Coming up on the 1 May, at the Alphington Bowls Club. Yum!

Tickets will be on sale from this afternoon. Follow this link or check back on the CWA page on our website.

International Women’s Day is a great day to acknowledge the history of neighbourhood houses - which came about in the 70s and early 80s as a result of women getting together to help each other out - particularly when it became acceptable to return work after having children, but there was limited practical infrastructure in place to support and enable this to happen. Occasional care/crèche and babysitting clubs featured heavily in the first iteration of many houses … ACC for example had a babysitting club - with special tokens that acknowledged how many hours you had done. We still have them stored away in our archives!

It’s also a great day to acknowledge some of the wonderful women who work and volunteer and join in here, and support us - making our centre what it is today.

These photos are from the last year … women like Anne volunteering in the garden, Louisa sharing her amazing art skills in our community, Elaine, Manu and Monica making preserves to help us fundraise, Lee undertaking fabulous community art projects that we all enjoy, Annie and Silvana supporting Kinfolk and joining in our community market, Maylei teaching women new skills in the shed, the women in our shed, our politicians, our sponsors like Lee from the Community Bank on Queens Parade, lovely Maria across the road (and Betty - I don’t have a photo of Betty), Anne yarnbombing, Sharyn and Virginia hanging art for our recent exhibition, our morning tea participants, our playgroup facilitators Maimi, Sue and Gianna and the playgroup families - mostly mums. Shirley and the line dancers (sorry I didn’t include a photo) and the families that joined in our grow local, cook local workshops. And our staff including Kalimna, Jill and Suzanne. Also our committee including Heather, Anne, Michelle, Kate and Jane. And then there’s also the broader neighbourhood house network …

It is a truly fabulous experience working in partnership with so many wonderful, dynamic women every single day.

So hooray for women I say!! And happy International Women’s Day. Our house certainly wouldn’t be the same without you.

Hi Leanne here. The Big Steal is one of my favourite nostalgic Australian movies (topped off by Love Serenade).

Throughout March Yarra City Arts and Umbrella Entertainment are hosting ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ - sunset movies 🎥 🍿 in the linear park north of Park Street, where it intersects with Nicholson Street, in North Fitzroy.

The Merger is coming up this weekend … a movie about resurrecting a country footy team (it is a movie I’ve always wanted to see). There’s live music and food just around the corner at the Nicholson Street shops … and the weather forecast is looking pretty good 👍.

Maybe you’d like to go too?

You just never know what will happen next at a neighbourhood house …

This week we were thrilled when Eugene (who lives locally) popped in and offered us an outside all-weather table tennis table. And then promptly dropped it off AND included some bats and balls. It was quite exciting to see it arriving on the back of a ute on Friday afternoon!

Thanks Eugene and family (who had outgrown the table). We have set it up in the back garden and now we invite you, our neighbourhood friends, to pop in for a play.

Also … if you have some spare table tennis bats and balls at your house that you no longer use (but are still in good nick) think of us! I am sure we could use some spares …

This year we’re running Playtime in the Garden on Wednesdays from 10am-12pm out in the front yard - making the most of the new cubby house, pergola and sandpit.

This week at least 8 families came past for a play whilst it was on. Some met up with existing friends, others came by themselves. There were mums bringing their kids and grandparents bringing grandchildren for a play. And a few families also borrowed toys from the Toy Library whilst they were here.

It is just so lovely to see our community making themselves at home at ACC and utilising our play-spaces and resources.

If you’re home with children on a Wednesday morning you might like to pop in too!