Sandwell - Great Bridge Community Forum
Project: Great Bridge Community Forum
Date: April 2010 to March 2012
Amount awarded: £42,000
About
This project has performed well throughout the summer, the play scheme (for 8 – 12 yr olds) regularly had 43 children accessing the scheme over the period. Some of the regulars have had to move on due to age restrictions and many of those have now progressed on to access the youth clubs that meet at Farley Park 2 nights a week. It has been most encouraging however to see high numbers of new children accessing the service.
They also provided activities in October, which culminated with a Halloween disco that was attended by 47 children. This was very pleasing as we had to charge parents £2 per child (as opposed to free entry) to provide the disco. There were concerns that the charge for the party would effect numbers however this wasn’t the case and we were able to engage with the parents. Many volunteered to bake cakes & gave their support in other ways (many for the first time).
The group are pleased that after consultation with the NHS they will be funding a new support service for dementia patients which will operate on a weekly basis. The Happy Days group is now operating independently due to NHS pulling out and has seen the 8 men take ownership of the group. This is amazing as the group members are all ex-mental health patients who have been coming to Farley for the last 7 years. We currently have £30,000 secured towards 2012 & are constantly looking for new funding sources to support the £20,000 shortfall, we are now part of the co-operative & are looking at applying for funding to support partnership projects throughout Sandwell.
As part of Sandwell’s policy of reducing the number of community venues they have management responsibility for they have given Great Bridge Community Forum a Service Level Agreement and funding to manage Farley park for the next 3 years.
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