October's Community Stories

St Francis of Assisi’s food hub has welcomed much needed support from Local Construction Company GF Tomlinson!

St Francis of Assisi runs in the heart of the community in Radford offering a wide range of services and support to the local community such as employment support, volunteering, ESOL and one of their most successful offers of support in their weekly food hub.

The food hub supports 60 registered families in the area providing a bag of essential food supplies each week. The hub relies on donations from local residents or businesses and on it making successful applications for funding grants to source the food to enable it to keep running.

Construction Company GF Tomlinson, who are working on a build at Barr’s Hill School, reached out to the Community Resilience Team to see what community projects they could get involved with and provide support to, close to the site, as part of their social value commitment to the city.

The team linked them to St Francis of Assisi, and after finding out about the valued and essential support that the food hub offered, they donated £500 to the food hub.

Councillor David Welsh, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities said: ”This kind of support from businesses working in the local area is so valuable to the communities they help. This money can make such a difference and with the help of the Community Resilience Team’s support it has gone to a key hub to support those most in need”

Selina Read, Chief Executive officer from the church added: “We are extremely grateful for the funding GF Tomlinson has given to us. The money will be used towards sourcing food for the families who access our social supermarket. We are seeing an increase in the number of families needing food support, and it is vital that we are able to continue to help those who are facing hardship. GF Tomlinson have helped us to be able to do this”.

Councillor Maya Ali, Ward Councillor for Radford added: “It has been a pleasure to see this valuable community asset get this money from GF Tomlinson. This will really help with all aspects of the support St Francis of Assisi provide to the local community and we are very grateful for their donation”

Carl Wiltshire, Framework & Pre Construction Development Manager from GF Tomlinson shared “Over the past year we have been involved with the construction of new teaching facilities at Barr’s Hill School and as part of our relationship with The School we feel it is extremely important to support the local communities. Therefore, we are pleased to make a donation to the food bank of St. Francis of Assisi Church, knowing that the food will reach the local families where needed.

From our visit to the Church, it was amazing to listen and see how they operate and ensure that the food provided, helps to make a real difference to the lives of the local people during these times.”

Funding Secured to help bring back the source of Coventry, for people, for wildlife, for the future.

Warwickshire Wildlife Trust are pleased to announce their Sherborne Valley Project has been awarded additional funding of £1.8 million pounds from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Matching funding has also been secured from several partners including Coventry City Council, Severn Trent, the Environment Agency and Sherbourne Valley Churches. The total value of the project is over £3 million and the money will be invested in a variety of outcomes over the next four years. The Trust are also working in partnership with, and being supported by, Citizen Housing, Historic Coventry Trust and Coventry University in order to bring the ambitious plans to life.

The Sherbourne Valley Project has 6 key aims:

1. To make the people of Coventry feel connected to the river Sherbourne and the surrounding green spaces

2. To ensure the river and its associated habitats are improved for wildlife

3. To ensure the river is more accessible to all along its length

4. To preserve and celebrate the built heritage

5. To help the local community to become empowered and to take ownership of their river

6. To provide local communities with information and learning opportunities about their river

The project will act as a great example of how the Trust are implementing its new #TeamWilder initiative, which empowers local people to take meaningful actions that bring about nature’s recovery The funding and the project will allow Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to engage with, and provide benefit to, over 25,000 people via one off activities during the project’s delivery. The Trust expects to work with 3,500 people in a more structured, regular way through volunteering, training, walks and other sessions.

For more information or to get in touch please visit www.sherbournevalley.co.uk or find us on Facebook @TheSherbourneValleyProject or email sherbourne@wkwt.org.uk.

Funding for new mental health and Welfare Project

Kavology Ltd are a new venture who are just about to open up a new gym with the focus on the mental health and welfare of all users. Offering a bespoke fitness challenge the trainer Seamus Kavanagh is introducing exclusive sessions for individuals who have autism and others who exhibit other recognised conditions which affect their ability to make friends and develop social skills.

The Community Resilience Team (CRT) helped to produce the application to the National Lottery and after only two weeks submission a grant of £9, 970 was awarded thus proving that a scheme of this nature is greatly needed.

Kavology Ltd are based at 1a Broomfield Road, Earlsdon.

Rose Community Centre receives a fresh lick of paint from Local Developers!

Rose Community Centre which is at the heart of Spon End have recently received support from construction company Bowmer + Kirkland (B+K) and their subsidiary Peveril Decorators.

The Community Resilience Team have been working closely with B+K who are currently leading on major builds in the city such as Friargate Two, Hotel Indigo, Westgate Coventry Academy and VITA student accommodation to enable them to fulfil their social value commitment to the city.

The team put Bowmer + Kirkland in touch with the Rose Community Centre, as they were aware that the centre needed some refurbishment on its outside window frames. The Rose Community Centre offers some fantastic support to the local area such as a weekly social supermarket supporting families in need and a Men’s Shed Group also runs from the building.

Bowmer + Kirkland kindly agreed to support the centre by supplying the materials needed such as paint and brushes and also provided volunteers who helped to complete the painting over a couple of days.

Dave Roberts, Community Centre Manager from the Rose Community Centre shared “The Rose Centre would like to thank Bowmer + Kirkland and Peveril Decorators for their outstanding effort in painting our community centre windows and doors.”

Bowmer + Kirkland has previously supported the centre with food donations for the social supermarket and have more recently started a regular drop off of food donations from on-site staff to other social supermarkets in the city.