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  Sustainable Neighbourhoods Lake Macquarie
Sustainable Neighbourhood News and Events

Clean Up Coal Ash
Join the Hunter Community Environment Centre and Sustainable Neighbourhood Alliance for an update on the Clean Up Coal Ash campaign and to get involved in the next phase of the journey.
Saturday 20 March, 9am
Find out more.
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Boomerang Bags are back in 2021!
Join in monthly Boomerang Bags sewing workshops in 2021. Enjoy a friendly, social sewing bee, making reusable shopping bags, produce bags and more from donated fabric on the last Sunday of the month.
Find out more.

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ReLeaf Lake Mac
Help increase tree canopy cover and green spaces across Lake Macquarie.
Head over to ReLeaf Lake Mac and tell us your stories of bush champions, favourite trees, green spaces and community gardens!
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Volunteer with us
Are you looking for a way to contribute to a better future? Make 2021 your year to volunteer!
Find out more about current volunteer opportunities.
Waste to Art Coordinator
Combine your passion for sustainability and art to help deliver the 2021 Waste to Art project. This volunteer role offers practical experience in all aspects of project management, arts administration, event management and marketing.
Find out more.
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Help us tell our story
Can you take photos or videos at our events?
Develop your experience and portfolio for an emerging career in commercial photography, or just send in some snaps from your smart phone.
Find out more.
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Help us organise
Do you thrive on organisation and record-keeping?
Join a friendly team, and help your local Sustainable Neighbourhood group record and communicate their decisions and upcoming events.
Find out more.
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Plastic free cafes
How is your local cafe transitioning away from single use plastics? Find out where you can get a discount for bringing your own cup in Lake Macquarie, and how you can help your local cafe make the switch.
Find out more.
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Plastic free profile
Learn how this local business is reducing their use of single use plastics.
Find out more.

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Covid-19 updates
We are encouraging everyone in the community to take a measured and precautionary approach to prevent and slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

For all Sustainable Neighbourhood events and activities we are regularly checking current health advice and restrictions at www.health.nsw.gov.au, and updating our event planning, risk management and project management protocols accordingly.

Lake Mac Repair Cafe
Planning is underway for Repair Cafe events in 2021.
Keep up to date with upcoming activities by following the Lake Mac Repair Cafe Facebook page.
Find out more about the project here, or watch the video below, taken at our Repair Cafe event in March 2020.

Pamper Care donations
You can donate personal care items, pantry food or gift cards to share with those in need through the Pamper Care Project.
Find out more.
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Year Planner
We've updated our year planner for 2021.
Take a look to see what's coming up and help plan your year.
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2020 Annual Report
We are pleased to present the Sustainable Neighbourhoods Annual Report for the 2019-2020 financial year.
Find out more.
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Get your hands dirty
Enjoy some good company, and the joy of gardening at a local community garden. We manage community garden projects in Dudley, Redhead, Holmesville and Charlestown.
Find out more.
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Meet our super star volunteers
Meet some of our volunteers, and find out about what being a Sustainable Neighbour can mean.
Find out more.
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Pop up promotions team
Gain confidence and practical community engagement experience.
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Marketing specialist
Looking for a short term project? Gain some practical experience and help us raise the visibility of Sustainable Neighbourhoods.
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Become a Young Leader
We are looking for enthusiastic people to help us foster a more sustainable Lake Macquarie.
Find out more
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Are you following us?
Have you found our Facebook page yet? Get the latest updates and connect with Sustainable Neighbourhood activities around the city. We are at Sustainable Neighbourhoods Lake Macquarie
Find out more.
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Strategic Plan 2018-2023
Our Strategy details the direction and actions we are taking to ensure we continue to be an effective organisation that is focused on our vision: Neighbourhoods that are empowered to live sustainably.
Find out more.

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Alliance Board meeting minutes
Do you want to keep up to date with decisions and actions of the Alliance Board? The monthly meeting minutes are usually emailed to those interested the day after the meeting. Please let us know if you'd like to join that email list.
The approved minutes are also available here.
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Picnic in the Park
Sustainable Neighbourhood volunteers enjoyed a relaxed picnic in Blackalls Park to celebrate our achievements in a challenging year, and see each other face to face.
Find out more.
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Waste to Art 2020
Discover how our community transformed ‘rubbish’ into beautiful, fun and functional pieces for the 2020 Sustainable Neighbourhoods Waste to Art exhibition.
Find out more.
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Citywide Clean Up
We removed 1.5 tonnes of litter from our local places in August!
Find out more
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Caring for each other and keeping connected
Sustainable Neighbourhoods is fundamentally a strong network of caring community members, which is so valuable in times of uncertainty.
Our members have continued to stay active and connected with each other via online and other means throughout 2020 and beyond.
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As restrictions have eased and continue to change, we are holding small face to face meetings and events again, with Covid Safe protocols in place.
These lessons from lockdown still remain important.
  • Stay connected to each other and offer support where you can.
  • Don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it.
  • Call those group and community members who tend not to be active on email or use digital tools.
  • Check in with your neighbours, especially those who may be most vulnerable or isolated.
  • If you are able, take some time to slow down, connect with those closest to you.
  • Spend some time in the garden, or work on your Waste to Art entry!
  • Keep washing your hands!
Contact us to connect with our active community.

Do you know where your cat is?
We have created a brochure to encourage residents to protect our local wildlife and responsibly care for our feline friends.
Find out more.
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Lake Mac Award winners 2020
We are proud as punch to have received two awards recognising the wonderful work of Sustainable Neighbourhood volunteers.
Find out more.
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Celebrate!
We enjoyed a relaxed afternoon catching up with Sustainable Neighbourhood volunteers, and learning about Council's tree Replacement Program at our afternoon tea and celebration event.
Find out more.
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Holmesville Spring Fair
The Holmesville Community Garden team put on an awesome free family fun day to celebrate the start of spring, with craft, plants, cakes, a Repair Cafe, live music, sausage sizzle and coffee!
Find out more

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Picnic in the park
We enjoyed a lovely evening with friends and neighbours at the Toronto Foreshore in November.
Find out more.
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Value our City's trees
We got together for a morning of creative fun back in August to create some homemade signs to encourage appreciation of our City's trees.
Find out more.
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Cake, conversation and Lake Mac's water quality
We learned all about water quality at the June Sustainable Neighbourhood networking event, with the Hunter Community Environment Centre and Council staff.
Find out more.
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Nature Play Forum
The forum in May explored opportunities for school-aged children to experience nature based learning, rich in nature time, movement, culture and community.
Find out more.
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Holmesville garden gatherings
Share the joy of gardening with the friendly crowd at the Holmesville Community Garden, on the first Wednesday and fourth Saturday of every month.
Find out more.
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Plastic free Toronto
Find out how the Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group are working to create a Plastic Free Toronto.
Find out more.
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Barks and recreation
We are calling on all dog owners to be mindful of their responsibilities, and have produced a brochure to help clarify and reinforce the rules about dogs in public places.
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War on Waste toolkit
This excellent toolkit has been created as part of the ABC's War on Waste.
Download the toolkit from the ABC website.
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The psychology of climate change
This resource from the Australian Psychological Society discusses how to help people understand climate change, how to cope with it, and how to get involved in effectively addressing climate change.
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Social media and website policy
We have updated our website policy to include guidelines for Sustainable Neighbourhood social media pages.
Download the updated policy.
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Community gardens
We are now able to oversee community garden projects that are managed by Sustainable Neighbourhood Groups.
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Managing grant funding
We've developed a guide for Sustainable Neighbourhood groups about:
  • process to apply for a grant; and
  • how your group can access funds held in the Alliance's bank account.
Download the guide.
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Sustainable Neighbourhoods Lake Macquarie
Our vision - Neighbourhoods that are empowered to live sustainably.
Our mission - Our work is to foster sustainable neighbourhoods and a healthy environment in Lake Macquarie
Our values - We are guided by our values of participation, inclusion, collaboration, empowerment and shared responsibility.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land and waters on which we live, work and play, the Awabakal People, and acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who now reside in this area. We pay our respect to Elders past and present, and future cultural knowledge holders.

The Lake Macquarie Sustainable Neighbourhood Alliance is registered as a not for profit incorporated association under NSW Fair Trading. Sustainable Neighbourhood activities are managed and governed by volunteers and financed through grants, collaboration and community fundraising.
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Sustainable Neighbourhoods is an initiative of Lake Macquarie City Council.
www.lakemac.com.au
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We are proud to be a Very Neighbourly Organisation and supporter of Neighbour Day.
www.neighbourday.org