News from Holden Street Neighbourhood House – June 2009
8 July 2009 at 4:07 pm Holden Street Neighbourhood House 1 comment
Download: June 2009 Newsletter [PDF, 55Kb]
It has, as usual, been a very busy few months at the House. There have been lots of people hiring the house for parties, meetings and groups and of course all our regular classes and sessional childcare program.
Staff There have been a couple of changes in the last six months. In January we said farewell to Kim Steer and in March we welcomed our new Program Coordinator, Bernadette Phillips. Jesslyn Miller from childcare went off on her travels in May and Renuka Gunoory has replaced her. Our ESL teacher Denise Collin was unable to continue this year and Yvonne Walker has stepped into that position. Welcome to Bernadette, Renuka and Yvonne.
Bike Hoops – there are now 5 bike hoops that people can use, situated close to the house – two on the nature strip at the front of the House and three at the rear in Railway Parade.
Minister’s Visit In late May, Richard Wynne, Minister for Local Government, visited to announce the third round of Modernising Neighbourhood House Grants. Holden Street was successful in two of these grants. One will allow us to offer public internet access. Currently this is very restricted due to the number of computer classes we run. The second grant will allow us to add to the environmental sustainable works carried out last year. This will include an additional water tank, replacement of the roof insulation, a heat recovery ventilation system, improvement to ventilation and natural lighting, shading and other minor works. These features will help us to further reduce our impact on the environment. Holden Street is an old weather board house so if you are interested in seeing some of the modifications we have made whilst retaining its character, come and have a look.
Website We are very excited that our website (www.users.on.net/~holdensnh) is up and running and what’s more, being used! You can find many details of the House on the website and shortly the staff will be using a blog linked to the site and those of you who have easy access to the internet will be able to subscribe to the blog (it’s free) and hear the latest news.
Three year Plan The committee recently held a planning day to evaluate their last three year plan 2006-2009 and to develop the new one 2009 – 2012. This will soon be available in draft form so if you would like to see it please call or drop by.
Mural at the Neighbourhood Justice Centre If you passed the House a couple of weeks ago, you may have seen a painted panel at the front of the House. This panel, along with panels painted by Yarra’s other 8 neighborhood houses, will be combined to create a mural that will be installed at the Neighbourhood Justice Centre in Wellington St. This will be ‘unveiled’ at 11am on 22nd July.
New programs in Semester 2 include
- Mixed Media and Lino Printing
- Social Art group,
- Childrens Art by Angelico Art
- a Bike Program.
We will be holding a Womens Day in August and a special Seniors Week outing.
Visit our website for details.
The North Fitzroy Ramblers have teamed up with Victoria Walks to become a Walking Action Group. You can find out more by visiting www.victoriawalks.org.au or by coming along to one of the groups that meet on a Tuesday or Wednesday mornings.
Our Annual General Meeting is scheduled for October and this is always a great opportunity to catch up and socialise. If socialising is what you are after you might also enjoy our monthly morning teas and our Christmas party.
Sponsorship
The Community Branch of Bendigo Bank in Clifton Hill continues its strong support of their local community. The bank has been operating for three years and was established and funded by the community so that profits stay within the area and are used to support local clubs and community groups such as Holden Street. The bank sponsors an Auslan interpreter which allows us to run an ESL class for Deaf students. This program is run in partnership with Vicdeaf. Perhaps you noticed an article about this class in the Leader newspaper recently? The bank also assists in other ways such as facilitating community networking, information and training and program promotion.
What do you want the House to do?
If you have ideas of activities or things you would like to see the House offer, please contact us.
We are conscious of the paper we use for our brochure and newsletter. However we do want you to know what is happening in the House. If you do not want us to deliver our brochure to your mail box or would like to receive the newsletter by email please let our office know (9489 9929). Our current practice is to not deliver to letterboxes marked ‘Australia Post only’ or ‘addressed mail only’. Having spoken to many householders who have ‘no junk mail’ by their mail boxes, we do deliver to those houses as feedback has been that our programs are not considered ‘junk’.
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1. Daryl Mc.Donald | 28 September 2009 at 9:37 pm
First of all congratulations on the new website, it looks great. From what I can see it looks like i’m the first one to leave a comment too, so that makes me feel privileged.
Now, to the subject at hand. It is my opinion also that community brochure’s and newsletter’s are not considered junk mail, one of the reason’s is because you’re not trying to sell anything. What it does do for me is that it promotes awareness of a local community get together. A warm and welcoming place where you can feel to be a part of something, or just drop in for a chat and a cup of coffee.
But personally, I like my newsletter’s sent to me by email. The advantages of that is it never goes missing, it doesn’t take any room in my place to file away, and it never gets wet no matter how hard it rain’s. But to me the most important reason is that it save’s paper, and in turn the environment.
Daryl Mc.Donald.