This year are putting together some Christmas hampers to support locals doing it tough over the holidays. If you have nice Christmassy food items or small things like soaps or household basics that you would yourself enjoy as part of a practical and thoughtful hamper, we’re accepting donations - please drop them in the office this week or next.

And … this week we are continuing on our whole of site organisational quest - new storage for the community shed, new cupboards and tubs … and with more room we are undertaking lots of rearranging right across our spaces. By the end of the week we hope to have a sensible home for everything … and then we’ll wrestle our office into shape (again) … and get cracking on our program for next year.

Also coming up in our last few weeks of the year …

1. Alphington Arts - 7pm, Thursday 12 December. Come along for some end of year creativity

2. Christmas Lunch - 12pm, Friday 13 December. Gold coin donation. We’ll have ham and chicken, salads etc. and Santa!

3. Christmas Carols - 7pm, Sunday 22 December at the Alphington Bowls Club. Always lovely and great for families Bring along cash donation for charity.

4. Project Stationery - we’re excited to be supporting this sustainability initiative over summer. Volunteers will be using ACC facilities to sort and rehome excess stationery collected from schools across Melbourne from 14 December to 26 January.

Also … we’ve finally got our tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicum into the front gardens … with mulch etc. It’s looking great out there!

Don’t forget to RSVP for Christmas lunch - call or email - if you can! Have a great week.

Leanne

We appreciate all those that spared the time to complete the online survey this week. As you will be aware, the survey was interested in whether neighbourhood houses help people build stronger community connections.

The information is being consolidated by NHVic - our peak body, and will then be forwarded on to the State Government, who provide nearly 500 neighbourhood houses across Victoria with base funding.

Hi all, we’ve got our Christmas Makers Market on Saturday … and it is going to be hot. It is on from 11am-2pm for Christmas shopping, with food and drinks and some Christmas crafty fun!

We’ll have the a/c on inside - you’ll be able to check out the artists exhibiting as part of Alphington Open Studios and cool down … and we’ve got plenty of shade in the garden with our plane trees and pergolas … we’ll also get out our umbrellas and have some icypoles and cool drinks etc. for sale.

More broadly … at this stage it looks like we’ll have a run of days over 30 degrees … which also means homes will heat up and people who rely on public transport for shopping etc. might need to plan ahead.

Darebin Council and Yarra Council have some great info about heat health … with lots of sensible reminders - like shopping for meals that you can eat cold, putting wet washers in the freezer, shading west windows, and more.

And - once you’re all set up at your place you might also like to check in on any neighbours and family who you suspect might find managing the heat difficult. Knowing there is someone to call on is always a good thing!

Also a reminder about the QR code and participant survey running this week. We’d love you to complete it if you can.

See the details in the post below.

Wishing you a great week. Hope to see you here - despite the heat.

Leanne

Hi all, a reminder that if you come to ACC we’d really appreciate if you could fill out our participant survey this week. Just click here.

Alternatively, you can scan the QR code below. Or you can complete a hard copy in the office … but ONLINE IS BEST.

The survey is about what you do at ACC, why you come along and how attending ACC makes you feel - particularly in relation to community connections.

Thanks so much for taking the time!

A short post this week, with a few reminders.

• We have Crunch on Thursday at 12.30pm. $15 for a delicious lunch and a creative activity.

• Come along on Friday at 10.30am for morning tea and have a chat with Clare about our multi-use garden. It should be interesting. This Garden Tour is part of Urban Agriculture month.

• Next week we have Preserves Group at 1pm on Tuesday and Movie Club on in the evening. We’ll let you know the movie and the time later this week.

• We’ll be getting ready for the Makers Market on Saturday 23 November from 11am-2pm which also coincides with the start of the Alphington Open Studios weekends. We are once again really looking forward to hosting local artists here at ACC and the market is always a great local community event. We hope you can make it.

Also, next week we’ll be participating in the 4 yearly Community Survey that is run by our peak body Neighbourhood Houses Victoria (NHVic). We’ll have QR codes around our site and will ask everyone who comes along to take two minutes to participate and complete the survey. The survey really helps us build a picture of the value of our house in terms of community need for our services and why and how people engage with us … and it is fundamental to securing our ongoing funding as a sector - so we’d be really grateful if you participated. Keep an eye out for the QR codes if you are here!

Lots on (still) as we roll into the end of the year … see you soon.

Leanne