Report on Big Local activities for April 2023

Big Local North Cleethorpes: April 2023 activity update

This is the April 2023 edition of our monthly updates on what Big Local North Cleethorpes has been up to. Many projects and activities are ongoing, but some updates are new this month and these are the latest ones. If you are interested in more information or want to follow up on anything outlined below, please contact us at Big Local North Cleethorpes: hello@biglocalnorthcleethorpes.org.uk or karl@vanel.org.uk or 01472 897337 or check the website for more information.
(www.biglocalnorthcleethorpes.org.uk

Arts, Leisure, Culture and Heritage

Lynsey Powles has now completed the series of funded art sessions for young people in the shed. They were well received and reached a dozen or so young people from North Cleethorpes.

Discussions have begun with Lyns about plans for this years Urban Arts Festival and a North Cleethorpes Fringe event that Big Local could support. The Library will not be used this year and alternative arts venues are being investigated.

One potential arts venue for North Cleethorpes is the old Cycle Hub on Cleethorpes Station. We Are Fish and Lyns Powles are trying to make contact with the right people to begin investigations into whether this building can be made available (asset transfer or lease) to house a community arts venue. Not clear how feasible the project is but we hope investigations will allow a plan to be put in place quite soon. This building (and perhaps even the empty building next to it) could provide an interesting new, alternative community arts and culture space for the area.

Arts sessions continue in the shed and the new Paper Crafters group continues to meet.  A local resident has come forward requesting to use the shed to run ‘recycling’ craft group for local people.  The first experimental session took place in April and we’ll watch to see how well his attendance grows.

Community arts and crafts group continued this month in the shed on Tuesdays too.

The Holiday Home lettings income will have funded a total of five DN35 family weekend breaks this season all of whom are extremely grateful for the opportunity.

Supporting Young People and Families

Hangout has sponsored Lyns Powles to provide a small arts session at Sussex Rec during Coronation weekend and aimed at young people at the request of We Are Fish.

The new “Little Green Influencers” group for children aged 2-5 began in March at Reynolds Family Hub is progressing very well with families and children enjoying the sessions. We are working in partnership with Nurture Nature to explore expanding this project over the summer. For information contact Sam Smith at VANEL.

Sam secured a grant from the Mayor’s fund for the community garden at the Family Hub so the Mayor can unveil a plaque dedicated to Alan Johnson for all his hard work as a volunteer to get the garden set up for the children and families to benefit from. Sam has arranged a family session with Natasha’s team on Monday 15thMay 2023. The children will be planting a tomato plant to take home and grow on as a momento.

Families experiencing hardship in our North Cleethorpes target area have continued to benefit from small grants and gift cards to help with food purchases, utility bills, access to the internet, IT equipment and other ad hoc needs on a case by case basis.

Ghetto Park received a donation of £500 for supporting DN35 young people in March. They have invested previous donations in a water fountain, so all children have access to a drink during the sessions and those with less money do not go without a drink.

Supporting Older People

The offer of personal/household security equipment continues to be available to residents across North East Lincolnshire. Some items are still funded from the Big Local stock and some for Sidney Sussex residents via specific support from Ward Councillors. But most residents now benefit from the stock funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner. A number of local residents in North Cleethorpes received their security items during April, including a number referred specifically as victims of crime who needed additional support. Contact Karl for details of what can be supplied.

The latest KOPS newsletter continues to be circulated. Message in a Bottle are still available, as are ‘no cold caller’ window stickers and other community safety leaflets.

Scams talks can still be provided by Karl to groups within North Cleethorpes but Fraudwatch funding for these ended at the end of March. We are in negotiation to hopefully receive some additional funding via Fraudwatch in the coming months which would help us to deliver further support locally.

St Peter’s Church community hall on St Peters Avenue has started up a new social group for older people. To grow and develop this and to try and make it more sustainable, Big Local North Cleethorpes has provided a small start up grant to kick start their project. This should help reach more local, older residents in the area.

Beacon Hill Allotment and Gardening Society along with Carr Lane Allotments and others are exploring a joined up approach to reducing shed theft and other ASB crime on their sites by potentially investing in a new CCTV type camera system supported by the Neighbourhood Policing Teams to help deter criminals from their sites.

Environmental

Work is progressing on the community allotments on Carr Lane site. We are Fish now have 8 allotments that they are working on. In addition, Carr Lane has recently been signed up as an Allotment Watch site (a specific allotment focused approach to Neighbourhood Watch). Green Influencers supported We are Fish to access a small grant of £460 to support their group helping young people on their plots on Mondays.

All 3 DN35 area Green Influencers groups are working well. The after-school ECO group at Beacon Academy continues to be very active on Thursday afternoons with a clear focus on the plastics free agenda and engaging in area wide events/trips. A new Green Influencers lunch club continued during April at St Peter’s Avenue Primary.

Work to find a provider to install solar panels on the roof of our community hub is proving challenging due to the small size of the viable area. We will keep trying.

VANEL’s New to Nature Junior Pocket Park Keeper Apprentice started work in April. We have also been offered match funding to continue and grow the scheme.

Community and Partnership working

The latest printed newsletter for Big Local North Cleethorpes is still being distributed. Please pick up copies from 82 Grimsby Road if you are able to help us distribute them. We are including copies in personal security bags handed out to residents in need of these items and also to residents who drop-in to the community hub for our support.

We have secure match funding via the UK shared prosperity fund to support our ‘cost of living’ service to keep helping DN35 residents who ‘drop-in’ for an informal chat. It will enable us to fund staff time to provide this service and re-decorate the back meeting area to make it more ‘visitor- friendly’ and welcoming as a meeting space.

Our ‘cost of living’ activities will enable us to continue to distribute small grants and gift cards to people in need and refer them to the later life partnership, citizens’ advice and credit union for support with financial hardship. We can also help with community problem solving and link them to our councillor and police drop-in sessions at the hub.