Agenda item

The bids are in and the assessment is done, hear from the local groups who have applied for funding from the Catford South Local Assembly. They are coming along to tell you more about their projects and give you a chance to ask questions – This one’s against the clock, so should be lively!

Hear from the following organisations about their projects.

3rd & 8th Catford Brownie Units
St Laurence Church – Sunbeam Tots Nursery  
Lewisham Tigers FC
Lewisham Youth Theatre
Diamond Club
Lewisham MindCare (part of Bromley & Lewisham Mind)
Age Exchange
Corbett Resident Association
The Archibald Corbett Community Library, Arts and Heritage Centre

Organisations applying for funding – each organisation delivered a 3 minute presentation against the clock

                                                                                                                        £15,000

The following are a synopses of their projects

1 - 3rd & 8th Catford Brownie Units, Brownie Sleepover on HMS Belfast£790
We will be: Developing opportunities for local children - Allowing them to socialise together, make lasting friendships, develop independence and learn new skills.We are planning a sleepover exclusively for our two Brownie units on HMS Belfast, including educational and fun activities, working as a group, learning to mix with girls from different backgrounds and cultures and making lasting friendships, at a price that makes it inclusive to all our members.
Members of the 3^rd & 8^th Catford Brownie units and their adult leaders would meet in Catford and travel together to London in order to spend a night on HMS Belfast, organised by the Imperial War Museum.
On arrival in the evening there will be activities tailored to our group which will be informative and fun. We will stay together on-board, learning what life was like for sailors, as well as understanding cultural diversity, working as a team and sharing experiences.
The girls should gain confidence and independence by staying away from home in a safe and controlled environment. We hope to build lasting friendships and a greater sense of community than we can in our brief weekly meetings.
We hope to make time on the second day to explore further, both on-board and in the local area. There will also be introductory and follow up activities during our regular meetings.
The children should benefit from learning social skills, the need for tolerance and understanding when interacting with others and gain further independence, which should benefit the local community as a whole.

2 - St Laurence Church, Sunbeam Tots Nursery, £2000
Sunbeam Tots is a mother and toddler group based at St Laurence Community Centre.
We give children the chance to interact with their peers as they learn to communicate, play, make friends, share and care for each other. This experience will help them to grow, develop and develop lasting local friendships as they move onto local Nurseries. We provide a stimulating and inclusive environment.
Our activities include indoor play, story time with an activity related to the story, planned small group activities such as music times where children enjoy moving to music. Amongst places visited are soft play centres, parks, library, the fire station, police stables, mosque, church and local businesses.
The project also helps to educate parents and carers to understand that children need to learn from a young age: the importance of accepting, respecting, welcoming everyone, and developing friendships.
We offer a venue that is welcoming to all, clean, bright with lots of natural daylight, warm and comfortable.  We are open to people of all religions and nationalities encouraging them to come together to work, play and communicate.  
We work in partnership with other service and support agencies to provide information and advice about their activities, and inform parents and carers how they could benefit from the services of these agencies.
Sunbeam Tots Playgroup provides play activities for toddlers (age 0 – 5 years) and provides a venue for contact, information, advice and socialization opportunities for carers/parents. Most of our service users are from the local community around central Catford.

3 - Lewisham Tigers FC, Football Development Project, £790
We have a number of developmental plans for the year 2016/17.   These include development of new and established coaches and purchasing additional equipment.

We want two volunteer adults to take the level 1 coaching certificate. One is an assistant, who helps the coach for the u10. The coach for the u10 has his level 1 coaching certificate, and is the Chair and Secretary of the club. We would like him to become the Football Development Officer for the club, who will oversee all the coaching and advise and support coaches.
The other volunteer is an assistant for the girl’s team. We want to formally establish a girls’ team that can train regularly and play in tournaments for this season. At present the girls have a coach, but she has other commitments and finds it hard to coach regularly.
We have a small amount of balls and bibs for the girls’ team, but these have been passed down from another team and we now need more and newer equipment, as we have more girls showing an interest in joining, and we envisage at least another 5 or 6 joining in this season.

4 - Lewisham Youth Theatre - Junior Youth theatre 8 to 11s 2017 - £1500
What is it?

·         A free drama & performance project for 8 to 11s from January to June 2017.

·         Weekly sessions at the Broadway Theatre rehearsal room on either Tuesday or Saturdays

·         Always Lead by Professional Youth Theatre Directors.

Who can take part?

·         Lewisham Young People.

·         This funding is for Catford South young people.

How will children find out?

·         We will run FREE taster sessions in Catford South Schools.

·         We will list it on lovecatford.com

·         Leaflet at Catford South Assembly meeting, libraries & notice boards.

What will children gain?

·         Creative skills – a chance to develop drama skills of course but it’s also about developing imagination, a chance to express ideas & use thinking skills in a different way to school. 

·         New friends. Children from all over Lewisham take part.

·         Team work & leadership skills – we always choose shows that allow everyone to shine so we don’t have just one lead.

·         Improve reading, (through scripts) speaking and listening skills, (in the rehearsals & on stage).

·         Pride in their performance as the show will be at the Broadway Theatre in June, shared by family & friends.

What happens after this project end?

·         Once a child has taken part they will always be told about other opportunities that we offer.

·         And our projects are for 8 to 24 year olds and we do Technical theatre as well as acting.

5 - Diamond Club, Holidays From Home, £2100
“Holidays at Home” hosted by the Diamond Club will increase opportunities for older people in the borough by providing a three day holiday scheme for 50-60 people as well as a preparatory day at Easter and at Christmas in Hartley  Hall a fully accessible building in Catford.
The school holidays are often a lonely time for many older people as often organisations are closed, families and neighbours are away and older people can feel quite isolated. The days will be aimed at those who cannot for many possible reasons go on holiday due to poor health and mobility, carers commitments or financial constraint
The days will be reminiscent of peoples holidays when they were perhaps more active.
The first day will commence with a holiday themed exercise session followed by Hot Dogs, in the afternoon a classic film will be shown. Popcorn and ice cream will be given out by young people acting as usherettes.
The second day will offer an arts and craft session such as Jewellery or card making or painting. Lunch will be fish and chips and will be followed by a games afternoon replicating the penny games at the seaside offering skittles, dominoes boules and Bingo.
The third day will culminate with a tea dance with bone china tea sets with a small band and a chance to have a sing along.
Holidays at home will encourage younger people to volunteer during their holiday period and will lead to a great intergenerational link as well as connecting people to their community.
Drawing on the life experiences of the older residents in the community, this project will work towards developing a social space for older people and creating a book recording their lives in Catford. 

6 - Age Exchange, We Are Catford South, £2500

We aim to address the isolation, detachment and feelings of being undervalued that many older people experience.  Enabling participants to increase their confidence make connections and raise awareness about people’s value to society.
This will be done through using reminiscence, a highly person centred approach to engaging older people in group activities.  A series of eight reminiscence workshops will be held in which participants will explore an aspect of life in Catford South; this could include what it was like when people first moved here or how has it has changed.  
The themes for discussion will be directed by the group.  Our trained reminiscence practitioners will structure sessions to be inclusive, fun and productive.  Whether a resident of 40 years or having recently moved here the person’s story will be valued and heard.  We use object handling as part of our approach to trigger memories and we would encourage people to bring objects with them. 
The workshops will be followed by a series of interviews to record the detailed stories for the book.  The book will be given to participants and made available through the library and healthy lifestyle centre.
The project will be led by Age Exchange which is the UK’s leading reminiscence charity.  Age Exchange has over 30 years’ experience of using reminiscence to improve health and wellbeing.

7 - Lewisham Mindcare, Dance For Dementia, £2344
Catford South Ward has the second highest number of residents over 65 and a higher proportion of people living with dementia, compared to Lewisham as a whole.  Despite these figures, the area has no dementia specific groups.
Catford South and Lewisham has recently been accredited as ‘Working to Become Dementia Friendly’ and we feel now is an ideal time to create new opportunities for people living with dementia and their Carers.
The progression of dementia means that many people have difficulty with communication and the ability to express themselves which can leave them feeling frustrated and isolated. To combat this we hope to develop “Keep Dancing” -  a group for people living with dementia and their carers to get together in an informal environment, meet others in a similar situation and enjoy music and movement together.
Dance and music are timeless forms of self-expression and we feel that accessing these activities will increase wellbeing and restore a sense of identity.
The project aims to reduce isolation and in particular to reach people living in the Catford South area who may lack confidence or the resources to travel out of their neighbourhood to attend a social opportunity.
We hope that focusing on movement in a fun way will have health benefits for both Carers and the people they are caring for and aim to support older people to remain active and healthy and most of all a valued part of their community.

8 - Corbett Residents Association – Corbett Eyes – Keep Catford Clean - £566
Most residents will say Catford South is a good place to live, but the one thing that people complain about the most is the perennial problem of fly-tipping, littering and dog fouling in the area. This project aims to build a community campaign in Catford South to target:

• Fly-tipping across the ward.
• Littering and dog fouling hotspots.
• Landlords and residents dumping old furniture.

The campaign involves bringing, residents, shop owners, Landlords, council officers, members and police together to champion cleaner streets in Catford South. The campaign aims to lead by example; to inspire the whole community to take pride in their neighbourhood. 
The campaign will map out fly- tipping hotspots and make a case for the adoption of a mobile CCTV camera to monitor these areas.

In addition, we will team up with local artists and school children to create Corbett Eyes across the ward to deter fly-tipping and littering.

The Corbett Eyes campaign is inspired by Forest of Denes trees have eyes project which involved school children creating 50 faces on trees on 16 sites, to give the impression people are being watched and the 10,000 eyes in Rotterdam project.

9- Archibald Corbett Community Library, Arts and Heritage Centre. Torridon Library – Community Library Launch, £2500

The Archibald Corbett Society and the Corbett Residents Association have joined forces to create the Archibald Corbett Community Library, Arts and Heritage Centre as a charity to take over the management of Torridon Road Library from Lewisham Council.
The Library will be developed into a community hub to promote the following charitable purposes: the advancement of education, the advancement of arts and heritage and the advancement of citizenship and community development for the benefit of residents living within Catford South ward with a specific emphasis on services for young and older people.
The existing library service will be extended to encourage digital inclusion, provide weekly sessions for school groups and weekend tuition for school children and develop family and adult education facilities. The Library will become a centre for encouraging local residents to learn about the heritage of the area they reside in. The Charity will also advance the arts through regular exhibitions promoting the work of local artists and hold music recitals featuring local musicians. A café will be developed to create a meeting place for residents and a number of advice services will be available targeted at different age groups.
Activities will include:
Monthly Dementia Friendly sessions to include advice for carers.
Digital inclusion classes for young and older people
Creative writing/poetry and reminiscence groups
Career and volunteer advice service for younger people
Homework and IT clubs
Weekly knitting group
Singalong classes and stories and songs for toddlers
A book club plus a second hand bookshop
Seated pilates/yoga