Alphington Paper Mill Action Group
A united community voice for local community groups to advocate for an environmentally responsible and community oriented approach in the redevelopment of the AMCOR site.
APMAG Key Objectives are:
- Riverfront Precinct - public access, walking track, environmental protection
- Environmentally Sustainable Design
- Alphington Community Activity Centre - a multi-function building that would include spaces for function and meeting rooms, excercise/dance rooms, commerical kitchen & officers for headquarters of community groups such as ACC
- Educational Campus - a second campus for Alphington Primary School years 3-6 (Maternal and Child Heath, Kindergarden & Childcare to be collated on current APS site.
Join APMAG to recieve newsletter and updates at www.apmag.org.au or email admin@apmag.org.au or PO Box 5027 Alphington 3078.
A Combined Hub for Alphington
Alphington Primary School, Yarralea Children's Centre and the Alphington Community Centre are combining to ensure Alphington maintains its excellent Education, Health, Family and Community Facilities with the sale of the AMCOR Site.
When we first heard that the AMCOR site was to be sold, each organisation immediately recognised the massive potential increase in demand for our services. We each knew we would need to upscale our resources to ensure we continue to provide high quality services with the expected increase in students, health visits, family needs and community activities.
As is the way in Alphington, the School, Kindergarten and Community Centre immediately saw the advantage of working together. Recognising that we could play a key role in local area planning to meet the needs of our local communities, we combined as community and government services to begin the design of a combined education, health, family and community Hub in Alphington. This is a key focus for the Alphington Paper Mill Action Group (APMAG).
A Hub is a combined group of facilities and services that meet a variety of purposes. Through close proximity, integration where feasible and collaborative service development, we can offer better services and be more cost effective; which also means we have a greater chance of success.
Benefits of a Hub
Early Years Education:
A Hub offers the opportunity for APS and Yarralea to combine to create an Early Years Education centre catering for early Childhood Development and Early Primary School. This offers an excellent opportunity to integrate curriculum and ensure smooth transition through Early childhood and Primary years.
Combining means we can offer more programs, improve resourcing, management and administration and being a multi-site approach would mean we retain the familiarity and fellowship of a smaller facility.
Integrated Community Services:
The Hub enables other related services to be integrated, co-located or aligned together. For example families that use maternal and child health, child care and playgroup services probably also use early childhood development services. By developing our Hub we can ensure services are high quality and community centred.
Shared Facilities:
Some facilities can be used by a variety of groups at different times of the day, such as adult education services could be delivered after hours using School facilities. By combining we gain benefit sharing facilities. A current example of this is how the upgrade to the APS netball courts benefits both the school and Community at different times of day.
One Voice:
Through a combined approach we can be very clear about the needs of our community. this unity of purpose is essential to successfully advocate for the services Alphington will need following the AMCOR Redevelopment.
What we will do
We will continue to work together to build a model for a new Hub that meets the needs of the Alphington Community. We will liaise with the City of Yarra, Development of Planning and other Government agencies to ensure our model succeeds. We will also work in concert with the Alphington Paper Mill Action Group (APMAG) to ensure the needs of the whole Alphington community are met.
What Can I Do
If you would like to stay informed, you can become a member of the Alphington Paper Mill Action Group (APMAG). Simply go to the website: www.apmag.org.au or PO Box 5027, Alphington, 3078.