Darebin City Council is collaborating with Seniors Rights Victoria and Housing for the Aged Action Group on the Warm Safe Home Project.

The project is a mechanism to build awareness of elder abuse, and will be showcased at Preston Library in early June, for World Elder Abuse Awareness Day that takes place on June 15th each year.

The project asks people in the community to decorate a small house and talk about what it means to them to have a warm safe home.

If you are feeling creative and/or would like to help build awareness of this important issue, you can collect a cardboard house from us. Drop it back once you’ve finished. We’ll then pass the completed houses back to our Council colleagues for them to include in the exhibition.

Note, we should have the kits ready by the end of Monday!

It was super lovely to welcome our colleague Kathy Vrettas from Yarra City Council to our community morning on Friday. And we were delighted that she brought along Cr Edward Crosslands who is the new Yarra Mayor.

The Yarra neighbourhood houses have such a great relationship with Council, and we are always thrilled when staff and councillors come along so we can show off all the exciting things we have been up to - and that deliver on our shared strategic objectives to create great services for our local community.

And … to mark the occasion … I FINALLY took a photo of some of our crafting friends who come along on Fridays with GenU. They have been coming for at least 6 months now, and we really look forward to them attending each week. Such nice people!

If you are interested in craft or gardening - with a good dose of socialising thrown in - our community mornings might be just right for you too! Come along from 10am. All welcome. Lunch is at 12pm.

Hi, we are really looking forward to saying hello to everyone as we resume our action packed Friday program. It has been great to get some phone calls and emails from our regulars already.

This year we will be running a similar program to last year - but with a few tweaks to the timing of things, so please note …

Community Gardening/SHEd

From 10am, come along and join Clare and Corrado outside as they work to improve our lovely grounds. Over the year you will have the opportunity to learn about growing and maintaining an urban orchard and vegetable garden, composting and pruning and how to save seeds, grow seedlings … all the things! And depending on interest, there is also the opportunity to work collectively on small scale projects in our community shed.

If you have passed by recently you will see that our raised garden beds will be looking for some love after a month of wild growing (the tomatoes definitely need staking!). And as always I am sure Clare has lots of creative plans for the year ... This is a great opportunity to meet local people. No need to enrol, just come along with your hat and gloves and join in.

Community Craft

From 10.30am we’ll be running our inside craft group - suitable for knitters and crocheters etc. We are always delighted to welcome new people of all abilities and skill levels to join in. Bring your own materials along if you’d like to work on your own project, or you can use our donated stash if you’d like to make things that we can sell to support the program. Again, no need to book, just come along and join in.

Community Lunch

At 12pm you can join us for a light lunch. We’ll come together to enjoy foods such as pasta bakes, soup, toasties etc. with a cup of tea or coffee and dessert, including fruit. This program is supported by our lovely friends at the Alphington CWA who donate amazing sweet and savoury home cooked dishes. Yum!

AAA Art in the Shed

For anyone needing to access all abilities programs, you can join Clare, Corrado and Hazel from 1-2pm for some arty fun. This program is tailored to the interests of participants. It costs $5 weekly, and you must book in for the term on our website. Please note that places are limited.

What a lovely, connected community we live in!

Another fabulous year of carol singing last night - Jan (our unflagging and entertaining host) and Jan (on piano for the first time) led a packed out Alphington Bowls Club audience through nearly every song in the ACC songbook once again. You never miss out on your favourite carol at this event - because they all get sung 🎵.

And it was just lovely to hear our local choir The Alphingtones perform. They sounded gorgeous.

Thanks David for your bagpiping … and Anne - always a powerhouse behind the scenes. And Mish for her running around! And Geoff (secret Santa business).

And everyone who comes along every year and contributes by leading a carol etc.

These carols have been running for around 40 years … and have been hosted at the Scout Hall, in the outdoor amphitheatre at Kate’s house (1 View Street) and now at Alphington Bowls Club. Last night I heard someone say they typed up the original songbook! Amazing.

And we raised about $275 through our gold coin donations. This year we’ll support some people doing it tough through The Salvos.

Merry Christmas.

If you are here this week and would like to contribute to our solar light project please put your hand up and we’ll give you the materials to make one! We’d love you to contribute.

Oyr little hill of dreams is coming along now, with lots more lights added this week.