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15/07/25

Ocean City Influencers

Due to funds received from Sovereign Housing the Ocean City Influencers were able to take a boat ride over to Mount Edgcumbe and spend the evening there exploring the grounds, playing games, doing some drawing and paddling in the water. The trip gave the group the opportunity to learn about how to get to Mount Edgcumbe, what you can find there (including some great art installations) The visit also gave them a great setting for sitting and thinking about the questions around the environment, climate justice and recycling that they will be asking indigenous artist Shaq Koyak of Malaysia in a few weeks time.

14/07/25

The Cooking Bee

Thank you so much to SNG's Thriving Community Fund! Our Always Bee You students have loved their cooking sessions making their favourite healthy takeaways and learning to cook from scratch. Cooking skills are so important especially if you are living alone and have to cook for yourself. The group have made a variety of dishes such as stir fry chicken and noodles, healthy pizza, fish and chips and yummy kebabs. Andrew loves noodles and is helping his mum cook at home.

27/06/25

Sustainable Westminster

The young people on Sustainable Westminster were a treat! The young people were super engaged with the challenge of improving the sustainability of single use medical items, and were able to clearly link the impact to the wider issue on sustainability, climate change and pollution. Bringing in a guest speaker who works in healthcare and has come from similar backgrounds to them was amazing for the young people, as they were able to ask questions, be inspired, and build confidence in their respective journeys towards STEM careers.

23/06/25

The Cooking Bee

Jess is really enjoying her cooking sessions with Julie. Today she made chicken stir fry from scratch and is very pleased with the results. Thanks to Sovereign Thriving Communities Fund our group members are learning about healthy eating and cooking their favourite meals. Jess has told us she has started making meals at home for her family and this makes her feel proud of herself. She says cook school is awesome! Phil lives at a Sovereign Network Housing property and said our Cooking Bee Project has taught him to cook healthier versions of his favourite takeaways. It's also saved him money and he feels more healthy and confident about cooking new dishes.

16/06/25

Little Seedlings @St Mary's - building community cohesion through free, weekly nature connection sessions for young families in nature-deprived Hackney

Little Seedlings sessions began after Easter and have had strong attendance, reaching 55 adults and 58 children so far helped by kind spring weather and growing community interest. Participants have eagerly taken part in free seasonal activities such as bee friendly and edible planting, making seedballs as well as crafts - making pine cone bees to take home and enjoying creating clay creatures! Thanks to SNG's support, we're on track to meet our goals of providing safe, natural outdoor spaces that support children’s physical and mental health, while also fostering social connections among families at risk of isolation. Families are engaging in nature-based activities that help improve local biodiversity, enhancing the environment for all too! Thank you SNG.

12/06/25

Store House furniture project

Here are just a few of the lovely volunteers who work with our Store House furniture project - we couldn't do it without them! The funding received will help towards keeping our van on the road this year, so that our volunteers can continue to pick up good quality donated furniture, and deliver it to families in need. We love being able to make a difference in the lives of those who are going through difficult times and so we were thrilled to receive this recent feedback from a service user; "I want to extend my thanks and gratitude to everyone at Open House and in particular Store House for the support and furniture donation I received yesterday. The effort to find a sofa that would fit is deeply appreciated. It is seldom one can express gratitude for life changing help and I am overwhelmed by the kindness and the incredible change it has made to my life. Kindest regards" Thank you for being a part of making this possible.

10/06/25

Swimming Buoys in Torbay

The buoys have been correctly placed in the sea. After a brief inspection of the buoys on a paddle board we are ready to go and organise our first club sea swim event!

06/06/25

Eating Together at The Food Chain Community Cafe

Eating Together chefs serving food to service users

06/06/25

Little Village Brent

A few months ago, we published our fourth annual Impact Report, outlining the vital work of Little Village in 2024: https://shorturl.at/BV3jA.

27/05/25

Community Garden

A grass roots group, based in Boscombe, our mission is to provide our urban community with the skills and resources they need to grow their own food, connecting people with nature, food, and each other. Our beautiful Victorian walled ‘Secret Garden’ is at the heart of our community and the centre of our core activities and skills and learning programmes.   95% run by volunteers, complete with outdoor classroom & a community kitchen, we use this space daily to deliver our garden volunteer sessions, skills and learning workshops, wellbeing events, community meals & corporate days. In 2024, we delivered 130 workshops from our community garden, engaged 1780 adults and 1155 children with 84% of the workshops being subsidised. We are so grateful to Southwest Water for a donation that is going to go such a long way in improving our community garden. We are so excited to be able to complete and upgrade to our hen house & onsite compost toilet. The fund is also going to allow us to install a new hot water system in our outdoor kitchen classroom which will not only be used at our volunteer tea breaks but also allow us to cater for more community events - THANK YOU SO MUCH.

25/04/25

Warberry Forest school

Shed (the second one as a storm destroyed the first!!!) built by our amazing volunteer!!!

15/04/25

Creative Wellbeing

These ladies are both in their 90's and are trying out a bit of Boxercize to improve their upper body strength. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were overheard saying...'Nobody's going to mess with us now we know how to box' With a hearty burst of laughter. These classes are so much more than just keeping fit, they are fun and engaging and the participants are becoming good friends often hanging around after the class to enjoy a natter and a cup of tea - a well deserved one.

08/04/25

Parry's Community Cafe: Winter Meals

Over the past few months, the St Peter’s Church Development Project has made significant strides in reducing loneliness and isolation among Bournemouth’s elderly and vulnerably housed communities. Since February 2025, the project has hosted 10 inclusive events, serving 322 meals and welcoming over 60 people on a fortnightly basis. These gatherings provide more than just food—they offer companionship, entertainment, and a vital sense of belonging in a warm, historic setting. Located in one of the most deprived areas identified in the 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation, the church has become a trusted space where people can connect, share stories, and build friendships. With local support services diminishing and 55% of local social care users reporting inadequate social contact, our project has stepped in to meet a growing need. Through nourishing meals, community spirit, and meaningful engagement, St Peter’s is fostering hope, strengthening social ties, and improving overall well-being for vulnerable individuals.

08/04/25

Make and Munch

Project Food's "Make and Munch" sessions in Cranbrook were a wonderful initiative designed to support parents and carers of pre-school children. These sessions were held at the EX5Alive Cranbrook Education Campus and aimed to tackle common mealtime challenges, such as picky eating. Hands-on Cooking: Participants prepared a delightful lunch together, learning practical cooking skills. Community Building: The sessions fostered a sense of community and shared learning, making mealtimes a more positive experience. Recipe Bags: Each session concluded with participants taking home a recipe bag to continue the fun and learning at home.

07/04/25

Popley Friends Social Group (for people over 65)

Our Popley Friends group is up and running out of St Gabriel's church and is currently supporting between 12 -18 older people on a weekly basis along with creating 3 volunteer roles which are also all filled at the moment by people aged 60+ The funding we have received has supported us to go out and purchase varied and interesting resources to keep this group fun, with options to suit all tastes. Last week whilst some members played with our new beetle drive set (pictured) others painted watering cans to take home and use as a vase for flowers. Through publicity in our newsletter, talking to our networks and through word of mouth from current participants we are hoping to welcome lots of new members through our doors in the coming weeks.

26/03/25

Volunteer and Engagement Programme

As the tree planting season draws to a close, we want to celebrate the incredible efforts of our volunteers, captured in this photo from Deancombe in March 2025, and to thank you for your funding support. This year, we've had our largest tree planting season to date. We have seen 32,000 trees leave our nurseries for planting across Dartmoor. Thanks to over 275 volunteers, Moor Trees planted 18,000 of those trees at our woodland creation sites, including iconic locations like the rare temperate rainforest Wistman's Woods. The dedication of these individuals, who contributed over 5,000 hours in 2024/25, has been essential and we are excited to continue providing a variety of volunteer opportunities throughout the coming year.

25/03/25

Hydro-families meet up

One of the highlights of this work was went we hosted a family day in a private space at the Lamb's Green Inn in October bringing together families affected by hydrocephalus in the Bournemouth and the surrounding area. Families had the opportunity to meet, share connections and access free resources to help them on their child's hydrocephalus journey.

25/03/25

THE SHADE COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS - WINTER PROJECT

Winter Hot Meal Grant - Project Update We are pleased to share the impact of our Winter Hot Meal Grant. Through your generous support, we successfully provided: Over 200 free biryanis to members of the public, ensuring warm, nourishing meals during the colder months. 100 free burgers at a separate community event, bringing people together and fostering a sense of connection. A special Iftar gathering where we served 50 individuals with hot meals, supporting our community during Ramadan. These initiatives have made a significant difference, providing comfort and sustenance to those in need. Thank you for enabling us to serve and uplift our community.

06/03/25

Providing access for all for Maidenhead's restored waterway and enhancing biodiversity by building floating habitat islands

Thanks once again for funding our project. I am very pleased to report that we have been making excellent progress in opening up Maidenhead's waterways to improve community well being. So far we have taken 420 people from Maidenhead and the surrounding areas on our free boat rides. The attached photo shows one of our volunteers as Captain Jack Sparrow. The photo also shows the boat rides have been very popular with people from different communities, with Muslim, Hindu and Sikh families joining us on the boats with their families. We have organised activities for 171 Scouts, including canoe trips along the waterway, clearing brambles and weeds from the stream and pond dipping for the younger Beavers. Our free canoe and kayak paddles have been popular, with 28 paddlers taking to the water on our guided paddles. We have also taken 20 people on free guided walks along the paths the waterway. We have built 5 habitat islands with Cub Scouts and 10 planter boxes watered by a solar power system. Thank you once again for funding our project! We are delighted that so many people have joined us in being active on Maidenhead's restored waterway.

06/03/25

Live Theatre Accessible To All

We had two very successful two charity performances, enabling 400 members of our community to come together & watch live theatre in a relaxed & fun environment. The audience members are part of our community who do not always get the opportunity to watch a theatre production. The tickets are vastly reduced, making this accessible to low income families, youth clubs/groups, the elderly & also adults & children who have learning disabilities or with physical disabilities. Without funding & donations we would not be able to hold these events, we strive to continue this tradition, as we are the only local theatre company to hold these events. We have received some fabulous emails from groups & individuals expressing the gratitude, happiness & well-being that these performances have brought them, here are a few: "Luke & Jimmy loved it, just brilliant" "we all loved it & the kids talked non stop about it on the drive home" "absolutely wonderful evening" "that was the best panto ever we all loved it, definitely the best panto we have ever seen". "The costumes were fantastic, as were the stage sets, lighting and sound, a top class show.. STC thank you for your support with your grant.

18/02/25

Operation South West Blood Bikes

Your donation has helped us to expand our service in North Devon, where we are now supporting a new blood sample collections and taking them for testing into Barnstaple Hospital.

29/01/25

Volunteer and Engagement Programme

Thank you for the generous funding we received. This support has been invaluable in helping us engage more volunteers. We've recently implemented a new database system, which directly links to a volunteer registration form. This system streamlines our recruitment process, allowing us to gather essential information and stay in touch with our volunteers before, during and after their time with us. We're currently in our peak tree planting season and have been actively reaching out to the community through various channels, including face-to-face networking, online platforms, old fashioned posters, social media and local volunteering organisations. Since the beginning of the year, we've successfully organised 13 volunteer events. These events have included 5 tree planting activities on Dartmoor sites, 4 at our Dartington Tree nursery and 4 at our Broadley tree nursery. We're thrilled to have engaged over 55 volunteers in these efforts so far.

24/01/25

Future Proofing QEOP Girlguiding

Our new Ranger unit! Uniform provided by grant, prospective Rangers already on the waiting list - waiting for their 14th birthdays.

07/01/25

Community Support Services Bournemouth

Christmas fun at our 'Wellbeing Body and Mind' in our seated exercise session in Kinson Bournemouth.

06/01/25

Enriching Young Lives in Bournemouth: A Transformative Farm Residential

The children begin their week at Nethercott House with an agenda packed full of seasonal farming tasks and outdoor education and nature-based wellbeing activities. These demonstrate and teach beneficiaries to be mindful, to take responsibility for themselves and each other, and to have empathy. They embrace an appetite for growth, understand the importance of healthy eating, and learn to appreciate the field > farm > fork journey. They leave with a sound understanding of the wider world, with raised aspirations, new skills, enhanced resilience, and improved mental health.

31/12/24

Haircuts for Confidence

Haircuts for Confidence continues to make a meaningful impact on the lives of those experiencing homelessness. Here are a few recent highlights: Brian: After receiving his haircut from trainee Abby, Brian shared, “I feel like me again. You girls don’t realise the difference you make every day.” Lee: Trainee Anna gave Lee a Grade 3-0.5 haircut and groomed his eyebrows. Lee described it as “the best haircut I’ve had in the UK,” expressing deep gratitude for the care he received. Anthony: Anna also gave Anthony a one-length cut and styled his hair with wax. Anthony was thrilled, calling it “really good” and voicing his appreciation. These stories illustrate the profound confidence boost and sense of dignity our free haircuts provide. Thank you for helping us make this life-changing work possible!

10/12/24

Perinatal Outreach Support in Bournemouth

This project has been very successful in welcoming mums and providing support for complex health issues that were signposted to us. We had extensive outreach and really high impact of positive support, including mental health support.

08/12/24

Restoration of Mousehole Rock Pool

A beautiful, near perfect November day, greeted Olivia Crisp - South West Water Outreach Officer and Sophie Moore - South West Water Community Officer, when they visited Mousehole Rock Pool. The main purpose of their visit was to see how the restoration of the Pool was progressing, learn how they could work with us in the future and present a cheque for £2000 for our project. South West Water support projects that take care of nature and the environment for the benefit of community well being. They look for opportunities for people to learn and develop and projects that bring people together and keep them strong. We are thrilled that they recognised all these qualities in our funding bid and the incredible enthusiasm of our small dedicated team. The Trustees would like to thank South West Water for their generous donation and their personal support of our project. It means a great deal.

06/12/24

FREE FOOTBALL FOR LOCAL COMMUNITY

Project going very well. Our participants very happy and satisfied with the session.

24/11/24

The One Maidenhead Green Skills Project

Funding from Inspiring Maidenhead has enabled us to hold many workshops for the community, using donated materials. We have been teaching sustainable skills to people of all ages

31/10/24

Carbon literacy and climate action workshops for primary school students and families

We are immensely grateful to have received funding from the Inspiring East Village Community Fund to deliver climate action workshops in and around the Stratford area from now until the summer of 2025. We will be starting in November and look forward to posting more updates in due course. Thank you for your support!

08/10/24

Volunteering gardening programme on Newington Green, Islington, London

Our summer celebration lunch, lots of yummy food after all that hard work!

23/08/24

Sensory Equipment for Children's Respite Home

The amazing funds from The Sir Robert McAlpine went towards the equipment needed that enhances the sensory support that our children benefit from greatly. The grant not only helped the estimated 20 children from Lily’s Place but due to an opportunity to move to a bigger site, the 964 children on our Short Breaks service also have access to the sensory equipment.

24/07/24

Gain the Edge

Our final update is an example of one of the positive stories that came out of the funding. In the words of the young person. I used to struggle a lot with my anger, Epic taught me ways to calm down, like imagining a box for my angry thoughts and throwing it away—I still use that technique today. Epic gave me a sense of commitment and responsibility, keeping me off the streets and away from trouble. Epic inspired me to become better and helped me through my apprenticeship, helping me with college work and making me a better coach. Epic is a place where young people feel safe, can be themselves, and learn new sports. It’s given me the chance to inspire others like I was inspired.

09/07/24

Milestone Programme

At the time of writing, Fat Macy’s has now provided 7,018.29 hours of work experience since 2016. For the first 7 years of the Milestone Programme, those hours were provided solely by our sister company, Fat Macy’s Ltd. However, at the end of 2023, Fat Macy’s Foundation strategically started to create partnerships with external hospitality companies to meet the growing demand for our services. Launching the partnerships with Lexington and GS Fuel are hopefully the first of many. Increasing the Milestone Programme’s capacity to train people is critical to ensuring it can provide a pathway out of temporary accommodation for our beneficiaries. These partnerships have increased our training capacity by 50%. Trainees can now complete the programme in 3 months, rather in 6 months. Fat Macy’s will continue to seek out new partnerships to create swift and sustainable pathways out of temporary accommodation for our trainees.

03/07/24

Emergency Homeless Support

Homeless shelter packs has been a life saver for so many! Our Outreach Worker Carla said "I support a lot of people who are on the waiting list for accommodation with Calderwood. Having these packs available has meant that they at least have somewhere dry to sleep during our bad weather. If we didn't have this vital service available, I don't know what they would do. Many people are grateful for the support, and it has kept them safe until further support became available. Our client said " I was waiting for temporary accommodation and sleeping in my car. Calderwood provided me with a winter pack. This allowed me to live outside of my car. I was also able to set up my tent at proper parks where I could get showered. On one of the days when I was sleeping in a forest, I went to get some food from the local town. When I came back later that day someone one had burnt down my tent. I've never felt so depressed. I got the local library to call Calderwood for me and explained the situation. They again provided me with another winter pack. Honestly, they helped me at the worst time of my life. I've now got accommodation, but without the help I don't where I would have been. "

20/05/24

Food For Aldgate

Volunteers at the project's 4th Anniversary party!

09/04/24

Positive Activities for Homeless Young People

We've had fabulous engagement from our young people in our cookery, football, music and social club sessions with support from Sir Robert McAlpine. It's so important for young people whose lives have been disrupted by homelessness to build positive social connections and rebuild their self-confidence. For many young people we work with these sessions are a real source of hope and inspiration. They are also a great place for young people to open up about the challenges they're facing in a safe, trusting and non-judgemental environment. Thank you for supporting us!

22/03/24

Dings Community Association

We recently enjoyed a trip to SS Great Britain where children and parents learnt about the history of the ship, experienced passenger life and learnt about Brunel the famous Bristol inventor. The children were able to dress up as passengers, take part in arts and craft activities and had loads of fun! They were delighted to be part of a trip away from home and club and soaked up everything with excitement and enthusiasm! We have since made a large group thank you card for the tour guide and re-created some of the arts and crafts ideas we learnt during our regular weekly sessions. The sun is out (almost!) and the evenings a bit lighter so the children are making lots of use of the outside space with football, skipping, chalks etc.

23/02/24

Training unemployed in gardening and planting skills

We started our gardening sessions earlier this month. Bringing colour and life to empty planters outside our offices! Bootstrap tenants volunteered alongside young people from a local college to remove weeds and plant up new shrubs and bedding plants. Thank you Sir Robert McAlpine for supporting us to improve the aesthetics of Ashwin Street, Dalston!

19/02/24

Let's Create for Mental Health

A recent workshop was the creation of ceramic pots in the shape of fruits, with the aim of developing Members’ skills in ceramics - handbuilding, smoothing, glazing and painting. This project was a great success - with Members working alongside each other to build a range of high quality ceramic pots. Developing transferrable skills e.g. working to a brief, following instruction, helping each other, that are setting our Members up for success beyond the studio. Seeing high quality results resulting from practice and patience teaches our Members that mistakes are a part of the process, building resilience that they are applying to other parts of their lives. "I didn’t have any confidence in my work at the start. But I’ve learnt that it doesn’t have to be perfect, and that’s made me feel freer to take part and express myself creatively. Coming here has helped me so much with my agoraphobia. At first I couldn’t walk in by myself and a staff member would have to meet me down the road. But today was the first day I managed to walk in by myself and it felt great. I feel so much more confident thanks to the patient and encouraging staff here."

07/02/24

Wellbeing Workshops to Engage NEETs

We are very grateful for the funding we received at the end of November 2023, which will allow us to fund wellbeing workshops for 20 x young people (YP) aged 16-24 who join our NEETS Wellbeing Programme. These sessions will be run by the Positive Psychologist, who we have worked with for many years. Her workshops are designed to create: Greater psychological flexibility; Healthier relationship; Heightened resilience; Enhanced wellbeing; Greater self-awareness; Increased emotional agility;  Enhanced strength-use; Deeper engagement at work; Enhanced performance. Some positive feedback we have received from these sessions include: 'The positive and open-minded atmosphere feels like you're connecting with everyone in the sessions', 'the atmosphere is lovely and the ideas shared are so eye-opening' a very thoughtful and engaging experience', and ' it was very helpful just to have a safe environment consisting of like-minded people to talk with about mental health'. This grant will allow us to continue providing vital wellbeing and mental health support in Shropshire/T&W, allowing YP to gain the soft skills, confidence and self belief to enter employment, self-employment and training.

25/10/23

The Happiness Project

We have been collaborating with local support groups that lead performing arts classes / mental health and wellbeing sessions and continued to create a safe an open space for community members from all different groups to come together and let their hair down, have fun, laugh and be happy! This is just one example of some of the sessions that we have run. We did a mood board session at the beginning of the course and again at the end and compared the moods created by some of the attendees and could visually see from their creations that there had been an improvement in their mood since starting the course and finishing! It has been wonderful to be able to collaborate and integrate different members of the community together all on the same mission - to spread a little bit more love and happiness.

18/09/23

Cornerstone Volunteering Skills Programme

We are so delighted and grateful to have received funding from New Maker Yards Community Fund 2023 for our Volunteering Skills Programme. This grant will be instrumental in the production of this programme, for which we already have a group of volunteers who are ready and excited to get started learning new skills and working towards qualifications to help get them into employment. Without this funding we would not be able to provide this support, so thank you again to New Makers Yard for choosing us.

27/03/23

Who's behind the camera? - many successful athletes and pundits in 2012 have BAME backgrounds in stark contrast to so few working in Sports Media...but why?

In the week leading up to the half term holiday students aged 15 from Newham local schools, as part of their work experience, took part in a social media course that taught them how to prepare scripts, film, edit and present on social media to learn about what jobs exist ‘behind the camera’. They used these skills to become a reporting team to capture sporting activity at the London Youth Games events taking place in the Redbridge Sports Centre:

12/01/23

YouMeUs @ The Lab E20

Since hearing that we had secured the grant through Action Funder for our ReGo events at the Lab E20, we have already scheduled the next 3 sessions of the ReGo F0rum that we piloted in the tail end of 2022 (see photo). The next F0Rum events will be taking place at the Lab E20 on 9th February, 6th April and 8th June - from 6pm - 8pm. All F0rum events are free to attend and we are working closely with GetLiving (the landlord) and Raeburn (fashion brand) to further develop and promote the sessions more widely for the local community. F0rum is organised by young people engaged in our Fashion Activism Project ReGo and provides opportunities for other young creatives to come together in an intimate space to showcase their work and to provide constructive criticism, support and further opportunities to collaborate with each other - moving them towards successful careers in their chosen field. We are now working with our core group of young creatives to finalise plans for further events including some acoustic music sessions, Ubuntu Wisdom Circle coaching conversations, and more for local young people and the wider community. Watch This Space...

20/04/22

SEBENE PROJECT

Young people are often bored during the holidays and due to poverty and economic, their parents are not able to afford various activities. We took some young people Rock climbing, which was the first for most of them to keep them active during the half term.

Birmingham

Tailored Mentoring & Employment Support for Disadvantaged Young People

London

Cultivating Connections

Manchester

Easy access to both emotional and practical support for people in Manchester approaching mental health crisis.

Worthing

Disability Football