The Lets Circus tent had been one of the main attractions at Rotherham show. Seeing the buzz they created, we decided to look at their social media to see how the group engaged in the community and saw this advertised on their facebook account.
“It’s not every day that the circus comes to town and invites everyone over 55 to come and play. But that’s what we’re doing If you’re over 55 and want to do something fun, different, and exciting, then this is for you. Come join Let’s Circus for a day or three, as part of our adult participation programme. Come for a session, or we can bring an activity to a community group near you.
We contacted the group at Warreners Drive and asked if they would be interested in this activity. At first the group were quite dubious as none of them knew quite what to expect. This sort of activity is not readily available in our communities so we couldn’t even give them an idea of what was going to happen to put their minds at ease.
Steve, Demetri and Scribbles arrived with plenty of enthusiasm and a bag of tricks. They opened with an Icebreaking and memory exercise that had the group laughing and joking within minutes. There were spinning plates and plenty of activities for the whole group to get involved in. The session was enjoyed by everyone and there was some great feedback for the lets circus team.
“I would like to say how much I appreciated the fun we all enjoyed.”
Margaret B
“Brilliant fun, very therapeutic. Please come again.”
Pam
“We all quite unexpectedly enjoyed every ‘task’!!!”
Margaret F
“Great. Sorry I couldn’t stay until the end”
Janet
“It was a very good, enjoyable few hours”
Jenny
“Was very good. Really enjoyed it. Hope to do it again.”
Ellen
“Amazing!! Really enjoyed by all. Looking forward to seeing you all again.
If there was the opportunity for Lets Circus to deliver an activity within the community again, we know one group that would definitely want to be involved.
We first met this person many months ago at Shiloh homeless Drop-in session. Through the help of Shiloh and Rotherham Council, they secured accommodation. Through MOMGF (Making Our Money Go Further) they were referred to Citizens Advice who helped them with their benefits.
They seemed lonely, so we continued to engage with them regularly at Shiloh and provided information about money and community groups i.e., Government Cost of Living measures. We even went online with them to access Rotherham MBC’s Energy Crisis Support Scheme, from which they got £250 towards energy costs.
I met them again recently, at the social supermarket, where they are continued to be supported, and they were happy with their new accommodation and receiving tenancy support. They had always been keen gardeners and although their new accommodation did not have a garden, they were volunteering at a community allotment. They described the joy of picking and eating a ripe fruit straight from the tree.
It just shows that with the right support from different partner organisations, people can turn their life around and increase their sense of wellbeing.
The Keppel and Scholes Heritage group were formed during lockdown to help Chris from the museum with the restoration of Keppel’s Column.
Since its conception the has evolved and now encompasses the surrounding area that contains a Roman encampment, a rare ecological meadow and wet land and is home to rare daytime moths that the group spotted on their bug hunt and flora and fauna events earlier this year where they catalogued the species they found.
This month the group working with Clifton Park Museum the group helped to host the Keppel’s Column open day, this is the first time in around 50 years that the column has been open to the public. During the event members of the group led tours of six people up the column where they held a talk on the rich history of the site and landmarks that are visible from the top one of the members of the group also made a short documentary that visitors were invited to view.
On the run up to the event the group interview people around the area to get their memories of the column and these were incorporated into a land art installation where visitors were invited to listen to the interviews on mp3 players as they explored the different areas of the installation.
Looking to the future the group are looking at becoming part of the Rotherham Heritage Society, this is an umbrella group that showcases Rotherham’s many heritage projects through numerus events over the year the group are planning on using this platform as a means of promoting the group borough wide.
Joanne has now been actively supporting on the befriending calls and has a couple of people with who she speaks with regularly, plus other individuals. Barry is one of the people she have been speaking with.
Joanne started speaking with Barry in August, he has become a participant of the Telephone Befriending service due to experiencing loneliness. He has got family but since his wife passed away 5 years, he hasn’t gone out other than food shopping or to see family.
He is very lonely, during conversations Barry told Joanne how he doesn’t have friends, when his wife passed away, he lost himself and attempted suicide and was admitted into hospital for his mental health as he was at risk to himself, he was sectioned and placed on suicide watch. Barry had 1-2-1 support whilst in hospital to ensure he was safe and this whole experience has left him anxious. Barry has a colourful an extensive history, he was a businessman and has a wealth of experience gained from his business and travelling around the world for business. His family business of fruit, veg and flowers remains operational in Rotherham, now managed by his daughter Barry wears his heart on his sleeve and is happy for me to share some of his story. Barry came to the coffee morning, this was a big deal for Barry he had not been out in any social setting for 5 years, he was very nervous an anxious on the day, he was shaking, bless him. When he arrived, I made sure he was ok, he arrived early, and we were still setting up. He was happy to wait outside to have a cigarette and try to calm himself down. He got chatting with another guy who also was a first-time attendee. When Barry came into the room he was still shaking, I got him a cup of tea and he eventually began to feel a bit more comfortable, I reassured him he was a in safe space. Barry really enjoyed getting ready, he is a very proud man and likes to look the part, which he did. I think that in itself was a huge step for Barry and will support his journey to feeling better and more positive about the future. Barry would like to meet a companion to share his time with and make new memories, whilst he continues to grieve his wife.
Barry is very engaging and was chatting with everyone, he was smiling and laughing. Barry said
‘It was the first time he had smiled in a while, he felt very safe and was so pleased he came to the coffee morning. He felt it had given him something to look forward to and life was good’. He also said he felt more confident at the end to start going out more.
When Barry arrived home, he left Joanne a message to say thank you and that he was thrilled he came, he felt he had been given life back, it was a very emotional morning to be a part of this positive step forward for Barry was immense. Barry is really looking forward to coming to the next one in September which is a massive step for him.
This was Joanne’s first coffee morning to organise for Rotherfed, just 5 weeks into the role. With a great team effort, she pulled it off! The event was well shared and was great that KC café and Mowbray Gardens Community library were happy to pop posters up and are happy to share any future events with posters being dropped off and/or emailed through to them.
Having received great feedback from those who attended including befriending recipients, people from different communities and professional colleagues who came along to find out more about what we are offering, share what they are doing and chat to all those who came alone. We had 38 people attend which was fantastic, Nic had to run out and get some more milk and cakes – which was brilliant.
The kids loved the activities, the shells and fossils went down well, it was nice they took some home with them.
Friends of Dalton, East Herringthorpe and Thrybergh Green Spaces are always on the look out for new volunteers and for people to attend the coffee morning that the group support.
Pam has attended the coffee morning with a view to engaging with the litter picks. She told us that it was something she was interested in as she likes to take pride in the area. The group at Warreners Drive quickly made Pam feel at home and she was laughing and joking with the group as though she had been attending for months.
Pam has now attended the Keep fit session that the coffee morning group engages and has joined in with a litter picking session. She told other volunteers that “it was just what she needed”, that she will now be attending the coffee morning on a regular basis and wants to visit the Re-Wilding project to see how she can help out there.
To know that a group that we support can have such a positive impact on just one individual really justifies all of our hard work.
Martin first encountered a person at a foodbank who was having difficulty with money issues and referred them into Citizens Advice. The referral was closed because Citizens Advice, despite three attempts, could not contact them. A few weeks later I saw the person, with their partner, at a social supermarket. They still had money issues but were mistrustful of ‘official’ organisations and feared they would lose their existing benefits.
I emphasised that Citizens Advice were an independent organisation with no connection to the DWP. I also stressed that any advice they gave would include an assessment of the effects of different benefits upon each other and the choice to apply for other benefits was entirely up to the clients. They agreed to another referral to Citizens Advice.
I heard the other day that they are absolutely delighted at the outcome of the referral. They are eligible for three extra benefits which do not affect their existing benefits.
It illustrates how trust building, awareness raising, and patience can have a dramatic positive effect on people’s lives.
I have been working with this group now since November 2020 when I took over supporting the North of the Borough. This is a really pro-active group who have been running now for nearly 5 years and have 10 active members, they also have volunteers who help at events, with the planting of flowers around the village etc.
On Thursday 18 August, the group held a ‘Out of Covid’ event at the Civic Hall. This event was funded through the COMF funding from RMBC. The event was held from 12pm until 3pm and over 50 local residents, including residents from local care homes, enjoyed a pie and pea lunch supplied by the Honey Pot Cafe, a few games of bingo, some fantastic singing from Chantelle and Chloe and Sarah played the violin for them. It was a lovely afternoon, and it was so nice to see people enjoying themselves singing and dancing, the residents said how much they had enjoyed it. John Healey MP attended the event and joined in with the signing. The group are holding another similar event on Thursday 1 September to make use of the remainder of their COMF funding which need to be spend by 31 August. I will also support at this event.
As well as holding monthly meetings, many different events, the group also holds regular litter picks around the village, at their latest litter pick this week, there were 12 volunteers and they collected 17 bags of rubbish. The group had a stall at the Swinton ‘Party in the Park’ on Sunday 29 August to raise some funds for the group. They are great group who I enjoy working with.
Heart of The Community attended the Annual event Ferham Festival 2022 on 11th August this month. The festival always draws in a big diverse crowd from the residents and this year was no exception. A welcomed change was this year the festival was also supporting South Asian culture as to support the south Asian heritage month.
The Roadshow kicked off by setting up the stall ready for engaging with the community on a beautiful sunny day. The day started off slow but 30 minutes in and the festival was in full swing. It was an amazing day filled with cultural activities, colour, and good food.
Dayle Hill is the lead of the newly formed Canklow based group The Community Tree. In only our second meeting she came to us with the idea of creating a community picnic, a “world picnic”, where residents come together to share food that is important to them. The idea is that no matter who you are we all have a connection to food. Dayle wanted to work with this idea to help people recognize that we are all connected. We talked about how people could bring food that they could have a cultural connection to, their favourite dish, or even their signature dish, the one that must be at every family get together.
During further discussions Dayle said she would like the picnic to be the start of a whole week of events to improve and bring together the whole community in Canklow. Her aims were to Celebrate the diversity of the area, support families and help people to feel safer. The idea of having a community clean-up day and an event to round things off were also brought up. May quickly arrived and Dayle had formed a plan of exactly what she wanted to see from the week. Monday to open the week with the World Picnic. Dayle also had the idea to create Acts of Kindness bingo cards for residents and young people. Those wanting to be involved would fill out the card over the week and return at the final event to be entered into a prize draw.
Wednesday was to be a crafting day working with local social enterprise Casting Innovations. Residents could create their own heart out of Fimo that would then be cast into aluminium and then added to a giant heart, that will be displayed in Canklow. Residents also can work with Castings to make the heart themselves.
The community clean-up day was going to be on Thursday. This is planned to be a Litter Pick by the Friends of Canklow Open Spaces, a group that is part of the community tree, and a community skip that will be provided by RMBC housing.
Finally, the week would be rounded off with a community sports day. Delivered by partner organization Rotherham United Community Sports Trust, they will be delivering football-based activities as well as health and fitness advise in a fun event for everyone to get involved with.
During the planning for the event the local school were also engaged with. They not only promoted the event within their school but also had the young people create flags for bunting that will be displayed for the whole week of the events. The hope is then the young people will feel some ownership towards the event and encourage their family to attend.
The week came, AND WHAT A WEEK IT WAS!!! Every event had engagement from different aspects of the community. From a community that is known locally to struggle with anti-social behavior and has little engagement with services, everyone involved commented on how well they felt it went. The picnic was a mix of curry, sandwiches, pasta and sunshine, everyone who attended got the opportunity to sit, relax and engage with other residents.
On Wednesday we saw a dozen people drop into Casting Innovations to create the FIMO hearts.
On Thursday a skip was delivered for the community to be able to get rid of their excess waste thanks to funding from the local housing authority. Alongside that Friends of Canklow Open Spaces went out on a litter pick around with other volunteers from the area, more than 10 bags were collected, and several piles of fly-tipping were also removed.
A typical wet summer Sunday was the day for the Sports day. Despite the weather, plenty of people came down to the event. With an inflatable penalty shoot-out, small football pitches set up and skipping ropes, families had the chance turn burn off energy whilst being out in the open spaces the area has to offer.
Over the week we all took the opportunity to build up new relationships with residents and reconnect with those who are already aware of what we are trying to achieve for the community. Planning will be starting soon for next year, and no doubt Dayle already has in mind what she wants to achieve and will work hard to make it bigger and better.
