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