Neighbourhood Houses

Love in the Time of Covid19  April 11th 2020 no. 06

Hello Community! Happy Easter while staying safe at home. If you are done resting and feel like doing something, take your time to read this. In this issue: 1. Community Projects: Community Flyer, Community Audiobook, Climate Grief Workshop 2. Interview with Nerida, your local Climate Activist 1. Community Projects Community Flyer If you run online community events, LET US HELP YOU PROMOTE THEM! We'd like to support the activities using our (1) online newsletter and (2) term flyer that will be printed and distributed widely in the community. Just reply to this email to send details of your event. Community Audiobook - Sound Makers Needed! So, the book is being recorded by 6 community members! Can anybody make short video footage of making the sounds below? Pick as many as you'd like. It can be as easy as filming yourself tapping a table with your fingers, for example. 1.    Wind – weak 2.    Wind – strong 3.    Slow tapping 4.    Footsteps – slow 5.    Footsteps – normal 6.    Rain – weak 7.    Rain – strong 8.    Opening a curtain 9.    Door opening 10.    Door closing The whole idea of this project is doing something fun together using technology and provide healthy entertainment to the wider community. Your name will be included in the closing credit! Please email the footage to Ash ( newlands@necchi.org ) by next Tuesday. Climate Grief Saturday 18th April Psychology for a Safe Climate will be facilitating this session via Zoom At this time with Covid 19 adding to the stress of keeping a focus on climate change - we need to keep a space for expressing our complex feelings about both the present and the future.  Keeping the climate change issue alive at this time is a heavy load on behalf of us all. This workshop offers a space to express your feelings, reflect on the emotional burden, and focus on self-care so that you are able to continue, and flourish in whatever way you contribute at the moment. This workshop has been adapted from our face to face workshops to an online zoom event. We will still work in groups of 6 people with one psychologist /facilitator per group. Limited to 18 people. Read more about the event here and book your place here. This event is hosted by NUCA (Neighbourhos United for Climate Action) and NP4CA (Newlands Parents for Climate Action) as part of Community Climate Action Series. 2. Interview with Nerida, the Climate Activist What are changes the Coronavirus(Covid-19) situation has brought to you?   The main change that this situation has brought to me is a slowing down in terms of the pace of each day, but it's intensified some elements of my day and put a strain on my relationship with my partner. I have certainly enjoyed seeing my children relish the opportunity to spend more time together and use their imaginations in their play all day long, uninterrupted. It's been beautiful to watch their bond grow even stronger.     Any tips on spending time at home?   Like most people are saying: make sure you get dressed each morning, spend some time outside each day, and do some exercise each day. It's a great time to slowly catch up on all the jobs that have been hanging over your head for months or years, and to also just have quiet cups of tea whilst reading a book. Having some projects is really important, so maybe some home improvements to make your home more energy efficient (see Environment Victoria's tips here) and some gardening projects, too.     Any contents you'd recommend?   The only show I'm watching right now is Simon Reeve's latest documentary, North America. His next one will be South America. He's travelling from the arctic circle in Canada to the tip of South America, often looking at the world through the lens of climate change. His background is investigative journalism and he's a really charismatic, warm, humble, and adventurous guy - I'm rather fond of him! You can find some of his fascinating, old documentaries via his website, and this current documentary is currently screening on SBS. I can't recommend his documentaries highly enough.      Banner making workshop for Climate Strike (Sept 20) 14 September 2019 Is there any action people can do to take for climate during self-isolation?   There's so much you can do from home to take action on climate breakdown! Definitely stay engaged in the climate movement and what's happening in politics - some really shocking decisions have been snuck through by the government while we've all been distracted by Covid-19, such as the Morrison and Andrews governments locking in 10 more years of logging our native state forests, destroying precious parts of our forests that survived the last bushfire season; and opening up our state to new onshore gas exploration.    Other things you can do are (just a few out of the hundreds!): Divest your insurance, banking, superannuation. Market Forces have all the information you need and make it really easy and quick! Be sure to make the institutions know why you're divesting and try to be as public about it as you can. Write letters and emails to your local members of state and federal parliament.  Host an online Climate for Change conversation with friends, family, colleagues, neighbours, as they're a really effective way of getting more people engaged and informed.  Check out the campaigns being run by all the great organisations such as Friends of the Earth's Act on Climate, ACF, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, GetUp and more.  Write a submission, or just add a comment, to the panel reviewing the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, because it's clearly been failing, and is outdated. This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity, so add your voice! Mining companies and other businesses and industries will be adding their voice too, trying to make the law as weak as they can, unfortunately. That's why we all need to step up and speak out! Check out this great guide from the ACF. Delete all those old unwanted emails and files being stored in the 'cloud' because they are all creating emissions! Bike Maintenance Workshop 16 November 2019 Tell us about your program   The free Community Climate Action Series is co-run by Neighbours United for Climate Action (NUCA) and Newlands Parents for Climate Action (NP4CA), with the generous support of Newlands Neighbourhood House. We are passionate about bringing our community together, building our individual and collective skills, knowledge, and resilience, so that we are better able to take effective climate action and get through the challenging times now and in the future. All of our sessions are being run online via video chat platforms like Zoom, so keep coming along! Of course, now it's BYO afternoon tea; I can't wait to bake for you all again! Check out the remaining sessions in the flyer, below, and stay tuned via Facebook or emails for details on how to access each online session. We can't wait to see your face online. You can contact us at: neighboursunitedca@gmail.com   Can you tell us more about NUCA?  NUCA (Neighbours United for Climate Action) is local group based in Moreland and Darebin that Taryn, Maggie, and I started last June. In a nutshell, we do the following:   1) Support people in our community taking action by providing a platform and support structure/network, and we amplify their voices and actions. We have some NUCA teams who we particularly support, but we also support other organisations, groups, and individuals.   2) Try to link together everything that's going on in our Moreland and Darebin communities that's relevant to climate action and ethical living, in our monthly newsletter. It always includes lots of ways that you can take action, from things you can do to support our local NUCA teams to signing petitions, attending events    3) Run this free Community Climate Action Series with Newlands Parents for Climate Action. This runs twice per month, on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month, from 2-4pm, at Newlands Neighbourhood House, with some exceptions so stay in touch via fb or the newsletter for the full details.   The easiest way to get involved is to sign up to receive the newsletter, here.  We would love to share with your our joyful six-month newsletter from December in which we celebrate what each of our amazing NUCA teams has been focusing on. This newsletter is the best way to get a good picture about what NUCA is and to help to inspire you to take action - there's so much we can do together! So, we kindly invite you to have a read by clicking on this text. Launch of the 2020 Climate Action Series February 8th 2020 About Nerida    When I'm not engaging in climate action and community building, I am usually in the kitchen and often (but not often enough) in the garden, and (too often) rushing around doing too much! One day I hope to be able to sew and knit - I think I'll feel more complete as a human then! I am enjoying nurturing a sense of love for our natural world in my two young kids, and I'm still trying to work out my next career move.... any ideas? Share your inspiration with us, help your community to stay connected. Click here to subscribe See past newsletters From the NECCHi team (Newlands & East Coburg Community Hubs inc.)