Fabulous prizes

Thanks to a donation from Safer Communities CIC and free use of Newcastle Community Fire Station the Good Afternoon Art Club has been able to provide a variety of activities for all who attend.
Below are some pictures of their recent fire craft session. The attendees made fire wreaths with our top ten safety messages on. For more information on fire safety in the home please follow this link - http://www.staffordshirefire.gov.uk/HomeSafety.asp

A project funded by Safer Communities CIC, in partnership with Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and Sporting Communities CIC, has helped hundreds of school children learn important safety lessons.

In September 2016 and January 2017 a series of Safe+Sound sessions were held at Hanley Community Fire Station and were attended by 1,989 children from 64 schools.

The scheme also saw five Safe+Sound outreach sessions delivered using a mobile classroom in Biddulph, Cheadle, Leek, Middleport and Kidsgrove.

Safe+Sound is an interactive educational programme designed to give children access to important safety information. The educational sessions were organised by Sporting Communities CIC and featured inputs from SFRS, Changes, Staffordshire Police, Public Health England, RNLI, the Canal and River Trust, Sporting Communities and National Health Service.

Thanks to funding from Safer Communities CIC, Sporting Communities were commissioned to co-ordinate and evaluate the sessions to develop a project manual which can be used in future delivery of Safe+Sound.

The mobile sessions involved partners including Staffordshire Police, Staffordshire County Council, community organisers and Staffordshire University, who delivered key messages on fire safety, anti-social behaviour, wellbeing, playing safely, drugs and alcohol and stranger danger.

The initiative also ran alongside the well-known SPACE scheme in the Staffordshire Moorlands (funded by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner).

Kate Staples, Safer Communities CIC Manager, said: “We’re delighted that Sporting Communities CIC were able to organise and deliver Safe+Sound to children in Stoke-on-Trent and the Staffordshire Moorlands.

“Evaluation has shown that the kids and teachers felt the sessions were a really valuable learning tool and we hope that other areas will be able to benefit from this project in future.

Good Afternoon is a community group, established to provide a safe and stimulating environment for adults with learning disabilities, together with their carers. No-one in the group is paid to provide this service, and it is run by volunteers giving their time freely for the sessions.
Sessions at the Community Rooms, Newcastle Fire Station are based around Art and Craft activities with the emphasis on using recycled materials.

Lynne Arnold who leads the group said, “Mandy Chapman, Pete Hall and the Station Manager, Mark Walchester, have all supported us and integrated with us. Our group comprises adults with learning difficulties so this integration is really important to us, as is the continuity of the Tuesday and Thursday sessions, at the set time of 12.30 to 3.30. For autistic people this stability is vital. We have found the Fire Station is ideal for our purposes, with members and their carers using arts and crafts to create a fun social interaction. If we didn’t have access to the community room, then the group wouldn’t happen; we couldn’t afford to run the group as well as paying for a room.”

We are pleased to support them by donating £500 worth of art materials to help them continue the wonderful work they are doing.

If you and your group would like to submit a funding request then please follow the link below;

Click Here to get involved

We are in the process of creating a brand new coffee station that will run from Hanley Fire Station every Wednesday. The aim of this is to bring members of the community into the fire station for a hot drink and a chat!

Coffee Station will be supported by friendly staff and volunteers from Safer Communities and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service who give a warm welcome to all members of the community who wish to join us!

Coffee Station launches on 11th November 2015 10:00hrs – 16:00hrs so please feel free to drop in at any time, make sure to print out the leaflet above to get your first coffee for free!

On 6th October 2015, Busy Minds celebrated their 5th anniversary at Bilbrook House, Codsall. This was a spectacular event, which included refreshments, dancing and lunch! It was great to see such a successful group celebrating five years of friendship, happiness and support.

The Busy Minds group has been running since the summer of 2010 when Kate Staples joined forces with Sonja Oatley and Madeline Cheadle to run as 12 week Health and Wellbeing Course. At the end of the course the ten older people decided they wanted to carry on meeting so they could socialise, learn about fire safety, play games and have a cup of tea.

Now the group meet every Tuesday from 11am to 1pm at Bilbrook House, behind Codsall Community Fire Station on Carter Lane, Bilbrook. Over 55 older people attend and as well as having something local to go to every week they look after each other through out the week as well. A great example of how communities can support each other.

Hi,

I thought it would be great to provide you with an update on the first project meeting took place for the Life Skills Centre. It was attended well by partner organizations form across Staffordshire including those from the voluntary sector, health sector and emergency services.

We received a fantastic presentation from Donna Potts from Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service on their Centre called Skill Zone. It was great to listen to her advice and see examples of a centre that is open and running. They have a great website which really puts into context what the resource is intended to be like; http://skillzone.glosfire.gov.uk/. Donna was then followed by Mark Shone from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service who presented on their development which is approximately 18 months ahead of us in Staffordshire.

So what's next? All partners who attended the meeting have been asked to fill in a matrix which will help inform Entrust (the appointed builders) and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue about organizations objectives which will help shape the first stages of the building design. Safer Communities CIC has also appointed a Business Development Manger (more info to follow) who will start to look at how the center will run and develop ideas for income streams and projects.

Early days - but all looking very exciting! Keep coming back for more hot off the press updates ....

Kate Staples