International Women’s Day is a great day to acknowledge the history of neighbourhood houses - which came about in the 70s and early 80s as a result of women getting together to help each other out - particularly when it became acceptable to return work after having children, but there was limited practical infrastructure in place to support and enable this to happen. Occasional care/crèche and babysitting clubs featured heavily in the first iteration of many houses … ACC for example had a babysitting club - with special tokens that acknowledged how many hours you had done. We still have them stored away in our archives!

It’s also a great day to acknowledge some of the wonderful women who work and volunteer and join in here, and support us - making our centre what it is today.

These photos are from the last year … women like Anne volunteering in the garden, Louisa sharing her amazing art skills in our community, Elaine, Manu and Monica making preserves to help us fundraise, Lee undertaking fabulous community art projects that we all enjoy, Annie and Silvana supporting Kinfolk and joining in our community market, Maylei teaching women new skills in the shed, the women in our shed, our politicians, our sponsors like Lee from the Community Bank on Queens Parade, lovely Maria across the road (and Betty - I don’t have a photo of Betty), Anne yarnbombing, Sharyn and Virginia hanging art for our recent exhibition, our morning tea participants, our playgroup facilitators Maimi, Sue and Gianna and the playgroup families - mostly mums. Shirley and the line dancers (sorry I didn’t include a photo) and the families that joined in our grow local, cook local workshops. And our staff including Kalimna, Jill and Suzanne. Also our committee including Heather, Anne, Michelle, Kate and Jane. And then there’s also the broader neighbourhood house network …

It is a truly fabulous experience working in partnership with so many wonderful, dynamic women every single day.

So hooray for women I say!! And happy International Women’s Day. Our house certainly wouldn’t be the same without you.

Don’t forget! … and the Dog Show 🐩 . Find out more here.

We had 14 people along for our visible mending workshop with local textile artist Serene on Saturday.

Serene provided introduction kits, lots of gorgeous samples and real life inspiration for patching and darning across a variety of fabrics, basic information on needles and thread (the tools of the trade), practical help with particular projects and also directed participants to great resources such as books from the library for further ideas and skill development.

It is just wonderful that so many people in our community are interested in learning and exploring new skills that help keep items out of hard rubbish.

Jill and our wonderful community partners Alphington Bowls Club started up the access all abilities (AAA) bowls program for 2022 this week.

Jill was delighted to reconnect with some of the regulars who come from local supported residential care houses such as Arnica Lodge in Como Street, Alphington and Austin Street Villa Maria … which is in Austin Street (obviously haha). And she said that quite a few new people came along too which is super (if a bit chaotic the first week in).

We run our AAA bowls program for 6 weeks a term, 3 terms a year (avoiding the colder months in July and August).

It is supported through our annual project funding that comes from Yarra City Council and by fabulous volunteers at the bowls club who turn up each week to show participants the ropes. We so appreciate that they take the time to share the joy of their sport with kindness and commitment … and in doing so work with us to foster and strengthen the foundations of our wonderful diverse and inclusive local community.

A few people who booked in have let us know that they won’t be able to make it to the Visible Mending Workshop.

It is running on Saturday 26th of February from 10am-1pm here at our centre.

Which means we have some last minute places available for anyone who might have missed out on booking.

If that is you then click here and grab yourself a spot!