Unley Gardeners Plant Rescue is a dedicated group of gardeners who have been together since February 2003.

 Guest blog from Stephanie Papps, Respite Coordinator, Mental Illness Fellowship of South Australia

MIFSA is a membership and community based not for profit organization and is now the largest specialist mental health non government organisation in South Australia. MIFSA Respite Programs assist carers to take a break from their caring role, improve the relationship with the person they care for, and help carers and their families to maintain their caring role.

Services are flexible and involve tailored support options thatare developed in collaboration with the carer and care recipient. Support options include:

While you are getting into the swing of the new year, here are some awareness and community events to look forward to in February

Four Fact-Filled Fridays

Presented by Volunteering SA&NT. Meet and connect with other volunteer managers and update your skills. Different topics each Friday in February.

New community services and activities are constantly emerging around South Australia, resulting from the efforts of people who want to help others, address problems and make our community healthier and stronger. Here are some new listings that have been added to SAcommunity recently:

Edithburgh Community Church - providing church services as well as community services including an internet kiosk with tutors to help new users; weekly craft sessions for embroidery, knitting and sewing; recreation and leisure activities for aged people and people with disabilities; low impact exercise classes

2013 has just begun - but let's look back for a few minutes at 2012. This was a big year for SAcommunity because we topped 1 million annual visits to the website. It was good to see that our information is reaching many people and allowing them to find the help they need or become actively involved in community life.

We ran our annual survey in December 2012 to find out more about who is using SAcommunity, what they are looking for and what is the resulting impact. Over 700 people responded. Here's a brief summary of what we found:

Many South Australian community and government services close or operate on a limited basis over the Christmas - New Year period. To help service providers who are looking for organisations that provide a meal for isolated or disadvantaged people on Christmas Day, or emergency relief services between Christmas 2012 and New Year 2013, Connecting Up is compiling a list of services that are available at that time.

Please contact us if you have information to add to this listing.

Please help us to add to this list by forwarding details of other pageants and community events to support@sacommunity.org

Christmas pageants

Saturday 10 November, 9.30am - Credit Union Christmas Pageant

Saturday 17 November, 11am - Mount Gambier Christmas Parade

Saturday 17 November, 5.30pm - Murray Bridge Pageant and Fireworks

Connecting Up congratulates the Disability Information & Resource Centre (DIRC) on  reaching its 30th anniversary. DIRC was established in 1982, just one year after Connecting Up and our organisations have been closely aligned during the past 3 decades.

DIRC has a great history of support for individuals with disability and their families. It has also done much to help community organisations in the disability sector through the provision of a meeting place and through information dissemination.

Guest post from community gardener Sachi Nakamura

A community garden is not only a place where people can come to grow food and get to know each other, but also a place to foster community spirit.

Ever tried to find out about something in your local community? Child care, your nearest Scout group, home help, a tennis club, yoga, art classes? You have probably used Google or other internet search engine plenty of times to see what it could find for you. If so, it’s highly likely that SAcommunity has helped.