Author: Laura

By The Open Arms Team

The Open Arms Community Hub has many good results to report this month. 

One only a few days ago when Lee was attending the fortnightly session at Maltby Library last week, an elderly gentleman who well into his 80’s walked in absolutely sodden due to the torrential downpour. 

He was walking around looking all forlorn, and was staring out our drinks trolley, which is provided by the library, so Lee approached the man and asked if he wanted a drink as he looked dishevelled. 

After a chat and a cup of hot chocolate it transpired he had neither had a bath or a shave in 9 weeks and all because he could not find anyone to fix his heating. 

He had retired from the mining industry many years previously and had always been independent and self-sufficient but due to his advancing years after we talked, he realised there were things he could no longer do for himself and him albeit reluctantly, needed to ask for assistance moving forward. 

Without family or friends, he was struggling.  Seemingly he had contacted the Police, Adult Social Services and even the Mining Federation, so as you can imagine, he did not have much confidence that our project would be able to help. 

As we continued to chat together, he began to open up and relax.  I managed to find out more about him and completely understood how he felt. 

A little more time went by, and Adult Social Services did get back to him and assured him they had arranged for a plumber to attend, hopefully by the weekend.  

He left the library with a ray of hope and smiled as he walked out. 

By The Pathways Team

E started volunteering at a local care home to gain valuable experience and confidence.  She was helping to make drinks, chat to residents and help with general clean up.  E found this very useful and helped to build her confidence in talking to people.  It also gave an insight into the roles available in this industry and what was involved with the work. 

In November 2025 E attended an interview arranged by Employment solutions and was delighted to inform us she had got the role.  Her confidence and pride in achieving this was evident with her smile when we met to update us.   

E has spent the last few weeks going through in-depth training at various locations and after getting her uniform, started her first shadow shift with another carer. 

It has been a delight to work with E from the beginning of her joining to her getting the job and finally starting her new role. 

Very well-done E, very proud of the confidence you have developed and built, and it has been a pleasure to help you on your journey. 

Good luck for the future 

On a side note, E was very grateful as Lee from Employment Solutions is able to still help her with travel costs until she receives her first wage.  This would have been a barrier however she can relax and know her bus pass is paid for. 

By The Ripple Effect Team

The Ripple Effect launch event was a celebration of Black History Month at the Unity Centre. Volunteers from Eritrea, Sudan, Pakistan and Kurdistan provided food native to their home countries.

The food provided a wonderful array of aromas and flavours. So many different dishes, guests were almost overwhelmed by the choices available. 

Entertainment in the afternoon was provided from some local Bollywood dancers who encouraged “willing volunteers” to get up and have a go themselves. 

Over 40 community members attended the event that a fantastic party atmosphere by the end. 

Here’s what people had to say;

“It was so good, so amazing. Nothing could be better; it was more than we expected” 

“Thank you all. Enjoy. Food Very good” 

“Will remember lasting” 

“Seeing some new faces and cultures and languages. Dancing :D” 

“Really enjoyed trying all the different foods and meeting people from different ethnic backgrounds” 

“So lovely to try lots of new foods and puddings, beautiful flavours. 

Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. Really enjoyed the Bollywood dancing too. Thank you for providing a great afternoon for everyone to come together. Really appreciate it. Thanks.” 

“Really enjoyed trying lots of different, new foods that I never would have tried. 

Really enjoyed the Bollywood dancing too. 

Thank you, it’s been brilliant” 

“Had a lovely afternoon, tried most of the different foods and met some wonderful people. Really enjoyed it. Thankyou” 

“What a lovely afternoon, food lovely and people. Enjoyed the dancing. All the best to everybody. Thank you.” 

What went well?  There was lots of different enjoyable food to choose from. 

What are you going to remember from today? Socialising with people of different ethnicity and walks of life that I otherwise might not have met. 

Did anything surprise you? They accommodated someone with special dietary requirements 

And anything else you would like to tell us. The event was very enjoyable, and we would recommend their events to anyone. 

The learning from the event highlighted the need to have more consideration when working with people from the neurodiverse community especially around noise levels. When the dancing started there was no warning and some individuals found the noise levels to be too high.

It was also reported to us that there are more volunteers willing to share details about their background and food, so going forward we already have willing participants for a similar event. 

By The Tenant Involvement Team

We received a phone call from one of our previous learners during October. This learner had previously received support from Jordan during one of the Riverside drop-in sessions and wanted to book a one-to-one session. 

She also wanted to share her thoughts on the support she had received, saying that “Jordan is wonderful at what he does.” She described him as patient and supportive, and said what struck her most was that he never made her feel silly for asking questions. 

The learner told us she felt empowered enough to buy herself a new device with more modern features and is planning to book further sessions once her new device arrives. She also commented that she thinks the service is “wonderful — a real lifeline if you don’t have family members to help with this kind of support.” 

By The Open Arms Team

During the school holidays in October, we organised a family activity to raise awareness of the project and support the community, within the Ward we were delivering the project, i.e. Wickersley South & Thurcroft Ward and hosted a Family Halloween Party at the Thurcroft Hub on Monday 27 October 2025.  We advertised on social media sites and promoted the session within the Ward, and it didn’t take long for this to become fully booked.

The entertainer was Patsy, a well-known leading children’s entertainer, who has been in show business since she was 7 years old, and a third-generation entertainer.  Patsy played music and carried out a fancy dress competition, and a few winners were given prizes. No one was left out as the remainder of the children were all given packets of Haribo sweets for entering. Patsy also arranged for a few games which included the mummy game where the participants were required to wrap someone in toilet paper where the winner was also given a prize.  Patsy also arranged a spider game, whereby a ball was thrown at a Velcro disc with a Velcro spider, and the aim of the game was to get the eye to stick on the spider, the closest to the spider received a prize.

To cater for all ages, a couple of tables were set aside where craft materials were provided which encouraged other activities to be carried on.   Refreshments were provided throughout which included hot drinks for adults and dilute pop and at intervals fruit platters, buns and sweet snacks.

Trudi Knotrite, a versatile circus performer and entertainer, was also present and carried out face painting. Patsy did some balloon modelling for the children and had pre-made balloon swords which the children were encouraged to collect with a choice of some sweet treat upon leaving the party.

It was truly a fantastic event, which engaged with so many new people making them comfortable and open to support the Open Arms team offers. 

The event was to capacity with 29 adults (with only 1 returning to the project) and 42 children attending.

Feedback Quotes:

Great Family atmosphere! Good Selection of Games! Brilliant Host!

Very engaging with the children, very inclusive for young and older kids.

Been a fantastic morning, entertainment for the children was great.  Never a dull moment.  Definitely be coming again! x

Thank you for a loverly afternoon.  Kids have love it

It was great.  Kids really enjoyed it! Suitable for all ages! Lots of activities and food/snacks.

Very welcoming.  Fun for all the kids.  Kept them entertained.  Great Service.  Lots of advice. 

By The Tenant Involvement Team

This month saw the Learning from Complaints Panel meet up for the third time.

Held at Springwell Gardens, the meeting brought together staff from Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) and RotherFed, alongside a key group of 10 council tenants from across Rotherham. 

What’s the big idea? Instead of just accepting complaints, the panel digs into a sample of the actual complaints the Council received over the last three months. It’s a hands-on way to figure out why things went wrong and, crucially, how to stop those problems from happening again. 

The attendance of 10 committed tenants highlights the value placed on resident feedback. Their perspective is essential for turning complaints from simple paperwork into real-world learning and service improvements across the Council. 

This initiative is a great example of tenants and the Council working together to build a more responsive and accountable housing service. 

By The Tenant Involvement Team

As part of our contract with RMBC, Rotherfed must deliver two pop-up events across the borough, previously we have suggested the areas to the council, however, this time round the council chose the areas for the two events.  Our first one was held on The Lanes, East Dene in August and this was well attended.  Our next event area was Greasbrough and we decided on a Halloween themed event which would take place in the October school holidays at St Mary’s Church Hall. 

Prior to the event we booked the church hall, produced and delivered over 250 leaflets around the area, as well advertising on the local Greasbrough Facebook page and sending the leaflets to two local schools. Our event took place on Friday 31 October from 12pm until 3pm and we had lots of activities planned.  Magic John kept the children and adults entertained with his magic shows and mix and mingle magic, the artist from FLUX helped the children make spooky spiders out of wool and the balloon modeller was kept extremely busy making lots of different balloon creations.  There were also arts and crafts and gingerbread/biscuit decorating which the children enjoyed.  Rotherfed’s Energy team provided energy support and HAF Happy Holidays RMBC gave away free water bottles and advised people of the Rotherham Healthy Holidays Programme, which runs during some of the school holidays.  Refreshments were available for everyone which the local Cllr’s had kindly contributed towards.  We also ran a Halloween fancy dress competition with a 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd prize for the best costumes.  Cllr Beresford and Cllr Elliott judged these and presented the winners with their prizes.  We also had the PCSO’s attend with their van which children could go and have a look inside and also have their photograph taken.  It was a fantastic event which everyone enjoyed, it was also a fabulous turnout. 

We had 106 people attend the event, 48 adults and 58 children.  Roughly 50% of the people attending were council tenants.  We also advertised the connectors pool and will email every family who attended to see if they are interested in signing up to the local newsletter. RMBC Housing and Neighbourhoods staff also supported on the day.  It was a great event and hopefully the start more activities to happen in this area. 

Quotes from tenants who attended. 

“An amazing event, my girls loved it, thank you so much”.

“What a great event it’s been, it was so lovey to see my little boys having so much fun”.

“Thank you for organising this event for the community, it’s been so good and even better that’s its all been free of charge”.

By The Pathways Team

We were contacted by a college leaver (E) who had just finished her 2-year course in June and had no idea of what she wanted to do, how/where to search for roles and what options were available to her financially.  It was very daunting to her and with her Dyslexia and low grades was getting turned down for even basic roles.  Her confidence was very low, and she was very reluctant to seek help from Job centres etc. 

Our project enabled us to work with E to gain her confidence and explain that there were organisations/projects who could help.  We reassured her there was no pressure and we helped E fill out the required paperwork to be sent to Triage. 

Within a day, E had been referred to Employment Solutions, who were deemed to be best matched to help E into work.  E was very nervous about meeting new people and visiting new places (Riverside) so Sarah went with her to boost her confidence.  E met with Lee from Employment Solutions, and after getting over her nerves, opened up about what she wanted and was looking to do. Lee discussed various options for her including creating a more robust CV, helped E to job search and worked with her on a plan to move forward. 

Since being with the Employment Solutions team, E has completed many online courses related to roles she could potentially apply for, she has been to various introduction sessions and was even able to obtain a bus pass to help with travel costs – this was very useful as with no income, traveling around the borough (one course was in Sheffield).  

As well as this, Lee also advised her to apply for Universal Credit, which she did, and is now in receipt of this benefit to cover living costs.   

E has found her confidence improve vastly especially when talking to other people.  She has been actively going into shops to hand her CV in and has found more job sites to vary her job searching. 

To gain more experience in her role she wants to do, E wanted to volunteer with care homes.  Sarah attended the PCN social prescribers’ event at New York Stadium and was talking to Crossroads Care who were looking for volunteers.  Sarah encouraged E to contact them and has her first induction session with a care home on Thursday 16^th October 2025.