The Arleston Craft group celebrates its first birthday this month, the group which was set up by volunteer Amanda Dunn in 2018 aimed for its members to come together to socialise, build confidence, learn a new craft, share skills and support positive emotional wellbeing.

Amanda set the group up to enable members of the community to come together on a regular basis to learn or refine a new craft/skill with likeminded members in a safe and nurturing environment. The Arleston Community Centre was identified as a perfect venue for this and the centre has gone on to fully support the group’s development.

Amanda shared that she has been successful in applying for grants securing funding from her local councillor, locality board and Awards for all. The group also actively support fundraising events at the community centre.

Through Amanda’s promotion of the group they now have 21 registered members with 9-10 regularly attending each week which means the group is now financially sustainable. The group are always looking for new members to join them and have supported many of its members to grow in confidence often volunteering to take a leading role in the group’s activity.

The group shared the following when asked: what the group means to them?

“I have developed new friendships which now extend beyond the group and into the community”

“I really enjoy coming as there is a good mix of age ranges and we all get on”

“Within the group I now feel confident enough to share my skills and craft ideas”

“The group gives me something to look forward to and enjoy some ME time”

“Even if I’m unable to do the crafts due to my limited mobility in my hands I always feel welcomed by Amanda and the rest of the group”

“I look forward to the group every week as I have a laugh and can be myself (Not Tommy’s grandma and carer) my confidence is improving”

“Prior to coming to the group I used to have panic attacks and struggled to sleep. Now my mental health, confidence and wellbeing has improved. I go out more and my panic attacks have reduced”

“I enjoy the social aspect of the group and my 3 daughters love seeing what I have made each week, we access the centre more now as a family”

“I have benefited from the social aspect of the group and it’s really interesting to learn new crafts”.

Amanda feels that the group offers something special to members of the community and we feel the community are lucky to have Amanda.

Grow and Share Project at Brookside Community Garden, Windmill Primary School

 A community project that offers a chance for volunteers to be involved in something which is good for themselves and the community.

 Grow and Share project brings together different cultures and generations, improving individual and community confidence and bridging the divide between groups. Project was supported by ReAssure volunteers last year and this year from young volunteers from Telford College.

 The Community Garden provides open space, a place to grow organic food, helps with wellbeing for anyone taking part, especially for people with mental and physical disabilities, as well as creating opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy and education, community gardens are an immensely valuable resource to neighbourhoods across the country. One excellent aspect of this project is that yes many of the volunteers that work on the project take some of the vegetables and fruit at the end of the day home, a lot of the produce go into the community fridge to help others more in need due to the problems they find themselves in.

 Another success of this project due to the hard work of the local and ReAsure volunteers is that all the school’s raised beds were cleaned out ready for planting, which the school children are really making good use of now. They have successfully grown onions, beans, runner beans and a lot more. This teaches children the reality of where and how their food comes from and that it is seasonal.

Brookside Grow and Share project has been blessed with many excellent volunteers most of which have gone onto do other similar environment projects across Telford or in the case of two this year into employment.

A big Thank you to all the volunteers who have made this a great project.

 The MyFAM Project relies on our team of over 20 volunteers (also known as MyFAM-ily). They give up their own time to help run youth clubs and activities in Telford for all ages and abilities, and are amazing assets to the Telford Community!

 Due to the nature of their role, they are asked to attend training in different disabilities, child behaviour, Paediatric First Aid and so much more... They all do this with so much enthusiasm and always with a friendly smile on their face.

 The volunteers are sometimes the first friendly familiar face that a child can see after a bad day at school and they really do make a difference too many children’s lives by offering support and understanding combined with a lot of fun. 

We welcome volunteers from the age of 17 and over and provide full DBS checks, ongoing training and also a great support network.

We have highly rewarding volunteer roles available, and if you would be interested in working with children of all abilities please email us: info@themyfamproject.co.uk

 A BIG thank you to you all for everything you do.