This week we’re looking forward to:

• Our ukulele friends returning, and

• Another book club finally meeting up in person again!

We run 5 book clubs in partnership with Darebin Libraries here at ACC and Kalimna and Jodie (from the library) do an amazing behind the scenes logistical juggle to ensure books arrive on time and return on time and that all the groups get the books they want to read etc. They are just in the process of organising everything for next year. If you are part of one of our book clubs already and want to return but haven’t yet signed up for next year … please do! Kalimna has contacted everyone now (I think).

If you would like to be part of a local book club of up to 10 people that meets once a month here at ACC please let us know (give us a call or send us an email). Kalimna will let you know if there are spots available for next year in the existing groups … or put you on a list to create a new group if demand is strong.

We are taking Monday and Tuesday off, but are looking forward to getting some more programming up and running in the next few weeks. Here’s what’s on the cards from our discussions this week:

• Japanese playgroup is returning onsite … it will be lovely to see Maimi and the families and especially to see how much the children have grown!

• Matthew is resuming guitar lessons onsite on Monday and Wednesday evenings.

• We are welcoming a new counsellor to ACC. Martina who has recently moved to the neighbourhood will be here one afternoon/evening a week.

• Our Wednesday daytime book club is going to meet in person in November.

• And finally we are looking to resume our Women in the Shed program in a couple of weeks - hooray! Maylei will be taking both classes and Kalimna has been in contact with everyone that was booked in in Term 4 (and 3 I think) to see who would like to get cracking before the end of the year.

It is pretty nice to start doing things in person again, and we are looking forward to a slow and steady resumption of activity.

If you are part of a group that has a plan and haven’t chatted to us yet just give us a call or send an email …

Some of the great kids who come along weekly to Japanese playgroups …

We held our AGM on Monday night. It was on zoom and was a great chance to revisit all the super things we did in 2020/21.

I presented a slide show that showcased the events, programs, activities and community arts/outreach projects we did in the last year - Kalimna’s gorgeous photos made it very lovely!

Thanks to those that came along. If you too would like to find out more about what was achieved in the last year at ACC you can check out our Annual Report here.

We’re looking forward to recommencing programming at ACC and seeing you all again in the coming weeks.

Neighbourhood houses as ‘community facilities’ under the State Government roadmap can restart outdoor activities when we reach 70%.

In line with the roadmap anyone who wishes to use our facilities and/or join in our programs will need to be fully vaccinated. You’ll be able to do this by:

• linking your vaccination certificate to the Services Victoria check in app

• downloading your certificate into your online wallet, or

• printing your certificate in hard copy.

If you find the technology overwhelming did you know you can ring Medicare and they’ll send you a hard copy? Maria across the road told me yesterday this is what she did …

From next week we’ll be running Playtime in the Garden on Wednesdays from 10am with a BBQ at 12pm. And on Fridays we’ll be running Community Gardening activities from 10am, followed by Morning Tea on the Corner at 11.30am.

See you soon!

For the last week we have been working hard to get ready for our AGM, coming up on Monday 25 October. If you would like to attend please email us here and we’ll send you the zoom invitation.

Whilst it has been quite a lot of work to get everything together (and I think we are nearly done, hooray!), it has also been really lovely to revisit all the things we did in the 2020-21 financial year.

Here are seven pictures that start to tell the story.

Despite lockdowns we ran eight classes of our Women in the Shed program - thanks Maylei and Jen for your expert tuition and Richmond Neighbourhood Learning Centre for loaning us ACFE hours to make it more financially accessible for participants. Women in the Shed has really been a wonderful program to build confidence and self-esteem, alongside building practical skills and knowledge.

And we started new programs, such as Louisa’s Drawing in the Shed classes on a Saturday. They’ve been solidly booked all year! Thanks Louisa for so generously sharing your talents with our community. It is really lovely to see locals sharing their skills in the neighbourhood.

Speaking of sharing, remember our Honestly project? Looking back I think we are really lucky to have a week by week documented account of the first 8 months of the pandemic. And as a community I am sure you will all agree that it was so interesting to read how others were travelling as the world turned on its head … and also comforting to acknowledge the connections - in the end despite our unique circumstances we were all experiencing similar feelings.

We were only able to run one community event for the year … but our Christmas Makers Market was a success and we were super pleased to partner with Ivanhoe Rotary (who ran our sausage sizzle for the first time) and also help local makers sell their wares to the community - I think I did 80% of my Christmas shopping at the market! … hopefully we’ll be able to run it again this year.

Moving things outside has proven itself the way to go in the last year … and we’ve loved seeing regulars and welcoming new people to our Friday morning tea on the corner each week. Here’s a photo of Yarra Mayor Gabrielle de Vietri having a chat with locals at one of our morning teas.

We also set up our podcasting studio The Cupboard this year. When we can get things going again inside I am sure it will prove a wonderful community resource … did you know you book in to use it when we reopen at very reasonable rates? Just give us a call to discuss. This photo is of our lovely friends from the Community Bank on Queens Parade who helped fund this project (we really are so lucky to have this model of banking in our community).

Throughout 2020-21 our playgroups resumed whenever we could open. We make our spaces available four mornings a week for families to come together and make friends through playgroups … which we know can be a lifesaver when you are immersed in the lovely but draining world of nurturing a young family! This is a photo of Maimi who runs two fabulous sessions of Japanese playgroup each week here at ACC.