Henley Residents Association

The Henley Residents Association group membership consists of 2 previous groups that have come together after their community activities came to a halt through lockdown. The group now consists of both Masbrough and Henley residents. Group members have been meeting regularly twice a week and have nineteen members. The group have also established a tuck shop of snacks that the group sell regularly from. The tuck shop sells drinks and snacks at about cost per unit to keep the group sustainable at each event and it has been a real success.

This came with its own issues as both groups ran activities differently in their old sessions. After the first couple of weeks there were issues with session times, prize pots and pricing of the snacks. The group have now settled into hosting their sessions and have already hosted several other events. On the 17th November Henley Residents Association hosted a Pie and Peas night which was highly successful and the attendance of the session reached the maximum capacity for the centre. The group had ‘The Green Pantry’ deliver freshly made heaps of pie peas and gravy. It was a great night.

Additionally the group planned a Christmas day trip to York Christmas Market 24th November. The group had successfully achieved a CLF funding bid of £455 with the support of RotherFed for a coach and parking to see the group have a wonderful day out for Christmas. Residents loved the day out saying, “It was nice to have things to look forward to after last Christmas” and ” It’s always good at York Christmas market”. After speaking with Jo who takes a lead in organising activities for the group, she said “the residents enjoyed the trip out and everyone had a really good time”.

It has been an eventful month for the group as they have also had visits from partners with the money management team, energy team, the RNN group for crafting and family history courses and a multi service quickly visit to be in held next month. Hopefully, the group will continue to go from strength to strength.

COP-26 Tree Planting with Winterhill School

To help Rotherham show its support for COP26, there were several environmentally friendly campaigns established across the borough. One of which was in partnership with Winterhill School in Kimberworth, where we helped support the tree planting initiative on the local greenspace next to the school.

The green space next to Winterhill school was once a beautiful area of natural scenery for the local community, we at RotherFed are working in partnership with the school on a long-term project to help restore the space to its former glory and beyond. At the tree-planting event earlier this month, a group of school pupils along with ourselves, teachers, and council representatives planted trees to grow in part of the area. In addition, the students were able to carve into a piece of stone which will be used as a decorative piece in the area once work is completed. There are big plans for the space so keep an eye out for new developments in this area! 

The goal overall is to be able to provide a space in Kimberworth for the local community to be proud of and use in their day to day lives, be it for a jog, a picnic, or dog walking! Developing our local greenery is a great way to make our community sparkle and develop pride in our community.

Thurcroft Firework Display Event

The long-awaited Firework Display took place on Saturday 6 November 2021 and again it was a huge success with the local community.  Since Thurcroft first received the million pounds back in 2012, a Firework Display has always been a high priority for the village and what people wanted to see happen.  We held the first event in 2019 and due to the success of this did it again this year, Covid 19 prevented last year’s event.  From 4.00pm there were children’s rides, catering vans, a tuck shop, cake stall, a raffle and the bar was open for refreshments.  The fireworks were lit at 6.30pm and what an amazing show it was, lasting 18 minutes long.  Blaze Fireworks who provided the display for us unfortunately has their unit broken into the weekend before and all the fireworks for their main displays (including ours) were stolen. 

However, this didn’t stop them from still managing to put on a brilliant display for us.  Over 2000 people attended the event and we raised over £1500 during the evening, this money will go into the Year 11 fund to enable events to continue to take place when Big Local has finished. Lots of people gave up their time to volunteer on the day, the event wouldn’t have run so smoothly without everyone’s help. 

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International Men’s Day Breakfast

To celebrate International Men’s Day, RotherFed hosted a Men’s Day breakfast and Men’s Mental Health Session. The event was attended by eleven people from across Rotherham and included a mix of RotherFed group’s members as well as people new to RotherFed events.

We invited local mental health group leaders down to talk about their groups and talk about useful hints and tips on keeping mentally healthy. Simon from Talk & Train did a small talk about the beneficial effects of exercise on mental health and promoted the fact that men need to talk more about their feelings as male suicide rates are on average 3 times higher than female.

As part of the event we held a mental health themed quiz with questions about if people knew where they can get help with mental health, and what they can do to help people in crisis.

Elf Watch!!

It’s that time of year again! Elf Watch is back due to its success last year we decided to bring it back. The Elf watch social media project engages with online community members of the RotherFed Good News Story members to post pictures of what their mischievous Elves have been getting up to over the run up to Christmas. This year the community have not disappointed as we have seen some crackers sent into us. This is designed to be a fun active post where people can show off their creative side and we’re seeing people have fun with this one.

As always, the project started on the 1st of December and ran until the 24th of December. The post has seen over 64 pictures added by 12 members of the Rotherfed Good News page. We received new images daily.

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Energy Know How

By Sharon Smith & Noor Salih, Community Energy Advisors

Energy Know How successfully presented a session giving details about priority services register and warm home discount to a large group of elderly people who attended their regular luncheon group.

The meeting was arranged following a discussion at Rotherham Show with the group organiser, Julia who proceeded to contact us via the office.

A telephone discussion took place to discuss in detail the services Energy Know How could deliver, and agreement was made to attend the luncheon group on 27th October 2021.

We intended to speak to the group as a whole and took our projector and equipment however, on arrival it appeared that due to the social nature of the group, chatting and enquiring on each others’ wellbeing and the fact that there were several attendees that were hard of hearing, our original plans to talk to them as a group would probably not be the best option.

We discussed with Julia who organised the event and we suggested that we talk at each table individually allowing us to engage more personally with the group as there was a maximum of 4 people per table. It also allowed for questions and answers and a more personal service particularly for those that were hard of hearing.

In total we spoke to 35 elderly residents each one informed about priority services register and the warm home discount scheme, 5 people booked to have home visits for free draught proofing measures and to fit new led lightbulbs.

Each person was given a thermostat which will help them to regulate whether their homes are too warm or too cold and we then left the group to enjoy their lunch and bingo.

Thurcroft Halloween Event

By Rachel Cole, Projects Officer

Due to the success of last year’s Halloween activities, we decided to do something very similar this year. On Friday 29 October we held a free Halloween crafts and pumpkin session at The Hub.  Over 200 people attended over the 4 hours the event ran and over 100 pumpkins were carved.  Everyone who attended said how good the event was and that it was nice to see people getting together.

Quotes from some of the people who attended:-

My girls loved it thank you for organising it  xx

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ESOL Classes at Rotherham College

By Kiera Lambert, Community Organiser

A big thank you to the team at Rotherham College ESOL department for allowing me to come along and speak to their more advanced English learners! I was able to speak to them about all things RotherFed, our services, and how we can help support them!

There was a fantastic response by the students there who were all keen to get involved in some way or another. The session allowed RotherFed to hear from a group of tenants who can often be left unheard and promote ourselves to the diverse community within Rotherham.

We look forward to continuing our work with Rotherham College and expanding our support for BAME tenants alongside this.

Peregrin Way TARA

By Rob Gooding, Community Organiser

The Peregrin Way TARA’s committee decided to step down during lockdown after years of service to the community, working with Nicky Hayes from RMBC Neighbourhoods and Kiera from Rotherfed, we set about holding engagement events to identify new members that are interested in taking over the running of the group.

We identified several members that could fill these rolls moving forward. Despite a number of setbacks over the last few months Julie and the committee are now happily in position and running regular sessions from the centre.  Residents have stated that they would like to see new activity’s taking place in the centre, and not just the usual bingo and luncheon clubs. We are currently working with the residents to identify activities that the new group would be able to hold in and around the centre. So far, the group has mentioned gardening clubs, knit and natter’s, craft groups and potentially a breakfast club one or two days a week.

The first event held was an open event for the local community to come along and put their ideas forward. This event was a big success with people from Peregrin coming along to have a chat and discuss what their interests would be. We hosted with tea and coffee, cakes, and even an art station which had an extremely positive response from the attendees. The group are now currently running these coffee mornings every Monday morning and hope to expand to other activities soon.

Friends of Dalton, East Herringthorpe & Thrybergh Green Spaces

By Sam Dixon, Community Organiser

Groups of individuals from all over the Dalton Thrybergh ward have been litter picking and participating in other Green Spaces projects for a number of years. As all of these groups have the same aims it was suggested by Cllr Michael Bennett-Sylvester that they all come together, formalize and then the group can start applying for funding and ensuring sustainability for the future.

The East Herringthorpe Pickers: A project run by Michael and Natalie, a local resident who has been engaged with RotherFed for more than 3 years. No matter the weather, Natalie and Michael meet in East Herringthorpe every single Thursday and pick litter from the streets where its agreed need the most attention that particular week. The group has had coverage in various local publications including the Advertiser.

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