Holidays are on the way. We’ll finish up this Friday and take two weeks off. This means we’ll reopen in the first week of October. See you then.

Lovely to have the Minister for Women and Minister for Education Natalie Hutchins and local MP Kat Theophanous at Peer Support Playgroup on Tuesday.

We talked about how neighbourhood houses started as women’s organisations (and Natalie took a tour around the centre) before Natalie chatted to some mums about managing work and the juggle with family, childcare etc. - issues exacerbated for families living with disability.

She also talked o Sarah who volunteers here and is completing her VCE as a mature aged student part time through CAE.

Thanks for organising Kat. It is super for our community to have direct, thoughtful and meaningful conversations at this level.

Join the Yarra Circular Living Challenge 

Interested in a more sustainable and regenerative future?

The Circular Living Challenge is a 30-day challenge focused on engaging the community and local merchants in the City of Yarra to build a more circular economy.

Brought to you by Circular Economy Victoria and Reducing our Footprint, this initiative will take place from the 19 September to the 14 October.

Access the challenge on your smartphone, tablet or computer, practice sustainable behaviours in your community, earn points and track your progress to become a sustainability champion.

The participation is open and free of charge, but we only have a limited number of spots available. Register your interest today and be part of the change towards a more sustainable City of Yarra!

This program is supported through the Climate Action stream of the Yarra Council’s Annual Grants Program.

You can find out more here.

What to do with a donation of pencils?

This week we made some little ‘train time’ packs, with a cardboard ‘zine’ ready to be mindfully filled … and a selection of pencils … fun!!

You can collect yours from the street library out the front of ACC.

Did you know that Yarra Leisure Services - the pool, gym etc. at Collingwood, Fitzroy and Richmond have a special community program that we can tap into at ACC. It enables community members with a healthcare card or age/disability pension card and

• from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, or

• living with a disability, or

• over 55 years of age

to access the services they offer between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday and any time on the weekend - at a significantly discounted rate. We can purchase either 3 month or 12 month memberships on your behalf, and will provide you with a letter to take along on your first visit. You will also need to take your age/disability/healthcare card with you.

If you are interested in this program please email us here. We need to get a minimum of 6 people signed up to access the community membership program.

It really is an amazing opportunity to enable the whole of our community to keep fit and healthy and we’re really pleased to be able to partner with Yarra Leisure to offer this program to you, so let us know if you are keen!