**Spennymoor Youth and Community Association Annual Report / Annual Accounts January 2020 – December 2020** Looking back over the last 12 months with the people, partners and volunteers who have been part of our activities and services, this report highlights some of the key achievements, challenges and progress made. This year, our aims have been: - To grow our programme of activities for children, young people, adults and older people; - To increase involvement from more volunteers; - And to meet the unexpected challenges of COVID and COVID restrictions. ## 1) Activities and the people who have benefited from the project We have been able to support 1,564 people - 529 children up to the age of 10 years; - 78 young people aged 11 to 17 years; - 424 adults - 60 adults aged 50 years and over - 443 people through intergenerational and family activities - 30 residents regularly volunteering as part of our community activities 1 |Target group|Activity|Individual
beneficiaries|Activity| |---|---|---|---| |Children 0-10|Kalma Baby|10 babies, 20
toddlers and
parents/grandparents|Fortnightly Baby, toddler and junior
yoga (6 weeks to 12 years). Physical and
mental development, confidence
building, relaxation and mindfulness.
Social interaction and improved
wellbeing for parents and grandparents.| ||Start Sporty (2.5-
5years)|9 children and
parents/grandparents|Weekly sessions for children 2.5-3.5
years. Pre school introduction to multi-
sports and development designed to get
children school ready using the Youth
Physical Development Model.| ||Hartbeeps|30 babies, 30 children
and
parents/grandparents|Weekly multi-sensory parent and child
teaching through music classes for pre-
school and nursery age children; new
born,babyand toddler sessions.| ||Little Movers|12 babies, 10 children
and
parents/grandparents|Twice weekly parent and child fun,
healthy activity dance to improve
confidence, self-esteem, movement
skills, growth and development for
babies and toddlers.| ||Mini Moors football|25 children and
parents/grandparents|Weekly Sunday football skill sessions for
2-6 years with Spennymoor Youth FC.
Promoting social skills and fundamental
movement development.| ||Baby Ballers|14 children|Weekly Friday football skill sessions for
3-4 years with MD Physical Education &
Coaching.| ||Mini Dribblers|14 children|Weekly Friday football skill sessions for
5-7years.| ||Juniors|20 children|Weekly term time youth session for
children aged 8-10 years offering peer-
led arts, crafts, play and food. Improving
confidence and social skills alongside
youth worker mentoringand support.| ||Inters|20 children|Traditional centre-based youth sessions.
Weekly for children aged 10-12 years,
designed to boost confidence and self-
esteem withyouth worker support.| ||Learning Together|8 young people|Weekly learning catch up sessions at
Tudhoe and Spennymoor delivered by
tutors with youth worker support. For
children aged 5-11 years with a focus on
learning skills, maths, English and
wellbeing.| ||Steelpan sessions|26 young people|Weekly lunch club sessions for North
Park Primarystudents designed to build| 2 ||||confidence and teamwork through
music and learning.| |---|---|---|---| ||Meditation|20 young people|Weekly session with North Park Primary
students promoting mindfulness and
wellbeing.| |Young People
11-17|Chillax|14 children|Public Health funded mental wellbeing
group for young people aged 11 years
plus offering youth work team
mentoring, support and social activities
including arts and crafts with Daisy Arts
andpeer-led food andgames.| ||Duke of Edinburgh
Award and Spenny
Reflections|6 young people and 4
adults|Accredited Duke of Edinburgh Award
programme for young people aged 13
years plus. Group members took part in
our Heritage Lottery funded Spenny
Reflectionsproject duringtheyear.| ||RushHour|14 young people|Weekly youth sessions designed to
engage harder to reach young people
aged 11 years plus through street games
and sport via sports coach and our
youth work team. With food provided,
the sessions promote physical and
mental wellbeing.| |Adults|Adult Learning|8 adults|Adult learning delivered through
Durham County Council. Formal learning
offering literacy and numeracy
qualifications throughout the year as
COVID restrictions have allowed.| ||Slimming World|50 adults|Weekly sessions from both centres
supporting group members to eat
healthily, lose weight and live more
active lifestyles. Sessions provide social
contact, motivation and confidence
buildingsupport.| ||Walk Durham|5 adults|Weekly walking group led by Centre
friend Gary Lane as part of Durham
County Council’s walking group
network. The group is attended by over
50s, tackling social isolation and
improving mental and physical
wellbeing.| ||Manhealth|13 adults|Weekly sessions for men with lived
mental health experience, building
confidence to talk openly about mental
health and ways to manage and
improve wellbeing.| ||Survive and Thrive|12 adults|A support group for residents with lived
mental health experience delivered by
local authorityrecoveryworkers with| 3 ||||weekly sessions offering 1:1 mentoring,
counselling and group activities to
tackle social isolation, improve
confidence and mental wellbeing. The
group has 12 regular attendees with ten
members aged 50yearsplus.| |---|---|---|---| ||Growing Together
Community
Allotment|6 adults|A volunteer-led community garden for
Spennymoor and Tudhoe allowing
residents to grow together. Sponsored
by GAS Foundation, produce grown is
used by residents and directed towards
local people in need and our food
projects.| ||Hearts & Minds|5 adults|A weekly volunteer-led support group
for women who have survived domestic
abuse. Support is given to the group’s
organiser byThe Cornforth Partnership.| ||You’re not alone,
pick up the phone|311 adults and
families|Volunteer support helpline for residents
living in the Spennymoor area affected
by COVID restrictions including
emergency parcels delivered to help
people stay safe and stay at home
duringlockdown and isolation.| |Over 50s|The Community
Takeaway|60 adults|Twice weekly hot nutritious meals
cooked on site by our Community
Takeaway Team and delivered directly
to residents affected byCOVID isolation.| |Intergenerational
and family
activities|Cooking Together|101 young people
and
parents/grandparents|Recipe bags and holiday hunger food
delivered to Spennymoor area families
encouraging child-led family cooking
with online demonstration and snack
bags included.| ||Carve a pumpkin
and Light Up
Spennymoor|73 young people and
parents/grandparents|290 households also took part in the
Spennymoor area pumpkin trail and
Christmas lantern trail.| ||Doorstep Santa
visits|34 children and
parents|In place of traditional Christmas
activities during lockdown, the Centres
undertook doorstep Santa visits to
children and older residents living in
Spennymoor and Tudhoe.| ||School holiday free
meals|27 children|Making use of our community kitchen,
volunteers prepared school holiday
meals targeted at children on free
school meals| 4 - 2) How we have involved people, partners and volunteers in developing and delivering our activities This year we have continued to involve local people and partners in developing and delivering a wider programme of activities from both community centres. The amazing community response to COVID encouraged a large group of residents to volunteer as part of our emergency parcel project and The Community Takeaway. Lockdown and furlough allowed younger residents, who would otherwise have had work commitments, to get involved as part of a community grass roots response to the pandemic as volunteer shoppers, packers and drivers. 2,300 parcels have been delivered so far helping adults and families stay at home and stay safe. Our other large project in response to COVID, The Community Takeaway, has created 5 local jobs and has delivered 2,966 hot meals to some of our most vulnerable and isolated residents in Spennymoor, Tudhoe and surrounding communities. Julie is one of our regular volunteers who now works from home as a procurement manager for a large international company. Having delivered emergency parcels on a weekly basis, is now an important part of The Community Takeaway Team, using her free time between work to deliver 5 meals and supporting staff as needed. We’ve also been supported by a 21 year old restaurant worker on furlough, local councillors and a nursery teaching assistant to name just a few of the people who have been regularly involved over the last year. The difference that all of our volunteers, management committee members, trustees and growing staff team make is fantastic and appreciated. Following an initial 6 month grant from the Government’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund distributed by the National Lottery Community Fund a further 12 months of funding has been secured from Spennymoor Area Action Partnership which will commence April 2021. Residents supported have included elderly people in their 80’s and 90’s without support, who wouldn’t otherwise cook for themselves, are not online and unable to shop due to disability, COVID isolation/shielding or other particular circumstances. We have also been able to help families isolating and shielding including those affected by COVID related redundancy or reduced hours and income. Typical of the feedback received in response to the work of the volunteers; **“I am extremely grateful to all who have helped. I am 80 years of age with a lung condition and this is the first time in my life that I have had any help and I am so grateful.”** ## 3) Working with the people we planned to 6 Over the last twelve months, we have continued to build on partnership working, at the same time as working with new partners to fund new activities which respond to local needs and what has proved successful to date. Funding secured in project year 2 includes: |**Organisation**|**Activity/project**|**Funding**
**secured**| |---|---|---| |Spennymoor Area
Action Partnership|Learning Together|£33,973| |Livin|School Holiday Activities 2020|£2,475| |Co-op Community
Fund
ASDA|Spennymoor building improvements|£1,118
£300| |Public Health|Chillax CREE and CREE plus|£4,000| |Resolve Care
County Durham
Community
Foundation|Emergency parcels and COVID helpline|£2,200
£3,000| |Employability Durham|Kitchen Assistant employability grant x 2|£4,000| |Spennymoor AAP /
Department of
Education Fun and
Food|Holiday Activities with Healthy Food|£2,784| |County Durham
Community
Foundation|SYACA hall curtains and new storage|£5,000| |National Lottery
CommunityFund|COVID support uplift|£9,671| |Spennymoor Town
Council|Tudhoe Community Centre signage|£330| |ABL Health|SYACA room storage|£500| |**Total: £154,852**||| 7 ## 4) Engaging with diverse groups of people We’ve been able to engage with a more diverse group of residents this year by offering a wider range of activities including more specialist services around metal health, care and support. The centre is now busy through the week and at weekends, we have a general offer for all ages; babies, toddlers, children, families, adults and older residents in addition to activities which meet particular needs such as holiday hunger, social isolation, learning disabilities, mental health, addiction recovery and domestic abuse. Over the last twelve months we have worked with a range of partners to fill the gap in our provision for babies and toddlers. Adding weekly sessions of Get Sporty, Little Movers and Hartbeeps to Kalma Baby, so that families can access sessions of dance, music and yoga. Start Sporty, Baby Ballers Mini Ballers, Mini Moors and Kicks with Premier Education, MD Physical Education & Coaching, Spennymoor Town Youth FC and Foundation of Light have added sport and physical development to our offer for toddlers, children and young people between both community venues. For children and young people, funding has been secured to sustain our core programme of youth sessions via our youth work team including, Monday Night Youth session, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, Chillax CREE group, Inters and Juniors ensuring we have good quality youth provision for primary age children up to teenagers. We have regular pop-up sessions during the school holidays including Summer Camp, Carve a Pumpkin and doorstep Santa visits to both families and older residents during lock down. 8 To help us engage a wider audience through the COVID restrictions, we delivered crafts, recipe bags and food to encourage intergenerational creativity and cooking in the home as part of tackling holiday hunger. Illustrating the people we are now reaching, one comment from a mother with two boys aged 6 and 11, one with autism and one who is non verbal told us, ## **“My boys helped make our Spaghetti lasagne. We added mince meat, garlic mushrooms, herb and spices. It was delicious. Thank you very much for our food and snack packs. They are very much appreciated.”** 5) Building improvements Grant funding matched by the National Lottery Community Fund has allowed us to continue improving both community venues and the facilities on offer. We have been able to create a new training space which will be used as part of our new 12 month Learning Together project designed to help children and adults catch up or upskill with learning and training activities. We have completed the decorating programme at the Centre using a decorator and materials supplied by Community Repaint. Hall curtains have been re-hung to improve sound proofing, new storage cupboards have been added and a container purchased to improve storage for groups and activities. 9 New tables, chairs and an interactive screen have all added to the quality and experience of centre users. - 6) Promoting the project Over the last 12 months more people are using the centre and the project has reached and helped others out in the community who are now aware of what we do and how can help. Spenny Reflections secured Heritage Lottery Funding to celebrate 50 years of Spennymmor Youth and Community Centre since its opening in 1969. With photographer Keith Bailey, some of the Centre’s young people were able to explore memories with older residents who had used the 10 building and lived in Spennymoor through the decades. An exhibition and film again helped promote the project to a wider audience. Doreen Ridley who took part in the project shares her memories via the link below: ## https://youtu.be/iXTV3m2pIPU We’ve continued to build our online presence, creating project specific facebook pages and promoting new Communities Together activities under #themes of: ## **#Growing Together** Our community garden is now producing food which we are directing towards residents and using as part of The Community Takeaway project. Great Annual Savings is sponsoring the garden and are funding a tool store, polytunnel and signage as well as looking to recruit more volunteers to help maintain and develop the garden further. ## **#Cooking Together** The Community Takeaway is providing hot nutritious meals to Spennymoor, Tudhoe and surrounding communities twice weekly. During lockdown periods, recipe bags have been delivered to families to encourage family cooking. Simple healthy recipes along with snacks and food have been delivered to 101 children and young people as part of tackling school holiday hunger. ## **#Eating Together** Emergency parcels to help residents stay at home and stay safe during the pandemic and food surplus distributed weekly to families in need via our Fareshare membership. Over the last 12 months we have identified an audience of largely older, isolated and vulnerable residents, providing them with emergency food parcels and then hot meals. In September we will launch our Community Café and make use of our community vehicle to bring some of these residents into the Centres to eat together and socialise. Our volunteers have also used the school holidays over the last year to get hot meals out to families. Targeted at children on free school meals, we’ve been able to get 65 meals out to children in Spennymoor and Tudhoe during the year. ## **#Learning Together** Funding for 12 months of learning activities and learning resources to help Spennymoor and Tudhoe area children (Key Stages 1 & 2) in particular, with learning catch. We are developing a programme in partnership with the Spennymoor cluster of schools and Tudhoe Colliery Primary School for extra-curricular activity. So far weekly Learning Together sessions promoting learning 11 skills, Maths and English as well as weekly Relax Kids sessions which looks at emotions and wellbeing are providing free access for families to local tutors. We have also continued our partnerships with Steelpan, Adult Learning and Learning Curve as well as new adult learning opportunities planned. - 7) The difference this is making We have provided a focus for partnership and community working. The response to the Covid pandemic has shown the difference the project can make when put to the test and the strength of our communities in rising to the challenge. At the same time continuing to keep the project on track, developing our programme of activities and establishing both venues at the heart of the communities they serve has been a real achievement. 12 Feedback from project users continues to be good, with residents reporting positive life changes; improved confidence and wellbeing (physical and mental) in response to the activities we are now able to deliver for all ages and our target groups. ## 8) Successes and what we are most proud of this year In a year that we could not have predicted, the COVID pandemic has shown our communities at their best, with residents coming together to help and protect others. We are most proud of being able to help co-ordinate this response, working with the Helping Spennymoor initiative and the Spennymoor Community Outreach volunteers. While our emergency parcel project and The Community Takeaway have been a big part of what we’ve achieved in year two, we are also proud to have been able to deliver a wider range of activities for adults and families as restrictions have allowed. 13 The centre is nearing full capacity with activities supporting all of our target groups; babies, toddlers, children, adults and older residents. Activities include dance, music, exercise, gardening, crafts, cooking, youth groups, mental health, domestic abuse & wellbeing support, sport, meditation, slimming groups and care and support services. In memory of John Charlton 14 Looking back over the last 12 months in photos 15 Management Committee Barbara Graham – Chairperosn Neil Foster – Secretary Wayne Gibson – Treasurer Committee Members: John Charlton Dianna Charlton Jim Graham Staff: Community Development Worker Michael Fishwick (National Lottery Community Fund) Children and Young People’s Workers – Spennymoor Chris Milner Claire Peat Katie Summerson Caretaker Val Richardson Community Take Away Staff (National Lottery / Government Funding) Pat Lawton – Cook Katya Edwards – Assistant Cook Stephen Cutler – Driver Special thanks must go to all the VOLUNTEERS who have supported the association over the past 12 months. Well done everyone. 16 21719 FAYMFKry iy I I￿¥￿ 'MTrK*xi JIrf% 'a ¥IMAih (Trth itt&(W¥L* Nirndry J L*12 154 (AI.A YIQX¥ lJwgi* AAP A4P IArt'.k¥4'fty¢*h¢rS.AMP &Y F.VRkW 19544 Its72 ArlYorfts¥¥.. 5421? 21￿& L54 D]￿ rFtrJiiAF.t*J !*> Vwl 17035 45iX? lJ:Y*cNYt¥.*'"V¢.nkn' ?.P41562 iei¥'l 17 c.o 2019 01.1)1.2D D15 67ty1 lthce 31.12.20 )n￿t Ovth ivcdpL%.Dr ilr FxÈ&s Irfliecei￿S fThEr fur 74184 22523 C.Kth jj U4nd 3m 16419yI 91KII$ T9 9Q015 1041 AyDroved 14. Brw R N Fos￿.￿ tonii>iltd UnQudired acc