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.

Leanne here! COVID has arrived on my doorstep with my middle darling Jemima in bed feeling sickly.

And … this means I have to stay at home and isolate this week. So … our office is very likely to have reduced hours. Suzanne will be in Monday. Kalimna is in Tuesday and Thursday and Jill will be able to open up Wednesday before she heads over to the bowls club … As yet I don’t have an exact plan for Friday.

Anyway, as long as I stay healthy (keep your fingers and toes crossed for me) I will be working from home. And my number is on the door if no one is in the office and you need to call about anything!

If you pop past and we’re not in I apologise in advance … xx

Don’t forget! … and the Dog Show 🐩 . Find out more here.

If you are a local maker of wonderful things and would like the opportunity to sell those things to the local community then book a stall at our Markers Market on Saturday March 26th.

It is all part of our Alphington Show and Dog Show.

The market starts at 11am and finishes at 2pm (not even any need to get up early!).

It is $20 to book a place to set up your table. Note this is an outdoor event with BYO table, chair and shade cover.

Click the link here to book.

We’re pretty excited to be getting some new outdoor furniture delivered on Monday … the remaining table out on the corner that Bunnings donated to us a few years ago has seen lots of love but is at the end of it’s life I think (it’s so wobbly and has already been repaired once).

We purchased the two new tables using funding that came in the form of a ‘voucher’ from the Victorian Government to help us deliver more activities outdoors. We hope you enjoy them!