Already know your way around an electric drill and jigsaw - but don’t have the tools or space at home to build your new shelf, chair or planter? We have a few places left in our Intermediate Women in the Shed group in Term 4.

It runs on Thursday afternoons from 1-4pm for 6 weeks starting Thursday 19th October and costs $240.

Bring your own project ideas and materials along, use our tools and space and tap into the knowledge of the supervisor.

If you have already taken our introduction course or have sufficient experience with tools then book a place here!

We will be hosting our AGM on Monday 23rd of October at 6:30pm here at Alphington Community Centre.

This year we’ll be combining our AGM with a dinner. We hope our volunteers and regular attendees can come along to help us celebrate the year - and get to know each other more!

Please let us know if you would like to attend for catering purposes. You can RSVP here.

The Alphington Toy Library has been reinvented online. You can now scroll though all the toys, book them at a time that suits you, then pop past to collect them on Tuesdays.

Find out more and join up here.

This week Sarah (our volunteer who comes along to fill the orders) has put together some borrowing ideas for the theme

‘Do you want to come to my party?

Toys in our library that fit in with this theme include:

• costumes - pirate, fairy, ballerina etc.

• outdoor games - stilts, tunnels, parachute for group activities etc.

• wooden birthday cake

• party set (great for sustainable parties)

• tea set

• board games

If you’d like to visibly support a yes vote in the upcoming referendum we have 50 coreflute boards at ACC for anyone to collect and display.

Just pop past when our office is open, 9am-5pm Tuesday and Thursday or 9.30am-3pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Hi Leanne here.

As you probably know, the upcoming referendum is a response to the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart - which was the culmination of a representative consensus vote from the Uluru dialogues. It is backed up by 13 years of work by the Referendum Council. The vote is part of what our First Nations community collectively agreed and prioritised for action.

At ACC we believe that this vote is a social justice, humanitarian issue, not a left or right political issue. We’d be pleased if any Federal government committed to this process. And more pleased if it had bipartisan support.

The facts about disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people outlined in the Statement itself are confronting. And the regularly updated Closing The Gap dashboard is also depressing and distressing reading. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still die earlier on average than everyone else in Australia. Yes the gap is somewhat closing, but as a society we’re not meeting the set targets on this outcome. And other targets like Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children thrive in their early years have actually gone backwards from 2018 to 2021. Clearly existing approaches are not working fast enough, or even at all.

It is sensible that the people who experience the ongoing disadvantage have a guaranteed place at the table to provide advice and input to discussions about how to improve their particular circumstances.

Lawyers have confirmed that the proposed changes to the Constitution can do no harm - and may do some good.

At ACC we are hopeful that our community will also think about the bigger picture - the importance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to: be recognised as having a unique place in our society as our first peoples, and have a say in their own destiny - acknowledging both the individual and community benefits that recognition and self-determination can bring.

ACC, in line with our peak body NHVic, and many other neighbourhood houses in Victoria, says YES to the Voice to Parliament.

And we hope that you too accept the direct invitation from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (our neighbours, family, colleagues and friends) so beautifully articulated in the Statement,

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.