Our Women in the Shed program has been very popular and in 2021 we are offering this program again on Monday for beginners, then on Tuesday and Thursday for those that have been along before or have some basic confidence … and would like to work in a tutored environment and pursue their own projects.

There are 18 spots in the program across the 3 days and 6 of these have Learn Local funding to enable us to offer a discounted rate for those in need. If you would like to access this funding you can contact us here. The full cost is $150 for 6 days (that’s only $25 a day). The discounted cost is $50 for the whole course.

This tutored program is all about building your skills and confidence using a range of hand and power tools in the shed. You’ll explore jigsaws and handsaws, electric sanders and hand planers as you make a chopping board, then move on to perhaps exploring tiling tools like tile cutters, along with tile cement, tile spacers, grout and sealer as you dive into mosaics, or perhaps you’d prefer to explore how to manipulate metal with heat? That’s an option too… And then there are electric drills, dremels, drop saws and more to explore! Sounds great hey?

You can book here.

Our new brochure is out. We’ve created a trimmed down version for semester 1 2021. You can read it here. It is jam packed with old favourites like playgroups and choir and new ideas including a range of short courses, workshops and events you can book in to.

• Women in the Shed is back on Monday (for beginners), Tuesday and Thursday for 6 weeks in Term 1 and 2.

• Our free Access All Abilities Bowls program run with Alphington Bowls Club is back for 6 weeks in term 1 and 2.

• Our new Drawing in the Shed short course will also run for 6 weeks in Term 1 and 2. Run by local artist Louisa, this is a low-cost opportunity for all members of the community to develop the observation and co-ordination skills necessary to make creative drawings in any style. It will cover contour drawing, creating creative compositions, drawing with perspective and more.

• In 2019 we had Gordon come along and run a sewing machine maintenance workshop. It was a fantastic morning and so we’ve rebooked him this year. On Saturday 1 May he will run a sewing machine maintenance workshop and then on Saturday 17 June he will run an overlocker maintenance workshop.

• Local Manu is keen to share her Indian cooking skills with us … starting with a chai tea making workshop (Sunday 9 May). $20. Book here.

• Our History Walk is back! Join local Anne and other history buffs for a stroll around South Alphington on Sunday 16 May from 2pm.

• And finally … Home maintenance 101. It’s a maintenance kind of year it seems … and on the weekend of 19 & 20 June we’re offering a two day workshop (only $50 with Learn Local funding) all about building home maintenance skills. How to unblock a drain, how to stop a cistern running, how to fix a hose leak, how to hang pictures and fix cracks in plaster. How to fix windows that stick … (depending how old your house is the list goes on and on right?).

Book in online today.

At ACC we try to offer a wide range of opportunities for people to meet their neighbours, to make friends in the community, and to build, explore and share their skills and knowledge.

We run a number of activities that are self-led or run by a generous volunteer. These include Czech and Slovak Playgroup, Ukulele, Line Dancing and the like. For these programs we ask all attendees to contribute $5 per week (no matter how long the session lasts) to keep the lights on and the heater heating etc.

We also support a number of micro-businesses that provide services that fit in with our programming goals. Small business owners/sole traders running these programs set their own fees and we support them with low room hire rates (again $5 per attendee) and publicity. These programs include Jane’s Group Harp, Cat’s Lego Club and Matthew’s Guitar Lessons (about to start up).

Then we run a number of tutored programs, where we spread a small bucket of money that comes from Darebin Council and Yarra Council as widely as possible, prioritising community building and community need.

In the first half of 2021 we will fully subsidise Jill to run our very successful and long-standing AAA Bowls program (a partnership with Alphington Bowls Club) and Jenny to oversee our Friday community morning program that includes Community Craft, Gardening Group and Morning Tea on the Corner.

Then with the remaining program funding we will partially subsidising our tutored/supervised Community Shed sessions.

These programs will cost $5 per hour per participant (still a bargain) and we’ll need a minimum of 6 people booked in by the term for them to run.

Of course, we also tap into other funding where ever possible. We always have our eyes open and our ears to the ground … last year we partnered with MyTime to support our Peer Support Playgroup for example. And we get one-off grants from wonderful community support organisations such as Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank who have previously provided funding for our Community Lunches and our Gardening Group … and this coming year will be supporting our History Group (more to come on this).

Our full program for 2021 will be out next week, and we’ll be featuring some of the new things on offer at ACC (and some old favourites as well) in our newsletter in coming weeks (with the links to book in).

We hope you can find something that you will enjoy being part of, and we look forward to seeing you onsite in the new year. Our programming will resume in the first week of February.

After the year we’ve had, we’re feeling pretty lucky that we’ve been able to test run ‘morning tea on the corner’ over the last few weeks. This week we’re looking forward to our 4th and final Friday morning tea for the year.

To mark the occasion we’ll be firing up the new bbq and giving our new outdoor kitchen a workout … to cook up the rest of the fancy Brenta sausages leftover from the market on Saturday.

And we’ll throw in a mince tart and some shortbread with your cup of tea or coffee … a soft introduction to the fast approaching Christmas season.

So if you’d like to pop past for a bbq-y Christmas-y morning tea/early lunch and a chat, we’ll see you from 11.30am. And if you’d like to come earlier you are most welcome to join in crafty activities inside and gardening activities outside from 10am.

We are anticipating keeping our Friday community mornings with morning tea running next year (we’ll be back on deck after Australia Day). So if you can’t make it this week pop it in your diary for next year. And we’ll see you then!

The weather held off for our annual Christmas Makers Market, and we had a wonderful community morning on Saturday. We were thrilled to have some lovely community minded folk from Rotary helping out on the BBQ. Thanks Kevin (you may know him for his lovely bonsai trees that he has sold at our markets in the past) for suggesting that your Rotary friends might be able to get involved.

We’d also like to thank Nelson Alexander for helping us get the word out about the market with 2 signboards and some coreflutes. We really appreciate having an ongoing relationship with a local real estate agent. We couldn’t possibly do any large and flashy advertising without their help.

Thanks to all the makers that participated on the day including our local CWA. There was a super variety of things to purchase. Lots of jewellery, jam, plants, gorgeous craft and some super recycled bags … just to name a few.

Lots of kids got into our crafty Christmas project that recycled a jar lid into a nature based Christmas decoration. And we had all our community art projects out on display. It was nice for everyone attending to see what Blind Date with a Book is about, and to be able to collect an Honestly letter (sometimes it is hard to make it down to the shops in time to grab one before they all go!).

Thanks again shoppers, seller and crafty kids. Aren’t we lucky to live in such a great local neighbourhood!