Amazing stories

Voluntary Action Rotherham have discovered that many of you have great stories to tell of the good work your staff and volunteers are doing.

To view the stories please click on the links below.

A Mind Apart Theatre Company - added 06.08.08
Lowedge Community & Safety Forum - added 06.08.08
North Barnsley Partnership - added 06.08.08
Dial Doncaster - added 06.08.08

Have you got a good story to tell?
Email admin@varotherham.org.uk or call 01709 829821

A Mind Apart Theatre Company is a community based company working with children, young people and adults. Jodie Marshall who runs the group aims to help people of all ages in the areas of confidence, self-discipline and life skills through training them in performing arts. In this way, Jodie hopes to equip them with skills that are important both on and off stage.

The company also runs weekly after school theatre classes. The groups, made up of children from a mixture of backgrounds, help them to develop a range of abilities including communication, confidence and presentation skills through the medium of drama.

Jodie stated that:

‘During the recent “transition workshops” at Wisewood Community Primary School, we saw that theatre had a calming effect on a couple of autistic children in the group. This observation is now enabling us to take our work further and develop additional strategies to give children and young people who may be on the outskirts of a group, an opportunity to develop their confidence’.

As the company continues to grow and take shape Jodie and her team are looking to further develop their work in after school theatre classes, by offering them to a wider variety of communities across Sheffield. They are also looking to offer more targeted programmes and courses to schools and college within South Yorkshire.

To find out more check out the website at: www.amindapart-theatre.org or give Jodie a call on: 07946 630 954

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Lowedges Community & Safety Forum

Background - Kathleen Miller had been unable to work since 1991 due to ill health. She suffers from asthma and oedema which severely restricts her mobility. She felt isolated while just sitting at home all day.

Kath’s friend had mentioned that she went to the Agewell group held at Lowedges Community Wing. Kath went along with her in September 2006 and saw advertisements for Yoga and Tai Chi courses which she enrolled in. Five months later she joined the Health Walks group and enrolled on a variety of short courses in ICT Culminating in a formal typing qualification.

Amazing achievements - Through attending groups and classes at Lowedges Community Wing, Kath became involved in organising the Agewell group- from leading the Yoga and Tai Chi groups to arranging room hire, booking tutors and maintaining finance records.

Kath’s mobility has greatly improved due to the exercise classes, so now she can be more active when looking after her granddaughter – even taking her out on trips. With those skills developed on the IT courses, Kath is now maintaining the accounts for the Yoga and Tai Chi groups, typing funding applications and producing letters and marketing flyers. She can even help her granddaughter with her homework!

Kath is kept so busy that she is hardly ever at home anymore and no longer feels isolated. She has a greater awareness of what is going on in the community and has many more friends.

Looking ahead - The Lowedges Community & Safety Forum runs a wide range of groups within the local community from exercise classes to educational courses. The Forum aims to make their classes as accessible as possible. Their hope is to continue working at the heart of the community, offering more opportunities to people in need and seeing many more inspiring stories such as Kath’s.

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North Barnsley Partnership (NBP) was established in 2002 to devise and deliver an Integrated Development Plan to contribute to the economic regeneration of an area in the north of Barnsley centred on Royston and Carlton.

Working closely with a number of community groups, as well as organisations in both the public and private sectors, NBP has sought to ensure that the needs of the community are met by the projects it is involved in. From developing ideas for meeting these needs and finding funding for the projects, through to supervising their delivery and ensuring their successful completion, NBP is involved in every stage of the development of their projects.

Funded by the Objective 1 European Regional Development Fund and Yorkshire Forward Single Pot monies, together with other public and private sector match funding, NBP has invested in excess of £10 million in north Barnsley. NBP’s largest current projects involve the creation of nearly 40,000ft²of office accommodation and workshop units at Wharncliffe Business Park in Carlton and a new Lifelong Learning Centre in Royston, both of which are due to open in September 2008.

‘Though only a small organisation, currently employing just three full-time staff, NBP has achieved a great deal for the benefit of the communities it serves’ says Chief Executive Colin Mace.

NBP has reaped the benefits of working with all three sectors to deliver projects that make a real contribution to the regeneration of north Barnsley. The Partnership's staff and board of directors can be rightfully proud of the legacy they will leave behind them.

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DIAL Doncaster has been providing an information, advice and guidance service to disabled and seriously ill people, as well as their carers, families and health workers in the Doncaster area for 25 years. DIAL Doncaster aims to raise awareness of disability issues in order to influence change, as well as to empower and enable people with disabilities to live more enriched and independent lives.

Volunteers from DIAL Doncaster often go into local primary schools to raise young children’s awareness of disability. To support these ventures DIAL Doncaster runs two charity shops, even collecting donations from people’s houses.

A number of DIAL Doncaster’s excellent volunteers have personally had their lives affected by disability or serious illness. It is the ability of those volunteers to empathise with others in similar situations that motivates many of them to volunteer. Peter volunteers as a receptionist at DIAL Doncaster, and has suffered from six strokes. He heard about the charity when they visited the school where his wife works, and was keen to get involved. He enjoys the opportunity to help others with disabilities and thinks it is important to teach children about the issues surrounding disability.

The charity also provides disability training to businesses and community groups in the area. With all this great work going on, DIAL Doncaster can look forward to the next 25 years!

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