September's Community Stories

Local Developer Support Food Hub in need!

Local developers Bowmer and Kirkland and their contractors MFP Linings Ltd have kindly donated bags of dried food and goods to the Tile Hill Food Hub run by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church after an urgent call for donations.

The food hub was in need of donations due to an increase in families needing to access the food hub. To help them out, the Community Resilience Team reached out to their contacts at Bowmer and Kirkland’s to see if they could help as part of their social value commitment to the city.

They were quick to jump at the opportunity to help and the staff on site very kindly donated bags full of dried food and toiletries which has been a huge benefit to the food hub and families accessing it! A massive thank you to them for helping the food hub!

Parents Against Youth Violence workshops receive funding support from West Midlands Police Helping Communities Fund

The Community Resilience team contacted Oasis Leadership who run Parents Against Youth Violence workshops when they were notified of The Helping Communities Fund (HCF) relaunching and were successful in helping them secure £5,000. The HCF is made up from money seized from criminals under the Proceeds From Crime Act and is used to allow communities to invest in their neighbourhoods to improve safety.

The purpose of the HCF is to support local communities who are actively involved in projects which aim to make a positive difference and which make the West Midlands a safer place to live and/or work. All funded projects must contribute to crime prevention & reduction, and community safety in the local area.

Parents Against Youth Violence workshops are delivered to both parents/carers and young people. Young people and their carers are supported within the workshops by mentors providing information and education on topics including gang culture, knife crime, alcohol, drugs and mental health. The workshops aim to promote cohesion between carers and youths, promoting a supportive home environment, building understanding and helping youths to thrive and make the right decisions.

The project is based in Hillfields supporting families across Coventry and with the support of police funding will be able to run for a year.

The CRT team are currently supporting Oasis Leadership with funding applications to continue their work with youths that complement the workshops. Oasis Leadership also run youth only workshops at the weekend which consist of a mentor session and sports session.

Crafty Crafters receive Community Recovery and Support Grant

Crafty Crafters meet weekly at the Hagard Community Centre in Willenhall. They are a small group set up prior to Covid supporting people from the local community who are feeling isolated. Some suffer with mental health, anxiety, depression, and some are lonely and need friendships and support to rebuild their confidence. Since the COVID lockdown came to an end the group has also been supporting those that have lost confidence in going out. The group is self-funded with them doing car boot sales, raffles, tombola's to raise funds as well as receiving donations of crafting items from various sources.

Covid sadly closed the group down for a period of time, but after restrictions were lifted the group slowly returned and were working with their current and more limited stock and donations that they had left. The group applied for the Community Support and Recovery Grant for purchasing equipment and craft materials which would give them an opportunity to try some new crafts, along with some funding to advertise the group to increase members attending. The group were successful in receiving £1,525.

The group is increasing in numbers and welcomes all members of the community young and old to build friendships, reducing isolation and loneliness, increasing well-being, and building confidence in all who attend. All the members share their crafting skills. They are delighted with an award from the community recovery grant. It will increase their supply of chosen crafting materials and give them the opportunity to learn new crafting techniques.

If you or someone you know may be interested in joining the group have a look at their poster!

Creative Kindness receive the Community Recovery and Support Grant and extend their support offer!

Creative Kindness started 3 years ago with the support of the charity Grapevine. The group meets in 5 libraries across the city: Coundon, Foleshill, Earlsdon, Willenhall, and Central Library and Oasis Café in Spon End. They make simple crafts with positive messages on which are then given out to the general public or left in community spaces for people to find to brighten their day.

During the Covid19 lockdown periods the group continued to meet online via Zoom to keep in touch with their members. During that period the group’s membership increased and they have continued to grow now that they meet in person again.

The Community Resilience Team reached out to the group to see if their was any support that could be offered, particularly through the Recovery and Support Grant. The group were ambitious to take their project to a wider audience and wanted to do outdoor events during the spring/summer months. For this they would require their own equipment to allow them to set up outdoors such as a Gazebo, chairs and table. The team supported them to write an application for the grant.

Creative Kindness were successful in their application and received £1,000 towards the cost of purchasing the equipment they required to expand the project and attend outdoor events, as well as setting themselves up in public spaces across the city.

The pictures featured are of one of the projects the group are involved with called ‘One Billion Stars’. The project’s aim is to end all forms of violence across the globe by 2032. As part of that project Creative Kindness aim to create 10,000 stars involving community groups, schools, universities, the Lord Mayor’s Peace and Reconciliation Committee, the Peace Orchard and police partnerships to create a display to help spread the vision.

John White Community Centre - Community Café

John White Community Centre is a well used venue for many local people. After the easing of the COVID lockdown restrictions at the start of the year the centre was delighted to see the return of its members and groups that use the centre.

Often their café is a source of comfort for catching up with elderly friends and having a chat and a coffee and cake to make a bit of light in their day. The centre had noticed since Covid it had been a struggle for people to return to the centre and they wanted to be able to provide a service to encourage members to return safely.

Whilst the café space at John White is vital to the centre, they had been struggling to keep it up and running frequently due to lack of funds and staff/volunteers resulting in the café not being able to open on days the centre is used. Having three large groups running from the venue, with most of the members being over 60's, who love to come and visit the café and socialise with some food and drink, the centre felt that it would be important to to look at ways of getting in some funding. They wanted to ensure that these members had a nice café space to come and sit in, as well as being able to access low cost meals and snacks.

With the support of the Community Resilience Team, the community centre applied for an Awards For All Grant, to help them get the café back up and running regularly with a defined menu to support the needs of the groups. The group were successful with the funding and were delighted to receive £9,995.

This funding has been a huge helped and has now enabled the centre to get its cafe up and running again and welcome their members back through the doors.