We held our AGM on Monday night. It was on zoom and was a great chance to revisit all the super things we did in 2020/21.

I presented a slide show that showcased the events, programs, activities and community arts/outreach projects we did in the last year - Kalimna’s gorgeous photos made it very lovely!

Thanks to those that came along. If you too would like to find out more about what was achieved in the last year at ACC you can check out our Annual Report here.

We’re looking forward to recommencing programming at ACC and seeing you all again in the coming weeks.

Neighbourhood houses as ‘community facilities’ under the State Government roadmap can restart outdoor activities when we reach 70%.

In line with the roadmap anyone who wishes to use our facilities and/or join in our programs will need to be fully vaccinated. You’ll be able to do this by:

• linking your vaccination certificate to the Services Victoria check in app

• downloading your certificate into your online wallet, or

• printing your certificate in hard copy.

If you find the technology overwhelming did you know you can ring Medicare and they’ll send you a hard copy? Maria across the road told me yesterday this is what she did …

From next week we’ll be running Playtime in the Garden on Wednesdays from 10am with a BBQ at 12pm. And on Fridays we’ll be running Community Gardening activities from 10am, followed by Morning Tea on the Corner at 11.30am.

See you soon!

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.

Welcome back to Term 4. It’s likely going to be a tricky few months through to Christmas for us all … at ACC we’ll be trying to pay attention to the kind and caring local friends and supportive neighbourhood networks that we all have. Remember, if you need a hand (or an ear) we’re right here!

And at ACC (in a rerun on 2020 …ha!) we’re planning on restarting programming with outside activities.

We’ve hoping that we can get the pergola built in the front yard very soon (it is taking forever … but such is pandemic life) so that our playgroups can meet up comfortably outside in any weather.

When we can get together we’ll also look at restarting our Friday morning activities including gardening at 10am and morning tea on the corner at 11.30am.

In addition Kalimna is going to work on getting some of the toys from the toy library available to borrow online with a click and collect system. Which will be great for now and into the future I think.

She’ll also be reviewing our book clubs for next year. If you are keen to join one, now is a good time to let us know!

Lee is working on a fun new community art installation for Children’s Week at the end of October. She’s also finalising the Heritage Walks project with Anne from our History Group (there’s one more walk to come!) and is about to install new artworks in the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery (on the fence).

Jill will be looking at doing some community outreach on Wednesdays (we’ll keep you abreast of this project just as soon as we decide what this will look like!?!)

At the moment I am working on the Annual Report for the AGM on Monday 25 October (come along if you like! … it will probably be on zoom). It will be nice to temporarily step off the treadmill and celebrate all the things we’ve done in the past year.

And … that’s probably enough rambling. We’re looking forward to being increasingly back onsite and seeing you soon!

PS. Do you by any chance have a sturdy outdoor table unused at your house 🏡? Or know of somewhere to buy one or two? That could perhaps deliver? The ones on our corner have broken (not sure how that happened … I think someone may have stood on them because the legs broke and it’s hard to imagine how that came about with traditional table use …). In any case I think our community is missing them … especially now picnics are back.

I’m thinking about a couple of those metal and glass topped ones that are easy enough to move around (small round ones or bigger rectangular ones). Alternatively a really solid timber table. Xx

Some nice pics from our garden beds today.

We’re hoping to build up our gardening program over the coming year and make the most of our garden space.

If you enjoy gardening you might like to think about joining us on a Friday morning? We’d love to see you when we reopen.