for, and equipping people with skills and knowledge - these are all the bread and butter things that neighbourhood houses do every day - and our adaptive, flexible and responsive framework will serve our community well as we start to collectively consider the impacts of a changing climate, whether that be more hotter days, more severe weather events etc.

This week Kalimna and I will be out of the office from Wednesday afternoon through to Friday as we are off to the annual Neighbourhood Houses Victoria conference. Lee will be here Wednesday afternoon and Clare will be here from 9.30am-3pm on Thursday and Friday to keep things going.

So finally … we’ll start our programming for next semester soon. If you have any ideas we’d love to hear from you! Send us a email or give Leanne a call. And we hope you have a great week!