Bluestone Toy Library
Toy Libraries are good for your budget, the planet, and for making friends! Come and explore our collection which includes construction; STEM; musical, creative and pretend play; active and outdoor play and more.
Our Toy Library has toys for children aged 0-8.
Joining our Toy Library helps to expose your child to a greater range of play experiences and contribute to their development. Parents can chat to our friendly staff for advice on stages of development and age-appropriate play. Our welcoming and knowledgeable facilitators have experience in community development, early years learning and primary years education. Get in touch to talk about our membership options and find out more!
Angliss in Action: Community Connections
Our current initiative Angliss in Action brings regular, free, family-friendly events to beautiful Seelaf Square. These welcoming family fun days are designed to bring the whole community together, offering creative and active play for the kids, a chance for adults to meet and connect, free sausage sizzles and information about how and where to get more involved, and to access community resources.
We would like to acknowledge and thank Maribyrnong City Council for supporting this project through the Community Grants program!
Friday Music Group
Our Life Skills for People with a Disability class is a fun and welcoming class for people with disabilities to develop communication and interpersonal skills, core literacy and numeracy skills, and confidence through performing arts activities including singing, dancing, percussion, body percussion and movement. If you or someone you know is interested in joining this friendly and high-energy session please give us a call on 9687 9908 to find out more!
Bluestone Club
Our Bluestone club brings together children and families in the Angliss precinct to create a sense of community through shared experiences. Weekly relaxed craft sessions provide opportunities to build new friendships and connections, developing children’s confidence, creativity and interpersonal skills. We love how the club helps to grow positive relationships between Angliss NH staff and local children, improving their confidence to pop in, access resources, and actively guide our programming. Chatting away over a crafty project also helps improve local knowledge of Angliss NH amongst parents, and increases participation across our children and family programs. It’s so much fun! Call us on 9687 9908 to find out more!
We would like to acknowledge and thank the West Gate Neighbourhood Fund for supporting our Crafty Kids sessions through their community grants program.
Outreach & Partnerships
We are committed to meeting community need and sometimes that means hitting the road and being flexible, creative and responsive! Working with our wonderful partners in the Angliss Improvement Team, we seek out opportunities to take the Toy Library to places where we can meet and chat with young families and new parents who may not be connected to networks and resources that can support them to navigate family life. We also love taking the Toy Library to community events where we can provide some quality free play and toy fun for kids, and meet and share information with their parents and carers.
We are always keen to collaborate and work with others to ensure our programs and activities are having the most impact, where they are most needed. If you have an idea for a pop-up play session, or a portable Move & Groove performing arts session, or you would like to invite the Toy Library outreach team to your event or activity – please get in touch! We’d love to make it happen!
Migrant Women’s Storytelling Project
In 2024 we partnered with Borderlands Cooperative and Duke Street Community House to facilitate a Migrant Women’s Storytelling Project that brought local women together to share their experiences, reflect on life, laugh together and share food and culture. A second phase of this project will take place in 2025, enabling us to share some of these wonderful stories more widely, and showcase the rich and valuable contributions that migrant women make to their communities.
Language in Community Festival
For the past two years we have partnered with language advocacy organisation Vietspeak to host the Languages in Community Festival in beautiful Seelaf Square. Last year around 250 people participated in the day – performing, attending workshops, networking, sharing information, enjoying a free sausage sizzle and enjoying the amazing program of song, dance, storytelling, poetry and more!
The festival objectives align closely with the values and approach of ANH. Our Footscray community is diverse, and we recognise and value language as central to people’s lives, sharing VietSpeak’s commitment to acknowledging and celebrating how communities protect, grow and share the richness of language in our multicultural society.
The festival provides an opportunity to share the work being done to foster strong intergenerational language connections, and to celebrate the creative ways languages are a part of everyday life. Last year it was fantastic to see more local Angliss residents getting involved,and particularly exciting to see our EAL students take to the stage singing a special version of ‘Can’t Buy Me’ Love in four languages! The next Language in Community Festival will take place in early 2026 – keep an eye out!
Angliss Neighbourhood House Community Recipe Book
In 2022, our English Students came together to write a recipe book filled with our favourite frugal foods to help our community explore new recipes and bring people together. At a time when the cost of living is rising, we wanted to share low-cost and nutritious recipes for our community to enjoy! We hope you can try some of the recipes in our cook book and let us know on Facebook or Instagram if you enjoyed them.
