ACC AGM coming up

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.