HRH The Duke of Gloucester visits The HOPE Centre
On the 9th of September this year, HRH The Duke of Gloucester visited Bromyard, spending an hour at St Peter’s Church in town where many local charities had gathered to showcase their work helping to make Bromyard a vibrant community.
Visiting HOPE
After visiting businesses and a walkabout in the town, HRH came to visit the HOPE Centre, where he spoke at length to our Receptionist, Mickey Littlewood-Ree, accompanied by HOPE’s CEO Sheenagh Davis and our Chair of the Trustees, Janet Pearce-Higgins (see photo above).
The Duke then went up to Oscar’s Coffee House, where he met coffee house staff members, saw a Soft Play class, and was impressed by the fabulous view. He left Oscar’s with a gift of some delicious brownies.
Before he left HOPE, the Duke signed a document for us to mark his visit, which is now hanging in reception.
h.Art at Oscar’s Coffee House
Twenty-four hours after the excitement of the Duke of Gloucester’s visit, eating the brownies in Oscar’s Cafe with a whole entourage of body guards and important people, it was time to launch another exciting event: h.Art. After two days of hammering, furniture moving, flower arranging and balloon blowing the room/space came alive with colour and creativity.
Showcasing 5 artists spectacular art work in a light and spacious venue with stunning views of the Frome Valley:
- Jan Berry with her lino prints of various locations and scenes
- Jo Williams with hand painted wooden art pieces and pin badges & brooches
- Rachel Cross with ceramics, wood and machine embroidery one off pieces
- Sheenagh Davies showcasing her machine embroidery pieces of personal art creations
- Roz Johansson with her quilts, printed fabric pieces and textile art work.
549 people travelled from far and wide to visit the h.Art venue 59. Some purchased art work, others soaked up the view and creative atmosphere and most enjoyed coffee and a cake at Oscar’s. At the end of the event all 5 artists were overwhelmed with the success of the event. Some of the artists got future commissions, others were just inspired to make new creations and everyone wants to return next year.
Watch this space for h.Art 2016, where we hope to introduce and show case some other talented artists. If in the meantime you are wondering what you missed please visit Oscar’s Cafe where you can purchase scrumptious food and browse and buy from a small display of all 5 artists creations.
Early Years Education woodland school
We’ve had our 5th session at our woodlands school – a small copse at the QE School. We have fun exploring and investigating: how to make mud, build shelters for our clay hedgehogs and how to stay safe.
We are learning how to manage risk as we climb trees and slide down the muddy slope. We discuss the properties of mud, being slippery and consider if it’s best to run down the slope or slide on our bottoms!
What we have noticed:
- Children are generally more relaxed in this new environment, becoming confident leaders during their play.
- They are becoming concerned about litter and make efforts to care for the woodlands.
- They are becoming keen observers.
- They are involved in linking knowledge as they roll fir cones down hills, remembering past events such as roller coasters.
- They become little scientists, testing hypotheses. One child was making a catapult out of branches and testing which sized stick would travel the furthest!
- The woods provide a new landscape where imaginary games evolve, often based on stories: e.g. The Gruffalo and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
We will continue after our half term break on a Tuesday, but it will be the morning session 9 am–12 pm. These sessions will run over the next half term for a period of 6 weeks.
Our intention is to go out in all weathers (but not in high winds) and it will be interesting to see how the woods change from Autumn to Winter.
New DVD for Contact Centre to help parents prepare
Paula Morris, Head of Family Services explains how HOPE intend to use IT to help parents coming to their centre:
“Here at the HOPE Contact Centre, we pride ourselves as being professional and family focused. We are aware that the first visit to the Centre can be daunting and we are turning to IT to try and alleviate this.
“We are hoping to put together a video to show non-resident and resident parents the centre, what to expect and the impact the centre can have on a family when we all work together to support co-parenting.”
Groups & Family Support trips
Groups and Family Support have been very busy throughout the summer, organising two off-site trips: Weston-super-Mare and Little Owl Farm. These trips were very popular, allowing 28 families to have a day trip by the seaside and to visit a family focused farm.
Weston–Super-Mare in Somerset
We had our fingers crossed that it would be sunny for the Weston trip and it seemed our luck was in. All day we had the sun shining, which allowed the families to make the most of this super seaside resort. The families had lots of fun playing on the beach making sand castles, riding donkeys, eating fish and chips, and Weston even had their very own Ferris wheel.
The Little Owl Farm Park in Ombersley, Worcestershire
The farm is set in 18 acres of farmland with lots of animals to meet, which included sheep, pigs, miniature ponies, pygmy goats, calves, ferrets and much more. The families met Zack the meerkat, who was such a character. The handler told us that Zack was constantly trying to escape from his enclosure. Zack was such an
entertainer and was great fun to watch.
The families that attended both trips had a wonderful time:
“It’s nice to have a day out without worrying about the cost” (Mickey, Mother of two children aged 7 and 5 years)
“Great value for money” (family of four)
“Really well organised” (Craig, Dad of two)
Adult Learning News
Things are moving here in Adult Learning! We have made lots of new contacts and are able to offer exciting new opportunities to our learners:
- We have a ‘Buggy Jogging’ class beginning
- We are offering young people at The Queen Elizabeth Humanities College an opportunity to work with Tutors from the Barclays ‘Skills For Life’ scheme
- We are launching ‘Crafternoon Teas’, an opportunity for crafters to join a like-minded group to share expertise and socialise. Once a month we will have a tutored session to encourage new skills and we will be joined by the CROSSROADS Carers Group in these sessions
- We have a new IT tutor, Sharon Akers, who joins us from Red Spark Training in Leominster.
- We are looking at working with outside training providers to deliver a wider range of courses here at HOPE.
We are relaunching Job Club in November in partnership with Fortis Living, and are having a ‘marketplace’ arrangement for those who are on the road to employment.
Joining us to offer training and learning opportunities are:
- Fortis Living Employment Support Worker
- ‘Let’s Talk’ – NHS service which can help with confidence building
- Hereford and Worcester Group Training
- HVOSS for volunteering opportunities
- Careers advice (TBC)
- Talent Match – a service for 18-24 year olds to support getting back into work
If you have any ideas for training, courses, activities or one-off events, please come and talk to Mandy and Paula in the Training Office – we’ll do our best to put on the course for you.
Next edition
The next edition of the HOPE Newsletter will include highlights of some of the activities that we do. Keep an eye out here or just have a browse at our What’s On, follow us on Twitter or see what we’re doing on Facebook.
