Did you know we have a defibrillator at ACC? We’ve now permanently located it under the new pergola in the backyard. With a very prominent sign on our new pod building. So it is available for our whole community to access in an emergency 24/7.

Defibrillators save lives and are so easy to use!

This one literally talks you through the whole process. Where to put the pads … how to send the shock, when to stand back, when to do chest compressions …

We hope it never needs to be used but are super pleased to have it available for community use.

Well … a busy latter half of the week for exciting visitors …

On Thursday we had Kerry McGrath who is the General Manager of Community Strengthening at Yarra Council come past for a mini tour and chat. She is currently visiting all the houses in Yarra - which is so great because each one is so different. It was lovely to talk to you Kerry.

We really appreciate the investment that Yarra Council makes in neighbourhood houses - both financially and collegiately (so many nice people there that we work alongside to deliver shared services for our local community).

Then on Friday Keir Paterson from NHVic (our peak body) joined us for lunch … before a mix of our participants joined in a formal focus group with him and some masters students from Melbourne Uni.

NHVic is putting together a report looking into what makes people first come to neighbourhood houses - and then stay engaged. They are thinking about things like placemaking (if houses look interesting from the street does that encourage people to come inside) along with programs, events, social connection etc. etc.

As you possibly know, we have done lots of placemaking things at ACC - from changing our fences and office location so you can see we are ’home’, to all our lovely dinky signs, murals, mosaics, metal sculptures and yarn bombing in our gorgeous garden … and then there is the table tennis table, the mini golf green … also the interactive art on our fence and the book and seed exchanges. All these things make us a memorable location in the neighbourhood and encourage our community to casually interact with us … creating a feeling of friendliness and connection - before people even walk in the door!

Anyway … it is super for our locals to have the opportunity to feed into these sorts of statewide discussions. Thanks NHVic for approaching us to be part of it all!

Apart from this excitement we had a relatively quiet week with both Kalimna and I being sick … aagh. It seems we are not alone, it’s like an endless roundabout of illness at the minute isn’t it?

Anyway … onto cheerier subjects … this week we have some great things on including:

• Adult Exercise on Tuesday at 11am - it’s not too late to join in … call us if you are keen! We can do 3 weeks instead of 4. Only $15 a session - small group (you’ll get lots of love!)

• Community Playgroup on Wednesday from 10am-12pm. $5 weekly. It well attended and friendly.

• Crunch on Thursday from 12.30-2pm. We’re getting arty this week. $15 for lunch and creativity. Book in on our website (on the enrol page …)

• Our Community Morning on Friday from 10am-12pm, followed by Community Lunch at 12pm, gold coin donation if you can.

Also … put the opening night for our Winter Arts Exhibition in your diaries, Friday 16 August, 5-7pm. Come along and admire local art! We’ve heaps of entries already which is super!

We’ll have drinks and finger food - $5 a head donation. And … we’ll be officially opening our new spaces. How exciting.

Have a great week. See you soon (we hope).

Leanne

Keen to learn music, share music or dance to music?

At ACC you can join:

• Ukulele on Monday evenings. We have a new Beginners Ukulele group starting up. It is self-led (eg. there is not a formal teacher) but one of our more experienced Uke players is helping the new players get going for a little bit (how lovely is that). Call our office to find out more,

• Daniel on Tuesdays teaching guitar. If you are a keen guitarist you can contact him on 0432 674 498.

• Line Dancing on Wednesdays from 10am at the Alphington Scout Hall - always lots of fun and well attended! Call Shirley to find out more on 94892102.

• The Alphingtones Choir who meet over at St Andrews Church in Fairfield (just behind the shops) on Thursdays from 7.30pm

• Yoyo on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings to learn violin. You can contact her on 0415 357 698.

Are you interested in learning how to document your life story?

Carmela Ferraro, an experienced journalist, has offered to run a life journaling workshop here.

Over 4 weeks she will lead you through the process of thinking about your life story, the early years, your career, family etc. She will help you get your story together in an interesting way.

You might like to write this up as a short story, or write the next best selling autobiography! Or incorporate the text into a photobook - the outcome will be up to you. Carmela will help you think about these options too.

The short course is a fabulous opportunity to get help to document the amazing unique life that each of us has had. And Carmela is very nice!

It costs $165 for 4 weeks, starting from Saturday 24 August, 10am-12pm. Book in here.

The time has come to prune our fruit trees in our little urban orchard. Corrado and Keiko started on the apples along the back fence the week before last, and then moved on to the smaller trees along the boundary fence last week. We still have some to go … so if you are interested in tree pruning but a bit nervous you might like to come along and have a chat this Friday whilst we finish them off.

Gardening Group is part of our Friday Community Morning program. It runs from 10am-12pm.