meet the applicants who have a project idea to help make a difference in
Forest Hill.
Minutes:
Meet the Applicants who have a project idea to help make a difference in Forest Hill:
1: Project 1: Forest Hill Family Festival- £2300
The Parents’ Network, in partnership with Kelvin Grove & Eliot Bank Children’s Centre, will organise a weeklong series of local events that highlight Forest Hill’s family-friendly community. They will offer workshops and activities for parents to foster relationships, network through shared experiences, and gain expertise in child development and well-being. The Parents’ Network is working to transform Forest Hill into a close-knit community that resembles the metaphorical village we all know is needed to raise a healthy, happy child.
They will offer a range of workshops aimed at surfacing common issues parents face when raising children. Additionally, by conducting outreach to local traders and businesses, we will showcase the family friendly side of Forest Hill. Local traders may wish to offer discounts or taster sessions to promote their child-focused activities.
To do this affordably and efficiently, they will utilise local knowledge, expertise and resources. The events will take place over the course of a week and will feature weekend, weekday afternoon and sessions to accommodate and reach as many local residents as possible. Workshops and events will take place across a range of venues in the ward.
Project 2: Planting at Forest Hill station and town centre-£600
As in previous years members of the Forest Hill Society and its supporters will do planting work at Forest Hill station and in the town centre with members of the public who join them in watering, weeding and planting. While they try to choose plants which regenerate annually not all succeed in this, and a lot is dependent on the weather. Funds are therefore needed to replace missing or damaged plants, compost and other materials and renew where necessary.
Project 3: Mothers Springboard Programme- £2500
The project goal is to help local stay-at-home mothers, with little or no work experience, achieve a work-life balance by addressing all personal challenges that may act as a barrier in sustaining long-term employment whilst raising a family-often single-handedly.
The proposed project is a pilot programme which has been formulated as a consequence of the summer budget 2017, affecting lone parents the hardest. Cuts to Child tax credits for the 3rd and subsequent children means that mothers are required to go back to work and stay in long term employment.
Aims:
Objectives:
The project will deliver tangible results where participants will gain skills and insight that will lead them to go on to either:
? Part-time or Full-time Employment
? Training in their chosen field
? Further/Higher Education
? Enterprise and Self Employment
? Programs for further Preparation
Project 4: Red Ribbon Living Well – Drama Production- £770
Red Ribbon is a support project for people in Lewisham living with HIV. Red Ribbon would like to develop an educational drama piece, written by its members, to be performed at one or more community events in Forest Hill such as Fashion Week, V22 Summer Club, Dartmouth Road events or in the Forest Hill Library. The drama piece would show the more personal impacts of an HIV diagnosis, including disclosure to partners, impact on family, and effect on pregnancy and having children.
In addition to the play itself, Red Ribbon will hold an information stall before/after including raising awareness of testing for HIV as well as other STIs, signposting to the sexual health (GUM) clinic, free condom distribution and signposting to peer support groups.
Project 5:5 New Bollards at the entrance of the Green - £850
To have 5 new wooden bollards made and installed at the entrance to Albion Millennium Green as the existing have rotted away (2 out of five have fallen down and the other 3 have started to rot and come away). The bollards are an integral protective barrier to the Green to protect the community (including young children, the elderly and dogs) from vehicles driving down the road and into the Green (which has been happening).
Project 6: Colourful street trees in the Horniman area of Forest Hill- £840
The aim of the project is to increase the attractiveness of the following streets by planting trees that will provide exceptional colour and interest throughout the year. These streets which are above Horniman Gardens, are covered by The Tewkesbury Lodge Estate Residents Association. As well as being colourful, the trees we have selected are known to cope with roadside conditions. Most of these varieties are thriving in the streets of the Borough although very few are in Forest Hill.
1.Lower Liphook Crescent. Here we shall plant 2 ornamental pears of the variety “Chanticleer” with flowers opening pink then white in spring and leaves turning orange, red, and gold in autumn.
2.Upper Ringmore Rise. We shall plant 3 mountain ash of the unusual variety “Embley” with bunches of fluffy white flowers in Spring and stunning red leaves and red berries in autumn
3.A grassy verge at the junction of Liphook Crescent and Ringmore Rise will accommodate two varieties of crab apple - “Rudolph” and “Royalty”. Their flowers will be respectively red or pink, their autumnal leaves bronze or red and their crab apples red or purple.
4.The numerous large white flowers of a single Magnolia “Merrill” will offset a white house in Westwood Park
5.Canonbie Road. 2 Amelanchiers “Red Robin” will cope with the narrow pavements at the top of this steep hill and stand out with numerous white flowers in spring and scarlet leaves in autumn.
The planting of these trees is intended to have an immediate visual impact and so to attract further sponsorship of similar trees in the future. Street Trees for Living, with which we are working, has found that this strategy works, and we will adapt their strategy to our Residents Association
Project 7: Cheseman Street Community Vegetable Plot - £1000
We are going to transform an overgrown, unkept and disused plot of land at the top of Cheseman Street, to become a community vegetable plot for the residents of Cheseman Street. We will harvest the produce 2-3 times a year and organise a community ‘cook off’, whereby all residents of Cheseman Street will cook dishes and share them together and with Forest Hill residents as part of a community street party. We will donate all leftovers to the local homeless shelter, Miriam Lodge. At each harvest period, the street will sell a small percentage of the produce in the Horniman Farmers’ Market to raise funds for purchasing next year’s crop seeds.
We are also applying for funds to improve the appearance of Cheseman Street by building and installing simple, but effective, DIY timber planters (please see attached example photo) to the Cheseman Street boundary wall. We will then plant perennial and summer flowers in the planters.
These two proposals will improve the appearance of Cheseman Street, making the area tidy, clean and more attractive to live in. It will also engage local residents (including vulnerable individuals housed at Miriam Lodge), creating an increased sense of community spirit and pride as well as offering a fun project that is informative, develops skills and self-sufficient.