The Indigenous Community and Police Consultative Group (ICPCG) in North Brisbane is looking for volunteers who will continue to foster a stronger and more positive relationship with the Queensland Police Service (QPS).
Established for over 11 years, the ICPCG serves as a forum for community members to raise concerns or provide feedback and contribute to the improvement of the programs of the QPS. The group holds monthly meetings at PCYC Zillmere along 340 Zillmere Rd.
From 2019 to 2020, the ICPCG and the QPS held 25 meetings to talk about their perspectives, experiences and other important information on current events. With more volunteers, the Indigenous community and the elders will be appropriately represented and given a voice on certain issues that will help make North Brisbane a better society.
“We believe that open communication and understanding are the keys to achieve this goal,” the QPS stated.
Interested to volunteer? Phone the Boondall Police Station at 07 3364 337 for enquiries.
The economic climate has drastically changed due to the pandemic but businesses in North Brisbane, including Aspley, have gotten a much-needed boost from the Queensland Government through the Small Business COVID-19 Adaption Grants.
Minister for Employment and Small Business and Minister for Training and Skills Development Shannon Fentiman met with nearly 100 Aspley business owners at the Geebung Bowls Club on Wednesday, 19 Aug 2020, to discuss the help extended to small businesses.
So far,15,000 struggling companies were given over $885,000 in grants, including the management of the bowls club. Almost $200 million in grants have been set aside.
Geebung Bowls Chairman Richard Mason said that since the greens have been closed and unused for months during the lockdown, the club had to seek a $10,000 Small Business COVID-19 Adaption grant. The money helped pay for maintenance, electricity and water supply.
Mr Mason, however, said that he’s glad people are slowly returning to the club amidst the relaxation of restrictions.
“We are returning to pre-COVID trade levels and appreciate the support of some very loyal locals and government financial assistance,” the chairman said. “I would also like to thank Minister Fentiman and our Local Member Bart Mellish for their continued support and commitment to our club.”
Photo Credit: Geelong Bowls/Facebook
Aside from the grants to businesses, a Unite and Recover for Queensland Jobs program has been set up to help the unemployed. North Brisbane residents may avail of the following support:
Free online TAFE courses
Free apprenticeships and traineeships for under 21s
Payroll tax relief
Energy rebates for households and small and medium sized businesses
25% procurement target for small and medium sized businesses – $4 billion of support each year.
“We know businesses across the state including here in the North Brisbane region have been doing it tough during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ms Fentiman said in a statement. “Because of the great job we’ve done on the health response to COVID-19, we can now focus on our economic plan for recovery.”
For enquiries about the grants, the job recovery program and other benefits, phone 1300 654 687 or visit Business Queensland.
Pet ownership entails a lot of responsibility as another living creature depends on you for love and care. What do you do when other responsibilities and commitments get in the way and threaten to take time away from your beloved pet? Times like these call for First Class Pet Sitting, a Brisbane premium pet care sitting service.
First Class Pet Sitting has helped many paw-rents since 2012. This quality and convenient service was established by Kylie, a former veterinary nurse, dog trainer, animal rescue volunteer and teacher. She works alongside a team of dedicated, knowledgeable and passionate staff.
Among the services of First Class Pet Sitting are:
Doggy Day Care Adventure
4 hours of outdoor exercise (park or beach) Limited to four dogs per Pack Leader
First Class Pet Sitting will collect the pets from their home for a run, play, swim and fun time with their furry friends. They’ll go home happy and exhausted, ensuring a good night’s rest. The dogs will be transported in a comfortable van during their day out.
Pet Sitting
Duration varies, including overnight stay at your house.
Professional pet sitters can look after your furbabies in their pet-friendly home. Furparents can visit the house and meet the pet sitter before entrusting the animals to them. Pet sitters may also watch your dog in your own home if you have to leave for a day or require an overnight companion for your pooches.
Dog Walking
Duration varies
Experienced dog walkers will walk dogs regardless of size or breed. The walkers are trained to apply various psychology-tested strategies to make dog walking a breeze.
First Class Pet Wedding Assistant
Average of 3 hours (also applicable for funeral pet sitting)
Professional pet sitters can accompany your furbaby on your wedding day. The pets can also witness you and your betrothed exchange “I do’s” with the pet sitter ensuring that there will be no episodes to ruin the wedding.
Pet Taxi
Duration varies
Pet sitters can bring your dog to their grooming or veterinary appointments, whether you join the ride or not.
“It is part of our pet sitter’s daily duties to send pictures of your pets via either mobile phone or email so you remain in the loop each day you’re away,” Kylie said in explaining what makes First Class Pet Sitting different from other services. “We follow your detailed instructions and treat your pets as if they were our own.”
Kylie also adapts a complimentary meet and greet between the pet sitter and the animal to establish familiarity and bond.
First Class Pet Sitting covers South, East, West and North Brisbane, Inner City Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Redland, Logan, Toowoomba, Tweed Heads and Perth. For questions about the service, refer to their FAQs or phone the company at 1800 738 748 (1800 PET SIT) or 0420 264 216.
The concept is quite simple: if you have a broken household item, bring it to Repair Café in Sandgate and skilled volunteers will help you fix it. Even if you don’t have anything that needs fixing, you can still head over to the café to assist with repairs or learn new skills. That’s on top of the cup of coffee or tea you can enjoy with other members of the community. In this ongoing process, the community lessens the waste going to landfill, whilst forging strong community ties.
In February 2020, a Repair Cafe in Sandgate will start offering a special kind service and is going to be a hive for skilled men and women to share their knowledge and skills in fixing broken household items.
Repair Cafe Sandgate is the first to be established in Brisbane through the efforts of Dan Martens. He opened a Facebook event to tap people who might be interested in opening the cafe, where they can enjoy coffee and food whilst repairing things for free.
In October, Martes and a group of skilled fixers had a test run through an event held at the Sandgate Community Centre at 153 Rainbow Street. Some 30 participants gathered together to tinker items like electronics, toys, gardening tools, jewellery, crockery, clothing, ceramics and bicycles.
Another meet-up is currently in the works and tentatively set for the end of November. As this initiative is expected to be a regular activity, the initial participants believe that the community needed an actual Repair Cafe.
Photo Credit: Repair Cafe Sandgate/Facebook
Martes’ efforts received support from the Sandbag Inc, a community-based organisation, and Illuma Electrical, a small business repair service in Sandgate. The group has also submitted a grant application in the hopes of receiving the Lord Mayor’s Community Fund to get their project off the ground.
Founded in Amsterdam by Martine Postma in the 18th of Oct 2019, Repair Cafe is a non-profit that has three goals:
a. To bring back repairing into local society b. To maintain repair expertise and spread this knowledge c. To promote social cohesion in the local community
Repair Café is not a service shop per se, especially since it will have limited storage space and the work is voluntary. Rather, Repair Cafe is a meeting place for locals who enjoy mending broken things. The initiative is also a way to reduce landfill waste, which has become a global problem.
If you’re adept at fixing broken items or would like to improve on the skill, you may volunteer to be one of the fixers. The membership is open to anyone.
