Thank you for visiting Rotary Albert Park's website.
Rotary Albert Park (part of Rotary International) is a group of neighbours, friends, and community leaders providing humanitarian service, encouraging high ethical standards in all pursuits and helping build goodwill and peace locally and worldwide. Our club was established in 1992 and has a long history of service. We have a membership of about 40 with a 50:50 gender balance.
Join us for Dinner where we can introduce you to the Club & its members, and answer any questions you may have about membership. For more information, click (here)
Cheryl Lacey
Post Pandemic Pathways for Australian Education
Cheryl Lacey is sometimes called a “rational education strategist” and sometimes an “enlightened educational consultant”. Either way, she thinks outside the square on Australia’s massively complex and often dysfunctional education system. Meanwhile her recent book is making waves: “Marching Schools Forward: discussions on the direction of Australian education” (Connor Court, 2019).
Cheryl comments: “Australian primary, secondary and tertiary education systems are interlocked and sorely in need of root-and-branch reforms. The COVID19 crisis is exposing all our education weaknesses and creating challenges that will impact us for generations.”
Cheryl comments: “Australian primary, secondary and tertiary education systems are interlocked and sorely in need of root-and-branch reforms. The COVID19 crisis is exposing all our education weaknesses and creating challenges that will impact us for generations.”
Rotary National Australia Day Event - 26th January
Through the National Australia Day Council, we have been given the opportunity to bring our Rotary Network together…our community partners, first responders, business and government friends, and most importantly, our community…to celebrate all that is Australian. The theme for Australia Day this year is:
Reflect, Respect, Celebrate. We’re all part of the story.
For 100 years Rotary in Australia has been bringing communities together. After our drought, bushfires and COVID-19, this is a wonderful opportunity to bring us together in a COVID-safe way and be part of one event that will inspire. Historically, bringing people together in a safe space to have a conversation has seen those conversations turn into actions.
Agenda
Essentially, its a two part event:
- A central broadcast will be live-streamed across Australia and to partners overseas.
- Following the broadcast, local groups of Clubs will celebrate both 100 years of Rotary Volunteering in Australia and Australia Day. Invitations to the event will be extended to Rotarians, their families and friends, past Rotarians and the broader community, including Multi-cultural and First Nation groups. Businesses and traders will have the opportunity to display, promote and sell their products. This includes:
- Brighton North, Brighton and Glen Eira Community Event at Rotary Park, 1 North Rd, Brighton.
- Caulfield Event at 2 local restaurants - details TBA.
Solar Smiles Dental Foundation Melbourne
Solar Smiles Dental Foundation Melbourne - Rotary Albert Park has just been launched. This arm of Solar Smiles will be giving free dental treatment to the homeless and food insecure in and around Albert Park. We already have our first patients identified by our strategic community partner.
Now we need your help! Do you know any Dental Practice owners who would be willing, as a once off to donate the use of their surgery to our team for 9 hrs on a Sunday? Any part of Melbourne, we have donated transport available. We provide all the consumables and just need to use their instruments, equipment and steri system.
In return we will provide them with a framed Thank You photo for your wall with the amount of treatment that has been donated, so patients can see how community minded you are! Alternatively if you are a Dentist, Dental Assistant or Dental Student who would like to get involved, please just email or call me as below.
I'm so excited we are finally launching this arm of Solar Smiles!
If you would like to donate financially to this project, go to
All donations above $2 are tax deductible in Australia
Help Required - Share the Food Project
Needed - Volunteer Drivers to Drop off Food Parcels within the City of Port Phillip
Rotary Albert Park has recently donated $1,500 to this local food relief program, run by Port Phillip Community Group (PPCG), in collaboration with the City of Port Phillip. We would also like to assist them in a practical sense, by providing PPCG with one or more teams of two volunteer drivers for a few hours each week or fortnight.
Many of our RAP members and friends ask for opportunities to get involved in local, ‘hands on’ service projects and there is no better time to be doing this, with a global pandemic making so many people around us more vulnerable and in need of our help.
Melbourne City Mission L2P Program
The Melbourne City Mission L2P program is back in operation and seeking volunteers to help young people gain the supervised driving hours required to achieve their probationary driver licence. Rotary Albert Park supported the program to purchase a Toyota Yaris in 2019. Volunteers meet young people from the City of Port Phillip and surrounding areas at South Melbourne police station once a week and take them for driving sessions while also acting as a positive role model in the young person’s life. To find out more please contact Sarah Massey at smassey@mcm.org.au or find more information at:https://www.mcm.org.au/
Star Health Partnership Award
We have recently been awarded a Partnership Award by Star Health in appreciation of the support we have given them over many years. It is very gratifying to be acknowledged. For a copy of the letter, go to (here)
We have also received a couple of "Thank you's", see (here)
Teachers Training Project, India - Update 11 October
We are past the half way mark for our GG project with over 56 TT sessions completed with 2504 teachers, with the mentoring and assignment sessions in progress on Whatsapp and Google Class. As schools continue to remain closed due to Covid-19, online TT sessions are in progress (2-4 per week).
Solar Smiles Weekly Reports from Timor Leste
It’s with great delight, that I send you the very first reports from our new Dentist John and Oral Health Therapist Nizio as the update from SSDC (here). It’s really happening now! 
I hope this brings a smile to your face as much as it does mine.
Kim Groizard
Founder & Project Manager
Solar Smiles Dental Charity – Rotary Clubs of Albert Park & Fitzroy
In the destitute villages of Bodhgaya region of Bihar state of India, where normal children are considered by their parents as assets and those with mental health issues as liabilities, Bodhi Tree Special School was established with a clear vision to bring about attitudinal change. The school, through its very limited resources, offers help to approximately 1,000 families, as well as assists with the sanitisation of village hutments.
Today we received notification that our matching grant application has been approved. As you can imagine we were delighted and very happy with the successful outcome of the joint application. This is a joint project by Melbourne South, Albert Park, Port Melbourne, Hawthorn and Malvern Rotaries.
See extract from The Alfred Newsletter (here)
Women over 50 are the fastest growing group of people experiencing housing instability in Australia – often as a result of pay inequity, little to no superannuation or savings, divorce, domestic and family violence and time taken as unpaid carers. Adequate supply of social housing and affordable housing remains an enduring issue across Australia. Currently there are more than 40,000 applicants for social housing, on the Victorian Housing Register alone.
The Lakehouse is Melbourne's first Pop Up Shelter for women in need of temporary housing. For the Study report, go to (here)
Presentation of donation of $4,500 to One Ball. For more photos, go to (here)
OneBall is a free community program designed for young people aged between 8-18 years. The program provides opportunities for young people from CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) backgrounds across Melbourne to play soccer in a social setting and encourages them to:
- be fit and active, and to enhance both their physical and psychological health and wellbeing
- develop positive cross-cultural relationships with others, and
- feel more connected and empowered to make a positive contribution to their community.
Presentation of $1,000 to Geoff Amor to support Orange Sky Laundry, see https://orangesky.org.au/where-we-are/melbourne/
Great District Working Bee at the Rotary Park in St Kilda, see (here)
This park is now in the planning process for a redevelopment in the new year
The shortage of emergency response vehicles is a serious problem being faced in the Western Cape, South Africa, with the numerous fires that need to be contended with. The lack of vehicles often leads to emergency services taking up to 40 minutes to arrive at disaster scenes, especially in more remote areas. It goes without saying that the vital lost time can literally mean the difference between life and death. With the help of Rotary Albert Park, The Rotary Club of Newlands were able to donate a multipurpose vehicle to the Emergency Volunteer Services (EVS).
Below are some stories and video of the project:
Rotary Albert Park runs a book recycling project where it collects books from local libraries and from direct donations, sorts and redistributes them in various ways to benefit the community. On the third Saturday of each month at the Farmers Market at Gasworks Park (weather permitting) we have a wide selection of these recycled books for sale. We are located at the back of Priscilla Jones' Cafe in Graham Street, Albert Park.
For more information on our book recycling project, go to (here)
Other Media Pages
The club is also on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & Instagram. There are often additional posts entered by members and by other clubs, and it is a great way to get notified of events and functions.
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