Your Project Wavell Heights Uniting Church Garage Sale
Title: A few key words that describe your project.
To rise money for chaplaincy IN Schools, the Church has a garage sale three times a year.
Project Location: Where are we?
Wavell Heights Uniting Church Hall, 147 Rode Road Wavell Heights.

Timelines for Project:When did we get the ideas? When did we start planning? When did we implement the project? Is it still going? Is there an end point or a new stage in development planned.

We have been doing this for about ten years. Our minister saw the need at Wavell High School, and Chaplaincy was just beginning. We planned to gather saleable items by encouraging our own people to go through their cupboards. As our older folk began moving to retirement villages we asked them to give us any unwonted items. The project has gathered momentum and we now support two High Schools and two Primary schools.
Local people now are aware we do this, and often contact us with saleable items. We put up a banner a fortnight before the date to reach out to the community, and we advertise the date in the local paper.

Contact Person:
Name Joan Cook Landline (06) 3266-3407 Mobile
Email jmc50349 at bigpond.net.au Website

Your Project Story (description): Please include aim and to-date achievements/developments including photo overview. Where possible, send 3-5 photos separately.

The aim is to raise over $1,000 three times a year, by setting up on Friday morning, and having the sale from 6.30 to 12 noon on Saturday. As we have become known the amount of goods has grown, and the sales have also risen.

Church groups undertaking/sponsoring the project e.g. UCA congregation, Informal local church grouping, NGO, service association etc.ng Uniting Church congregation.
Wavell Heights Uniting Church with the support of the Geebung Uniting Church congregation

Your group story: Who are you and how did you get and keep going?
Reason for starting the project. The project was a part of a series of innovations introduced through Rev Bob Warkick in the early noughties as a community service and outreach in order to generate funds for chaplaincy and other similar causes with a particular emphasis on youth in the area.

Outcomes of Project to date: Outputs are the things the project does. Outcomes relate to the impact of the project in the broader community context e.g. An employment project has output relating to numbers attending a training course. The outcome may relate to the people gaining employment, and the impact on those people’s lives as a result.

Assessment of effectiveness of project outcomes: How does the outcome compare to the aims of the project? How would you rate the success of the project and the journey you have travelled in implementing the project?

Project Management: What have you learned about the management of the project? What structures were needed (e.g. leadership, reporting, budgeting, risk management, insurance)
What resources did you need to start and sustain the project? How did you find those resources?
Funding (finance, funding, grants, in-kind assistance)
Personnel

How have you found the emotional intensity of the project? That is was it uplifting &/or hard yakka?
It is very hard work. We need about eight men to assemble the tables and place the boxes of goods on them on Friday morning. Mostly the ladies then begin unpacking, pricing and sorting the goods into categories. The Church Hall stores the tables, and has a room where goods can be gathered and stored until the date. Personnel is recruited from the congregations, and breakfast and morning tea is provided. We have no grants or funding, as goods are donated, and personnel is voluntary.

Action Learning being applied:
What we have learned is we provide a service to the community, and the pleasure of meeting people who have become familiar with each sale. We have valued the friendship of the ‘workers’ as we share stories between times. We have learned to streamline the sorting
And packing up of the ‘remainder’. We have learned who is good at assessing crockery, books, clothing, electrical goods etc… We are now adding activities to encourage children on the lawn, with face-painting etc, sometimes a sausage sizzle, a cake stall and plants for sale.

Learning Insights: Relationship benefits: What were the relationship benefits for your group?

Action Learning Circle: Many heads and hands make light work How have you met together to plan and evaluate? Who outside your circle have you found helpful in your learning?
The planning Committee consists of four. One overall co-ordinator who keeps an eye on activities and does the general organising, one adviser who communicates to volunteers etc..by email and generally helps the leader, and one younger member who organises the weekly notices and requests for goods etc…. We have now recruited another younger couple who are organising the ‘lawn’ activities.