All knitted up: community project reaches meaningful conclusion

A COMMUNITY knitting project dating back four months has come to a resounding close, culminating in a major donation to one of Geelong’s most prominent charities.

The Barwon Urban Knitting Community Project, led by Barwon Community Legal Services (BCLS), has reached its conclusion with more than 500 hand-knitted items donated to local non-profit Our Village.

BCLS chief executive officer Bryanna Connell said the project had been a resounding success with Our Village a worthy recipient of the knitted items, created by local people and which were recently on exhibition at the Geelong Heritage Centre.

The project was initiated as a way of raising awareness for elder abuse, with the launch of the exhibition coinciding with World Elder Abuse Awareness Day in mid-June.

“Barwon Community Legal is incredibly pleased with the community support, overwhelmed in fact,” Ms Connell said.

“The sheer number of knitted pieces, not to mention the quality and variety, is really quite impressive; beyond what we could have hoped for.

“This project aimed to raise awareness about elder abuse and prevent it.

“Elder abuse often goes unreported due to family dynamics, fear of consequences, reliance on perpetrators, and hesitance to seek assistance.”

Contributing to the donations were 17 community hubs and neighbourhood houses from Geelong and as far as Colac, with an estimated total of 150 individuals who contributed their time to knitting the items.

A large box of crochet squares, estimated at more than 200, is also part of the overall donation. Our Village will be able to create various-sized blankets with them.

Our Village operations co-ordinators Merrin McKeegan and Christie Reid said they were “blown away” by the effort put in through the initiative and were ecstatic to receive the donations.

“It’s given a huge impact relating to the number of packs we can now give out to local families, and it has all been created with love, which does flow throughout the warehouse when our volunteers sort the items,” Ms McKeegan said.

“When we first heard about this initiative, we were really excited about it, it felt like a very meaningful project which was getting together items we were in need of.

“We love projects that bring the community together and this is a prime example of that – we can’t do what we do without the community’s support.”

Our Village is always on the lookout for donations, both material and financial. To make a donation, head to ourvillage.org.au or visit the non-profit’s warehouse at 110 Balliang Street, South Geelong.