News

Making Our Money Go Further

Social Supermarket at Rotherham Minster referred B over to us because she was homeless and had been living in her car with her dog for 3 months. I called B on a Friday afternoon and she told me all about her struggles and the events up to her becoming homeless and it was evident that she was really struggling with her mental and physical health. I referred her to safeguarding straight away. I followed up on Monday morning and she seemed to be a totally different person. She told me that the homeless team had come straight out to her in her car and had placed her in a little bungalow, all before 9pm that Friday. She was so shocked at how quick she had been rehomed but was absolutely over the moon. She was crying on the phone when I spoke to her on Monday, but instead of the upset tears that she had on Friday, it was happy tears with the sense of relief that she had a roof over her head.

Manvers Residents Association

Rachel Cole, Project Officer

I was first asked if I could support this group in Summer 2021 through RMBC. A few residents who live on the Manvers estate had got together and wanted to try and challenge Manvers Lake Trust about the yearly fees they all must pay to help towards the upkeep of the lake. Their first meeting was held at the Wath Rugby Club and all residents from the estate were invited. About 30 residents attended this meeting and it was discussed with the help of Cllr Barley how they could approach the Manvers Lake Trust. After that meeting, I helped the group to select the key people required, Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, for the committee and helped write a constitution, they also opened their own bank account. Two members of the group attended the training that RotherFed and VAR delivered on Setting Up Groups. 

The group are now known as the Manvers Residents Association and whilst they still continue to challenge the Manvers Lake Trust regarding the fees, they are also starting to be very active group and are putting events etc on for the community. They organised their first community litter pick in December, it was a great turnout and over 40 bags of rubbish were collected. Their next litter pick will be in March. They also successfully applied for some CLF funding from the local Councillors and did a Christmas Elf hunt. They hid 50 elves around the estate and set up a treasure map. Very positive feedback was received from the community.

The group are wanting to hold an event for the Queens Jubilee and plans for this are now underway.  They have recently applied for the COMF funding. They have also applied to become RotherFed members. I will continue to work with and support this group as required. 

Woodsetts TARA

By Rob Gooding, Community Organiser

Woodsetts TARA (tenants and residents association) formed in November to tackle social problems around off-road bikes and anti-social behaviour in the fields around the area as well as the loneliness that the residents of Woodsetts and the surrounding area have felt throughout the pandemic. The group have gone from strength to strength quickly, becoming a constituted group with a core of 10 people lead by parish councillors, the group have starting their monthly coffee mornings to give residents a place to come together and talk.

Over the last few months the group have attracted a large Facebook following, attracting around 100 members, and this is still growing fast. The group attract an average of 30 people physically attending their coffee morning every month at the Parish Hall where the group are treated to homemade cakes and buns along with a drink and a chat.

The group are currently working with myself and Nicky Haze, the Neighbourhood coordinator for Woodsetts to put on a number of events over the year, the first of these being a Jubilee Street party, quickly followed by a picnic in the park. Later in the year there will be a pie and peas evening for bonfire nigh as well as much more still to be finalised.

We have just finished working on a COMF funding bid to host these events as well as keeping the coffee mornings running and increasing the frequency of these, now the group are looking to get Lottery funding for several subsidised daytrips for members of the group to enjoy. The group hope that this will further increase engagement and allow them to host more events for the residents of the area.

St Mary’s Neighbourhood Centre

By Zoe Roberts, Activities Co-ordinator

St Mary’s had previous been a centre with no activity. Since starting working with the session, we have successful run coffee morning, a quiz session and a multi-agency drop in at the centre. Since Christmas, we have held crafts sessions at the centre. This has been attended by eight people. The ladies have enjoyed their first six sessions and we have looked to book in another set.

We discussed them setting an informal group up themselves but no one wanted the responsibility. They feel they would be out of pocket having to buy resources and much prefer to attend organised things as they are learning new skills.

We are now looking into this so that we can leave centres with ‘leavers packs’. This will include teas, coffee etc as well as other practical and fun resources. However, this should help ease the transition to maintaining activities. We are going to arrange another coffee morning with them and look to hold a multi-agency in the centre once a quarter with the support of our HRA contract. In attention to this, we have arranged for exercise sessions to take place at the centre with RUCST.

The centre and the fledging groups is likely to need some kind of continued support, into the year. However, from a centre where there was previously no activity and the only use was from Mears (whose staff use this centre for lunches), it has been positive to start to see a growth in there.

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Friendship Call Participant – Millie

Millie was originally referred to us in July 2021 from RDash. Millie is a lovely lady in her fifties who lives with her husband. Millie as numerous clinical issues and is under the mental health team as she cannot regulate her emotions. Millie was placed with volunteer Christina, and they started to build up a great rapport. Unfortunately, Christina has recently fallen ill and due to Millie’s complex mental health, she was unable to be placed with a volunteer who would be able to chat to Millie in a way that can regulate her emotions and prevent her from becoming attached. Jane – one of the volunteer coordinators picked up the case and has been calling Millie on a regular basis. Millie then started to ring Jane whenever she needed someone to talk to and this was becoming a problem. Jane had to inform Millie that the service that we provided was not to support individuals and that there were profession boundaries that needed to be adhered to and that she could not keep calling. Millie advised that she would like to attend the buffet lunch that was held on 28th January, and Millie asked if Jane could support her throughout the event. It was again explained to Millie that this was not possible, however, she could be met at the door and introduced to other people. Millie arrived at the venue, was met by Jane then after introductions, and was sat at a table with 3 other people that she did not know. When it was time to leave, Millie informed Jane that she had had such a good time and that she was so glad that she had been given the opportunity of meeting some new people. Arrangements were made to call the following week, but after this call, Millie will be placed with another volunteer who has extensive experience in this field, she is very happy to do it as her confidence levels have now started increasing.

Friendship Calls Participant – Jayne

Jayne was referred to our project in December 2020, she was really struggling after losing her mum unexpectedly to Covid-19 in May of that year. Jayne was unable to attend her mum’s funeral due to own ill health and because she was shielding.

Jayne spoke with different volunteers but it was when she spoke with one of our students that SKYPE was mentioned. This was facilitated and the student volunteer set up a private email account for the specific purpose of calling Jayne.  Calls often lasted over an hour with lots of laughter. Unfortunately when the student left to go to Uni we had to put Jayne back to the calls only, whilst we found another volunteer who was comfortable with video calling.

Recently a new volunteer came through and she really wanted to take on the SKYPE call with Jayne, on the first call they spoke via video for over 2 hours. I did question this with the volunteer and she said it had felt like 2 minutes as the conversation and the laughs had flowed and the two of them felt like they had been friends forever. They have so much in common, especially the love of craft. Jayne is currently helping the volunteer get back into painting by offering help and advice on her work, being able to share on screen makes it all the better,  it really  is a two way thing and is improving the mental health of all parties. Next week is a paint along with Jayne advising the volunteers how to get best use out of oil paints she received for Christmas.

Friendship Call Participant – Neville

Neville was originally referred to us back in August 2021. Neville lives on his own, and his wife is very poorly in a care home. Neville has been receiving friendship calls from two volunteers – Jonathan and Julie who alternate calling Neville. Neville has reported that he finds this service very invaluable as it eases the loneliness when he cannot go and see his wife. Neville enjoys watching sports and loves anything that can challenge his mind like dominoes. As restrictions have now eased, Neville has mentioned to Julie that he would love to be able to get out and about a bit more and meet new people. Julie has agreed to pick him up and bring him to a coffee morning being hosted by Rotherfed on 9th February, He is really looking forward to this, but has said that he will still very much like to continue with the calls as they break up a very lonely week.

Friendship Call Participant – Clarissa

Clarrisa is a lovely chatty lady who is quite new to the calls. She was referred to us via Social Prescribing. Upon assessment it became quite apparent that she was very apprehensive about receiving the calls. Further investigation revealed that Clarrisa has had a very tough life and is of ill health herself. On saying this she is so resilient and the reason she was unsure about the calls was due to the fact that she had always been the carer and didn’t know how she was going to cope with the shoe being on the other foot so to speak?

Clarrisa was a foster carer to a disabled youngster and spent much of her life caring for her, she also volunteered and supported others when-ever she could.

Clarrisa has been having the calls for just short of 2 months now, she speaks with regular volunteers and has already built up a fantastic rapport with them. It’s not easy for her but our volunteers know how to get the best out of the recipients and in this case it was about finding things in common. We think the friendships here will go from strength to strength and Clarrisa will slowly accept that this isn’t about giving in and asking for help it’s about enhancing what you have.

Connex Participant – Juliet

Juliet lives on her own and likes working in the Garden when the weather is good. Although she is an upbeat lady she does struggle with loneliness. She has family but they only ever call. Juliet is living with mental illness and has been diagnosed with OCD.
Covid has left her more alone and isolated. Juliet came to Connex via an internal referral as she was receiving befriending calls. During the calls it was often discussed about Juliet’s desire to get out and about again but many factors were working against her and she really didn’t think she could attend an event in a group environment.
We had some events coming up, so called Juliet to see if she would like to attend, she was interested but still very apprehensive. She had only been to bingo which was a familiar routine from pre-lockdown, a new event was a big challenge and as much as she wanted to go, it was a massive step for her to go. Conversations continued and then when an event was organised at a venue that Juliet was familiar with, not far from her home address, Juliet agreed to attend. One of our volunteers who speaks regularly with Juliet said she would meet her at the event, so they could meet face to face and put a face to a name. This was the factor that swung it for Juliet and she was determined to put her fears aside and attend.
Juliet now attends events on a regular basis, often meeting the volunteer there. Watching them catch up is amazing, they are in their own world and chat away like long lost friends. During one of our more recent events Juliet also got talking to one of our community staff members, she was saying that the energy crisis was causing her major worries and that she didn’t know what to do. This has led to her being referred for energy advice, our community staff explained the process and that she would get help, you could see the fear disappear in that moment.
Juliet is still living with mental illness but due to Connex and other interventions she is feeling so much more positive, is able to go out more and is feeling so much less isolated, long may it continue.

RotherFed Read

After the success of his intervention with the lack of food provision for low-income families during the school holidays, Marcus Rashford launched a book club with the aim of getting books into the homes of some of the most vulnerable children in our society. With statistics reading that if a young person isn’t at their expected reading age by Year 2 then they will always be playing catch up. 25% of 15-year-olds have a reading age of only 12, these 15-year-olds are then expected to sit GCSE qualifications without the full comprehensive capacity to understand all of the questions.

We wanted to make a change within the areas that the lottery areas that we work in. We decided to run book collection event at venues across the funded areas such as community stands and schools. We incentivized the book collections from the community by adding a name into the hat for each donor of the project. We chose to select waterstones vouchers as a prize so that those who donated could buy some new books. We had received an estimated 250 books through families and schools.

Continue reading “RotherFed Read”