Supporting Voluntary and Community Action
We are a small group of active carers and we are nominating Bristol Black Carers for this award because not only is the organisation unique and culturally supportive it also aims to reduce carers isolation and encourage carers to have a voice at local and policy development level. Bristol Black Carers have helped us tremendously throughout the years through their on-going advice, guidance and continual support. Quotes from carers ‘I am HIV positive with continual health problems, I care for my severely disabled adult son with autism, ADHD, nightly sleep problems and severe learning difficulties Bristol Black Carers has continued to help me they understand my cultural, mental and physical support needs’ (Mrs B M- from Easton).
‘The organisation goes out of its way to support carers, whether that’s with information, advice, trips, activities, events or just listening.’
We believe they should be recognised for their robust service, dedication, continual commitment to carers in the community.
Every Step Counts provides supported, short, accessible and free walking opportunities to people who are currently physically inactive or who have long-term health conditions. Specifically it creates bespoke walking groups and provides trained walk leaders so that many traditional barriers to walking are removed. The health and happiness benefits of walking are well evidenced, in addition, every step counts groups support walkers to: make new friends and have a good time; discover their local area and find new green spaces; see how walking can fit easily into their daily routine; be part of the community and learn independent living skills; engage in volunteering opportunities; and vitally, find peer support. In the first 6 months, the project establishes 12 walking groups in Bristol, welcomed 123 walkers, and created over 100 mapped and risk assessed routes across the city (available to the public for free download), The team consists of 25 wonderful volunteers.
The Golden Canary Project was an arts based project that finished in April 2014. It brought together a group of isolated Chinese elders to help them remain active – physically and mentally – by getting them to learn new skills and supporting each other in a peer group. The activities were designed using feedback from previous events, so that they were relevant and of interest to the attendees, this included such things as singing, ballroom dancing, various arts techniques and poetry/story writing. We introduced physical games to improve their hand and eye coordination and gentle exercises such as Tai Chi to help keep them limber. There were also informational talks that covered subjects such as healthy eating and avoiding slips and trips. We are currently seeking funding to enable the work of this project to continue.
GoodGym Bristol is a voluntary group that brings health and happiness to Bristol! GoodGym Bristol organises group runs that bring a group of runners to a community project, takes part in some physical volunteering and then runs home! GoodGym also pairs up runners with isolated older people in Bristol. This is a great way to be active, healthy and to help other people at once! A great example is a recent run to an allotment in Netham. GoodGym ran to the allotment to help an elderly allotment holder move a shed. This was a task that the lady had been trying to get done for over a year. GoodGym runners moved the shed and helped with other physical tasks. This will allow the lady to keep gardening and active, and made her very happy and grateful. The runners were also very happy to have helped! This is one small example of the good that GoodGym brings.
Over the last 14 years Lifeskills has been providing safety and independent living training in a truly unique and innovative fashion. The Centre is built as a realistic, interactive village which provides training to children, older people, people with learning difficulties and those working with children under 5. It allows groups to actually experience risky situations in a safe environment and learn how to deal with them. Its aim is to promote independence in a way that is exciting and memorable. The Centre provides a service that is not replicated anywhere else in the area and is always focused on helping those who are most in need.
Lifeskills has educated over 140,000 people and a team of over 80 volunteers all of whom state just how much they enjoy and gain from the experience. It is hugely popular in the local community and has received numerous letters from children detailing how their Lifeskills training has helped in an emergency situation.
Singing together is a fantastic way to energize and refresh yourself, lift your spirits and reduce your stress levels. It also has proven benefits for those with respiratory, memory and circulatory problems. We have a great time singing. It is free, as we don't want people to stay away due to cost. Donations are welcome, and the group is so well supported that it pretty much pays its way. Some people turn up with their support worker, and even people who are not great singers are made welcome. We recently put on a (free) concert for friends and family that was a great success and encouraged more people to join.
The work that the GBCP undertakes helps support the positive development of the BS3 post-code area of south Bristol; it is an effective and impactful group that I feel needs to be recognised. Develops and supports groups to look after green spaces, improves the physical environment so that it is both easier and pleasant to walk around the area, secures funding, supports community groups and charities plus others, won the Mary Portas grant and developed a business improvement district to sustain that work and much, much more.....
The Rainbow Centre for Children is a great place to go if your life has been turned upside down been by bereavement or life threatening illness. It provides art and music therapy, child psychotherapy, counselling and massage totally free. It’s unique in the area as it offers therapeutic support to young children as well as to their siblings and parents/carers. The therapists have a wealth of professional expertise and experience with children. They help children to express their grief and turmoil through arts therapies and enable families to rebuild their lives.
The Centre is based in a large Victorian house in a residential road and provides a welcoming, peaceful and homely space to go when you’re in the depths of despair and grief. In times of severe trauma the Centre provides a haven of support and healing. This truly is a significant asset to any community.
A friend and I wanted to start a local walking group to help both the physical and mental health of local people, reduce isolation and increase confidence. Walk for Health Bristol (WfHB) arranged training and insurance and gave us a great deal of support in starting the St George Strollers, which 3 years later is still going strong. Walk for Health Bristol (WfHB) continues to support us with publicity, training, insurance, helpful suggestions, keeping us in the loop at what is happening at both the Bristol and national levels of the Walking for Health organisation and is an excellent point of contact for any advice that we need. The St George Strollers, now have 7 volunteer walk leaders running 2 walks a month attracting anything up to 36 walkers at a time. We are just 1 of at least 35 groups supported by WfHB. There are over 70 active volunteers supporting those groups.
Warming Bristol Communities was a three-year project which aimed to improve the lives of people from the black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities in Bristol living in cold, damp homes, struggling to pay energy bills or at risk of falling into debt with energy suppliers.
Most of the 16,000 Bristolians of Somali origin are relative newcomers to the UK, many being refugees. Yusuf Salah, a volunteer on the Warming Bristol Communities project, who is originally from Somalia, supported more than 500 Black and Minority Ethnic community members with fuel poverty advice through casework and home visits. He helped households in the most deprived communities - in Easton, Lawrence Hill, St Paul's and elsewhere. "Without his language skills the majority of our Somali clients could only understand the most simplistic advice or would not be able to access our service at all,” explains CSE’s Kate Thomas. Following the project’s success, Yusuf has gone on to be employed by CSE as an Energy Advisor, where he is a huge asset in helping Somali-speaking people to get advice on how to keep warm, pay their energy bills and save money www.cse.org.uk/wbc
The Creative Challenge group offers free, informal art and craft workshops once a month for disabled adults and anyone identifying as having a mental health need in Bristol. The project is a collaboration between WECIL and Art + Power. With two volunteers teaching new craft techniques, volunteers are also on hand to support attendees - whether this is helping with papier-mâché, making cups of tea or just sitting with someone who would like to have a chat.
They have created a safe and welcoming space where disabled adults, regardless of impairment, can feel part of a group and make new friends whilst exploring their artistic talents. Expressing emotions through art is hugely beneficial to people’s wellbeing, impacting on their mental health by reducing anxiety and tension, it also reduces the sense of isolation that disabled and older people may often feel.
Sadly, Julie one of the lead volunteers has unexpectedly passed away, she put an enormous amount of work into planning and developing sessions - the group will miss her greatly.
Wise have been leading the campaign against Female Genital Mutilation. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a form of abuse that can have significant long term effects on children and young women. They organised a series of activities to raise awareness (particularly target African Communities in Bristol) of the need to protect girls from female genital mutilation (FGM).
In 2013 they worked in partnership with organisations such as FORWARD, Khombosillah, Charlotte Keel and Somali Forum and Young Somali Girls to organise a Conference in Easton which brought together the wider community to discuss the role of Education in comating FGM - these Somali young girls produced a toolkit which has been disemminated in Schools. More crucially WISE lead the discussions on the history of FGM, the health impact on victims of FGM and the role of Father's in combating and eliminating FGM. AVF worked alongside them and felt this was quite instrumental in promoting a happy and healthy Bristol.
This award will be decided by public vote - to cast your vote click here
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