The Fun-abl8y Project continued to grow and prosper over the last year, with a number of new activities that took place, more children, parents, carers, staff and volunteers than ever before!

The Fun-abil8y Programme received a further 3 years funding from the Children’s Fund to support our regular learning and sports clubs, as well as a full programme of trips and activities in every school holiday. It is a credit to our programme that St James received the same level of funds as the year before despite the overall Fund allocation being reduced.

The Play-abil8y Club, for the most profoundly disabled children started with a treasure hunt in the May Holidays and has then run every Saturday lunchtime, plus trips out in every holiday. We have consistently had referrals for this club, as it provides activities for young people that even the Derby City Council’s service struggle to provide for! Sabra who runs the Play Club and her team provide professional one to one support including, tube feeding and epilepsy care.

We were successful in getting more funding for our club for young people aged 14 plus. We undertook a consultation in October with both parents and young people to ask them what they would like the youth club to provide. The unanimous decision by both parties was that the young people should be supported to develop skills and confidence to help them grow towards being as independent as possible.

Exciting new work developed as a result, including a 6 week cook-abil8y course, to help the young people learn some basic cooking: a sleep-over at St James (should have been called a non-sleepover!) and the young people helped organised their own trips and outings. Two reports about the consultation and the work that resulted from it, called “On the Road to Independence” and “Further along the Road to Independence” were well received and helped us gain further funding to continue the Youth Club for another year!

We have obtained two small pots of money to re-start our swimming club, which will start as soon as we find some suitable pool time, which is like gold dust. We have also received funding for a research project into care needs at home, which will start shortly.

Altogether, it has been an exciting year with steady progress in our regular work and exciting and innovative activities that have successfully put us on the City map for the quality of our provision and the warm hearted community friendly way in which it is delivered!

The Forum of Faiths for Derby has continued to build links between faith communities and individuals within Derby City. The Forum of Faiths has been delivering two programmes of work, a series of events funded by Small Change Funding and a portfolio of work under the Prevent Agenda.

The Small Change Project ran from June - December 2008, in that time the Forum ran 15 events to help people learn more about different faith communities, and attracted over 500 people!

The list of events included:-

Under the Prevent Programme we are running a series of interfaith arts activities, a Faith Leaders conference and a community learning programme called “people of the Book”. The family workshop, shown below, was thoroughly enjoyed by those who attended and created some inspiring works of art!
 

Lukasz Gazda from St Chad’s and Janet Tristram from St James successfully completed the mapping project and report on time and it has been extremely well received by the Normanton Neighbourhood Manager.

One of the findings from original research into Community Life in Normanton, completed by Janet Tristram in 2008, was that “residents in the Clarence Road area feel that most of the money and resources go to other areas of Normanton”. To find out whether this was true or not, it was decided to map the community facilities and activities being undertaken in this part of the area called “West Normanton”.

The project identified 80 community places in the area and 66 organisations that responded ran 212 community activities between them. Majority of activities are faith related (17%). Number of activities are organised for people over 50 (10%) and sporting and physical activities offer also wide range of different opportunities.

Two presentations about the mapping were given at two neighbourhood community forums and have developed a follow up proposal that we hope will address some of the recommendations. Further positive results - a different locality has expressed interest in us mapping their area and the information we collected for Normanton will be used to inform work with children and young people in the area.

Overall, it was surprising just how many public building and community activities there ware in this relatively small area of West Normanton – far more than was expected from the perceptions of the community or the community workers. Clearly the issue is not that there are too few activities, but that there is a lack of knowledge of the good things that exist.

In addition, it is important to note the role of the voluntary sector in this area, particularly the faith communities who run nearly 60% of all organisations in West Normanton.

For the full report please contact Janet Tristram at St James Centre.
 

Since opening in May 2008 Alter Rock has seen a steady increase in membership and visitors, aiming to provide an enjoyable climbing experience that is also challenging and fun.

Inside the converted church there are extensive bouldering wall and three main wall sections. There is also a purpose built area for those wishing to try their hand at abseiling. Reception area stocks a range of soft drinks, sweets, freshly made pies along with a selection of sandwiches.

Visits from all groups are welcomed and arrangements for schools, colleges, universities, parties and groups can be made. Feel free to contact the centre by telephone on 01332 367200 for more information