Category: In Your Community

Rother Phoenix FC

Laura/ / Good News Stories

By Dan Barron, Community Organiser

Rother Phoenix FC has progressed incredibly well over the last few months from non-existent to an ambitious footballing community group. Dan had first spoken to Natasha about a football project for children currently out of education. Tasha was then assistant coach in Kiveton. Due to circumstances could no longer work with the club. Natasha started looking into a community football group for Ferham. In doing so parents and children have followed Tasha’s football sessions to Ferham Park as well as engaging residents.

Natasha had spoken to parents who have said they would follow the project to Ferham because of Natasha’s reputation of putting the welfare of the children first. It only took a week for parents to come forward for potential community leadership roles as well as some volunteers who want to help the project with less responsibility. That is a massive credit to Natasha and her passion to become a coach in football and engage with children in sport. Natasha brings previous footballing and coaching experience enabling the project to begin immediately.

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Silverwood Colliery Heritage Group – Pop up Heritage Centre

Laura/ / Good News Stories

By Sam Dixon, Community Organiser

“In 1880 John Brown & co were listed as being the owners of Aldwarke Main Colliery. The name Aldwarke refers to an area in the Don Valley two miles north of Rotherham South Yorkshire. To the west of Aldwarke is Parkgate and to its East the villages of Dalton and Thrybergh.

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Friends of Masbrough Cemetery

Laura/ / Good News Stories

By Dan Barron, Community Organiser

Back in August 2021 Cllr Ian jones was promoting a community meeting for those interested in in a community project at Masbrough Cemetery. Attending the meet was Cllr Ian jones, Chris Willis and 5 Masbrough residents. Cllr Ian jones started the introductions and we all spoke about our reasons for attending. Some residents were interested in the meeting because they have family members buried on the site and others have identified their ancestors buried on the site as well as having local connections.

Chris Willis the bereavement officer for RMBC spoke to us all and answered our questions about the cemetery, gave us a tour of the site and was able to talk to us about the current usage of the cemetery. Whilst we were walking around Chris highlighted areas of the grounds that had succumbed to the green overgrowth as we saw grave sites overrun with ivy, shrubbery due to the lack of maintenance. We also spoke about the 2 chapels being 1 of 3 sites in the UK to have both an Anglican and catholic chapel built as a mirror image that also separated the burial land by religion. Chris was very informative and spoke about the current situation of the site, services involved and other Friends of projects that the bereavement services are operating in other areas. Whilst at the site we decided on another meeting but this time we want to get stuck in with a community day of action to start working on the overgrowth of green mass currently residing in the grounds. So we have set up an official Friends of Masbrough Cemetery Group as a page to communicate future activities, events and relevant topics. The group is just over 6 weeks old now and already has 98 members who have joined the group. The page has seen over 1000 photos uploaded to the page as well as interactions asking about relatives, events.

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Bevan Crescent Community Group

Laura/ / Good News Stories, Hellaby and Maltby West

By Rob Gooding, Community Organiser

Rob supported the group to get CCTV fitted at the centre after a break in that resulted in the groups garden furniture being stolen, this was achieved through the Housing Hubs funding. Throughout the lockdowns members have supported each other and kept in touch, and even managed to hold a few outdoor sessions on their gardens, as restrictions have eased the group have slowly started to meet up back at the centre for their coffee and cake mornings and members have slowly grown back to pre-covid numbers.

The group decided to highlight some special people who work in the community and held a special coffee morning inviting people that had helped the group over the pandemic. Invited for the celebration were Councillor Biggin (Town Councillor), Rob Gooding (Rotherham Federation), Julie Jones (Tesco Community Champion) and Iain Cloke (Age UK).

Energy Know How

Laura/ / Good News Stories, In Your Community

By Sharon Smith, Community Energy Advisor

I met with a client at a drop-in session for one to one advice after having delivered a presentation around priority services register and the warm home discount.

The client was paying £60.00 per month for water which includes ongoing charges and arrears which the client is struggling with and is starting to impact on his ability to keep up with his other energy bills.

We discussed water meters and the client wanted to go ahead and trial one as well as register for priority services on his water – he is already registered for priority services on his gas and electricity.

We called Yorkshire Water and spoke to Jaya, who confirmed client is not on a meter and has annual charges £378.58 with a balance outstanding which currently stands at £988.33.

I explained that the client is struggling financially and was transferred to collections where we spoke to Carly. Carly agreed to reduce ongoing payments to £48.00 which the client pays every 4 weeks, saving him £156.00 per year. We also requested a water meter for the client and it was agreed for an engineer to visit and hopefully fit one in Mid October. It was estimated that this will reduce his bill to £216.00 per year saving a further £162.00 per year after installation. I also registered the client with the Priority Services Register for constant supply and meter readings.

During the conversation the client also mentioned he has other debts and would like a referral to Making Your Money Go Further and then onto Citizens Advice to discuss debt options.

Energy Know How

Laura/ / Good News Stories, In Your Community

By Noor Salih, Community Energy Advisor

September has been a busy month for us – from providing advice on the current energy market to ensuring that we hand out our winter warmer packs to our most vulnerable clients across Rotherham. One of our clients is from an active community group, who has had an ongoing complaint with their energy provider about a refund amount and the incorrect information on the bill.

At the community group drop-in session we discussed the complaint process, who OFGEM are and what their rights are as a consumer when making a formal complaint. Our client explained that they have an ongoing complaint within the complaints department over a bill dispute, I showed them how to calculate their bill and went over bank statements to ensure they had received their refund. The refund was received but the bill was showing that our client had also been charged for the refund.

I explained what a ‘customer service failure’ is in the eyes of the Ombudsman and how to speak to their complaint case handler. Our client is now more confident on how to understand their bill, what they are entitled to as a consumer with an ongoing complaint. They received a correct amended bill and got a healthy amount of gesture of goodwill.

SEND Youth Club Summer Fare

Laura/ / In Your Community

By Sam Dixon, Community Organiser

The SEND youth group wanted to celebrate their reopening after the restrictions due to COVID-19 and expanding to start another youth group in Brinsworth.

The group planned for a small summer fayre to be held within the grounds of the JADE Centre. The centre is where the group first came together and has continued to support Jo and the team. A small amount of activities were put on designed to entertain everyone. These included a small bouncy castle, a tombola with an array of prizes, cookies and cakes were being sold, as well as other items.
I offered my support to the Fayre in whatever guise the team required. I ended up with task of selling the raffle tickets.
The Event was attended by around 50 different people connected to the group, the local community and even the MP for Rother Valley, Alex Stafford.
The group raised £203 and raised the profile of their group in the local community.
Alex Stafford said; ‘It was great to meet everyone at the event, filled with fun activities for everyone to get involved with.’

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Energy Know How

Laura/ / In Your Community

By Noor Salih & Sharon Smith, Community Energy Advisors

I contacted an elderly lady who had spoken to our Making your Money Go Further Project as she was having some issues with her Utility provider.

The client had spoken with a different support provider at the beginning of the year as she believed her bills were expensive compared to her neighbours. She received some support however this was not followed-up as the project ended and her case was not passed onto another advisor, an issue that she found very annoying.

The client has had a smart meter installed that has not worked for over 2 years. She has two meter boxes outside her property and she believes there is another inside but does not know what it is for.

She has recently received a warm home discount payment after applying last year despite probably being eligible for some time and not knowing about the scheme.

She was promised by her energy provider that someone would come to her property in June to read her meters however this never happened. She has difficulty accessing the meters as this requires her to lie on the floor to see one of them. She is not happy with the support and service from her current provider and wants help to switch.

Her current payments are £86.00 per month but as the meters have not been read and the bills have not, as yet been seen, I could not confirm whether this was sufficient to cover usage or whether the bills were accurate. She is going to locate her latest bills and will ask her daughter to take meter readings. On receipt of this information we will arrange to meet face to face to discuss what steps to take next without putting her warm home discount at risk.

Swinburne Social Club BBQ

Laura/ / In Your Community

By Rob Gooding, Community Organiser

On Saturday 28th August Swinburne Social club held their BBQ fundraiser, this was supported by both the HRA and Lottery RotherFed staff teams in both the planning and delivery, this event was first thought of a year ago during the first lockdown as a way of bringing community spirit back to Swinburne place and increasing the group’s membership. Due to restrictions we never managed to hold the event, the group felt that now restrictions had lifted this was a perfect time to hold it, the group held a raffle as well as serving food.

The event was a huge success being attended by 23 people and raising the group £78 which will be used towards the first daytrip that the group will arrange. Winston treated attendees to some homemade South African dishes including sausages and spiced chicken. After the event the group decided it was such a success that they plan to make this an annual event.

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