Trustees Report Public Benefits The Mid Waterside Resident Association is a voluntary charity made up of residents in the Mid Waterside Area, Benvarden, Primrose, Dervock and Upper and lower Violet Street. We initially came together in order to clean up the intersecting back alleyways which fall into a no mans land of ownership. We quickly realised that the formation of the group has brought the community together. Neighbours who have lived beside each other for years but did not know each other were now working together to make the mid waterside area a clean, welcoming, safe, friendly, inclusive place to live. We encourage residents to take ownership of the area we have created a community ethos which makes people think about our shared spaces. By changing the culture of how back alleys are used we continue to raise awareness in the goal of decreasing the problem of fly tipping, dog fouling, littering and antisocial behaviours with the area. We have been involved in welcoming a beautiful community designed murals and intend to develop more murals that both compliments the biodiversity ethics and also encourages people to look after there lived space. What your organisation does We meet monthly as a committee, whilst we have a formulated committee, our meetings are open to all in the community. We focus on improving service provision by statutory and voluntary agencies to beautify the local area. We do this in as an inclusiiie welcoming committee as the area is home to other nationalities as well as residents from a cross community aspect. We are also very active in fundraising to continue our efforts to improve the area. The benefits that the neighbourhood enjoy can be demonstrated by good record keeping of those committee members, volunteers, events and activities. We have produced iriformation newsletters and flyers, We have worked across all forms of media, local press, social media, radio and we keep visual photographic records. We monitor all records of publi- funds utilised for our activities. We promote pride in our area with the aim to create a vibi'ant civic community that not only enhances the physical environment but also betters relationships and lived experiences within the community. We have seen how coming together as a residents group and working for the betterment of the area gives residents pride in their community. it gives oivnership of where we live and makes us all responsible citizens, it has actively decreased loneliness and isolation particularly with older residents and has encouraged intei'generational, cross comimunity and cultural relationships in the area. ie. We have initiated an enviroiimental intergeneratioiial project with a local primary schools and with an older peoples das1 centre
With the money we raised from 'funding we are engaged in making our area a safe, inclusive and more beautiful place to live in We have transformed the back lanes by planting small urban wasteland plots to create small beautiful back alIemaY gardens. We have seen that by re-appropiating the space residents are encouraged to use the alleyways as an actual integral part of our lived environment . We have also made the back alleyways safer with the installation of l 0 lights throughout the dark back alleyways. We have facilitated planting workshops and planted up 50 windowboxes which .were disseminated throughout all the streets. With planting boxes and creating gardens in the alleyways we actively encourage biodiversity within the area. Harriet McDaid Chair Chris Lyons Vice Chair Bronagh Corr-McNicholl Secretary ILLLtrc( Fionnuala Gray Treasurer