All or our book clubs are recommencing for the year this month. We run 5 book clubs (Kalimna here and Jody at Darebin Libraries do a fabulous job of juggling and managing the confusion of books and people and loans and return dates) and we have a couple of spots left in our Monday and Tuesday evening groups.

So if you’d like to get together once a month with a group of local folk to chat about a book (and make neighbourhood friends) you can sign up here.

It costs $60 per year to join.

We hope you and your family and those you love the most get the chance to get together this year (and if not that you can catch up with local friends) to share the joy of the Christmas season.

We wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy and hopeful new year.

We’re looking forward to seeing you back at ACC after Australia Day. Our programming recommences onsite in the first week of February.

It really has been lovely to reconnect with so many of you recently! And a big thanks to the helpful community friends who have offered to water our garden through January!

I thought we’d leave you with a classy Christmas video or two - hopefully our staff finds these as entertaining as I do … If you are suitably impressed and want to make your own just download the elfyourself app!

The first one is here!

Merry Xmas from ACC - Part 1

If that wasn’t enough the second one is here (I had to make 2 to fit everyone in … you can only put 5 people in per video!)

Merry Xmas from ACC - Part 2

Our community Christmas tree is up. Thanks to everyone who did a little drawing for it!

A photo of Lee doing the finishing touches and stringing the metal ‘tinsel’ with washer ‘baubles’.

We had our community art bin out last weekend with bits of wood, sharpies and instructions, and asked people who stopped by to draw a little picture for the scrap wood community Christmas tree that we we are making.

Thanks to everyone that took the time to do a picture or a pattern. They were all pretty cute.

Note, there may still be more bits of painted timber that Lee will be putting out over the coming week … so keep your eyes peeled if you are walking past. We’d love you to contribute too!

World Mental Health Day (today) seems like a good day to reflect on our Happiness project from earlier in the year.

We started this project by trawling through online advice/tips/lists from reputable organisations such as Beyond Blue and Headspace … and did our best to group the ideas into a compact list of some practical things that have been shown to improve mental health and build a sense of happiness. We ended up with 12 key messages.

Then we made them into a little rhyming poem (of sorts) … with some cute animated images … just because. And we also created an A3 poster.

Our story starts with wrangling control of the seemingly uncontrollable by making your own list - that is making yourself a plan.

Then looking after yourself physically - sleeping, eating and exercising well. I don’t think these need explanation. We all know they’re the building blocks right?

The next little bracket of ideas focus on human connection - taking the time to keep up with your friends, making new friends - your neighbours are a great place to start (particularly this year), and helping out others - volunteering has been shown to have a positive effect on depression, life-satisfaction and well-being.

One interesting idea is the value of spending time in nature - did you know this is a proven way to reduce stress and lessen the symptoms of anxiety and depression? We’re so lucky in our neighbourhood to have access to endless stretches of green space along the local rivers and creeks.

And then there’s the impact of a smile - when you smile your brain releases dopamine, endorphins and serotonin. A smile reduces your own stress and improves the mood of those around you.

Next we explore creativity. Making the time to do what you love and putting yourself out there to learn new things contributes to an upward spiral of positive emotions, psychological well-being and feelings of flourishing in life.

And finally, we end with gratitude. Gratitude helps people feel positive emotions, relish good experiences, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

Amazing right? We were quite chuffed with all the things we managed to squeeze in there.

If you’d like one of these posters for your wall pop past ACC. We printed about 300 and have kept refilling our collection bin - I think there are about 30 left. Again we’d like to thank Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank for supporting this project. It really has proven particularly relevant in 2020.

And if you’d like to watch the full animation with community voices (it’s pretty cute) click here.