NCNS has two amazing new volunteer groups, Collective Community & Collective Kids Community! The Collective Community group was created as a result of general discussion during a Cranebrook Connects Community Working Group meeting, where several requests from community members were made to start a group where they had the opportunity to give back to their community. We had also received feedback from some residents that felt somewhat isolated from other adults and were struggling to have a purpose to the day through various circumstances.
The Collective Community group is open and will have activities for all Penrith Community members such as cooking, sewing, event planning, reading with children, gardening, assisting community with shopping and more. Our first get together was a meet and greet where interested community members could discuss and plan how they would like to move forward with this group.
At the moment, this group is made up of 12 women, some of whom have been involved with volunteering for many years and others who are completely new to it. We would love to have some men join this group!
So far, the group has made 15 food hampers, 300 muffins and cupcakes for the children who attend our Breakfast Club at the Cranebrook Neighbourhood Centre and are currently in the process of sewing 30 library bags for new children starting school and hemmed uniforms as a free service.
On the 9th September, the group held a Cooking Workshop, teaching others how to cook from scratch, cheap eats, plus handy time and money saving ideas for the kitchen which was a massive hit with the community.
The Collective Community Group have even made a talking stick for the children’s collective community group.
Similar to the Collective Community Group, the Collective Kids Community Group is a children’s volunteer group run by children, doing similar activities in the community.
Yesterday, the Collective Kids held an fantastic ‘Afternoon in the Park’ event at Kingswood Park, that was the result of 6 weeks of hard work put together by the children in the group with guidance from NCNS Community Development Worker, Justine Reynolds. The kids have held regular organisational meetings where they have learnt how to run a meeting, organise an event, work with a budget and most of all negotiate and except success and disappointment. All of the ideas, that were passed at these meetings came into place yesterday, with the help of NCNS, Kingswood Park School, Penrith City Council and Uniting.
The event had a range of fun activities including slime making, dancing, Oz Tag, Soccer, Lolly guessing competition, mystery prizes as well as afternoon tea. We had over 100 children and families attend on the day, which is a credit to these incredible Collective Kids.
The highlights of the event were Dads playing Oz Tag with the children, families connecting and the slime making station was definitely a hit with the kids.
With the success of the ‘Afternoon in the Park’ event, the Collective Kids will be aiming to organise one event per school term that will be fun for children and families. Watch this space!
The Collective Community group will be focusing on connecting with new residents in the area, supporting the community and the group would like to work alongside the Collective Kids Community in the future, for some inter-generational learning.
If you are interested in joining the Collective Community group please feel free to come along or contact Justine on 02 4729 0442 or justine@nepeancommunity.org.au for more information.
Download Collective Community Term 4 2019 Flyer