By Tanya Faulkner
“We had rain and more rain, and then the sun shone for us”
That’s the sentiment from Belinda Young at the recent opening of the Mums of the Hills (MoTHs) Hub in Belgrave.
Saturday 21, July, saw several mums from the Hills community gather at Hayes Place for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, deeming their brand new hub officially open.
Ms Young, who initially formed the group after a fall from a ladder at her home in 2015, was thrilled with her groups’ achievement in making this hub a reality.
“I realised, after my fall back then, that if I had been hurt I could have screamed and screamed and no one would have known, and it really hit home that I needed a community around me,” she said.
Ms Young moved to the hills from Townsville in North Queensland, and felt isolated without any friends or connections in the community she now calls home.
She said it’s been a journey over the years, after a challenging time to get the group started.
“I had to literally walk up to mums at the Monbulk pools, put up flyers, and visited local childcare centres to encourage mums to join the group,” she said.
People slowly started to join the group, with some of those people inviting their friends to join.
The MoTHs community now stands at around 6,000 members strong in their Facebook group.
Ms Young said she was aware they could achieve big things, and they’d started to do some little things as a group in the earlier years, but it wasn’t until the Covid19 lockdowns until they could really see that they had a community that was able to work together.
“We could all recognise a common goal, and work together to achieve something amazing,” she said.
The MoTHs group supported author Elissa McKay and her writing, as the groups shared their photos in lockdown, and put together a book titled “Moments of Hysteria”, which follows the community’s experiences through lockdown.
Ms Young said the lockdowns were a bit of a crazy time, with kids all at home and trying to learn online.
“All of the mums were getting cabin fever during the lockdown, and I think that’s where the hysteria came in.
“The members chose the title of the book, so that’s what we went with.
“We showed that we could work together to do that,” she said.
The group then incorporated so they could get the book off the ground, have bank accounts and governing bodies, and to make sure that funds could be distributed correctly back to the community.
Since the lockdowns and the realisation of the groups’ potential, they have since done more workshops and events to support mums of the hills and bring people together.
This has all culminated into now, where they now have their own space to connect, get support, and learn new skills in their brand new Belgrave hub.
Ms Young said it’s a space for work and study.
“We just needed the space to fit some fairly specific needs, and this space does that for us,” she said.
The opening day saw fantastic support from local state and federal government MPs and council representatives from the Yarra Ranges City Council (YCC).
Member for Monbulk Daniela de Martino, Minister for Casey Aaron Violi and YCC councillor Johanna Skelton (Yarra ranges) were in attendance at the opening ceremony.
Ms Young said Cr Skelton’s children used to go to Belgrave kinder, in which the hub is just above, and it was special to have her there.
“She’s a member of Moths group as well, so she knows why we need the space better than anyone,” she said.
Ms Young described the day as being uplifting and positive, with the beautiful sunny day being filled with sentiment from those who came down to support the opening.
“It was a day of celebration
“I hadn’t realised the importance of the space to the group and the MPs until I heard them speak at the ceremony” she said.
Mr Violi, who was one of several speakers at the ceremony, spoke of his mum, and wanted to say thank you on behalf of the future children of the mums who will be using the space.
He recognised the difficulties and struggles that his mother had to go through, as a single parent, and not necessarily with all of the support she could have had.
Mr Violi said the group has gone from strength to strength, beginning as an online community to now becoming a place-based organisation with almost 6,000 members.
“It’s a real credit to founder, Belinda, and the hard work of the members, to have created this close-knit group helping women overcome isolation, access opportunities, boost mental health and also advocate for many improvements to our local community.
“It was such an honour to be at the opening alongside founder Belinda and many local mums, to witness her hard work paying off and the excitement of the entire MotHs group for this new space,” he said.
Ms Martino also had her children down in the ‘burbs, and said her speech spoke of incredible isolation as a mum in that area, even amongst all of the people in that area.
Ms Young said being a mother can be tough, and their community is a group of women that get it, and can laugh and cry together.
“There are no books that really teach you to be a mum, so it’s amazing having a space where mums can come together and give confidence to one another, that we’ve got this and we can do it,” she said.
The MoTHs new hub has started off with a bang, according to Ms Young, already being used for a community event the day after opening.
“Our space is to be used for many different types of events, so we started with a clothes swap on Sunday to sustainably reuse and trade clothing,” she said.
She said it’s a hard financial environment at the moment, and it was good to be able to give their wardrobes a bit of an update without spending any money.
The group will continue to host these events, as well as their single mums meetups, and some groups for mums that have gone through difficult relationships and want a bit of camaraderie.
Ms Young said their big grant events are coming through later this year for the community, with their biggest one called ‘Check me out’ encouraging women to do something for themselves and get their health checks done.
“I saw a **health survey** last year that revealed that of 14,000 people who completed the survey 40% of people said their physical and mental health had deteriorated since the lockdown whether they had covid or not.
“It also said 1-3 women between 18-44 didn’t have time to attend health checks, or are struggling financially, not able to afford these checks,” she said.
In their groups lots of members have messaged saying they’ve put off getting health checks and now have found they have other things going on that could have been prevented
The group is trying to find businesses that can support them and find incentives for mums to go and do something for themselves.
Ms Young said they care about our mums and the women in our society, and want to make sure they are looking after themselves.
“If they’re better mentally and physically they can parent better.
“We’ve been through the pandemic and the 2021 storms, if you’re not on your game as a parent and then have to deal with a disaster, it’s a mess,” she said.
The opening of their Belgrave Hub marks the start of a new journey for the MoTHs group, and are encouraging mums in the Hills community to take the time to focus on themselves.
MoTHs are hosting their fundraiser ‘Big Night Out’ event on Sunday 30 July, which is open to the public.
Go to their Facebook page for more information at facebook.com/mumsofthehills
