Croydon Voluntary Action: Recent Episodes
Croydon Voluntary Action
We are a membership organisation providing leadership and support to groups, residents and communities in Croydon.
Juliet, a Heathfield resident, has a passion for jewellery! She has her own business and designs/creates beautiful jewellery. She has also come up with the idea of delivering free family sessions at the local Selsdon library and within other Best Start workshops for parents. They have been a great success as children learn to concentrate and be creative and parents spend some creative time in a relax environment and get to know other residents. Some of them were inspired to consider self employment too!
Gift is a Heathfield resident; with the support of our ABCD Community builder for the area, Stella, she decided to set up an initiative for women who, like her, lost their baby as a result of still birth, miscarriage etc. Letting them know they are not alone and that they can share their experience/trauma/concerns with others who went through the same is key to Gift. She has a group session on a Saturday and has found herself having lots of one to one chats too. Hear her point of view in this Audio.
Marley, mum of 2 under 5 children in Thornton Heath, talks about her involvement with the Best Start ABCD project, and how this has impacted her and other local families' children. Trumble gardens is a local green area that was under used and negleted until Marley joined forces with other local parents to clean it, revitalised and regularly use it as a meet up space where children can play and explore.
Ahilah Mathew describes her passion and what she wants from the Health Champions Programme
Leeman Francis El II on his passion for his community and what he hopes to get from the Health Champions programme
Mark talks about how events like this are important, how much engagement they get from people, especially children age five. And also how this unused space in Upper Norwood has been brought back into community use and how everyone can now use it to what best suits their lifestyle.
Karen and Lisa from St Chad Babies and Toddlers group talk about how beneficial the Idea Fair was to their group and the connections that they made with other groups.
Sukina who is the facilitator for Positive Birth Movement in Norwood, she talks about how she got involved and what she got out of the Ideas Fair and how she is moving forward.
Nicky reflects on the Ideas Fair as it comes to a close and how she thinks it went and why it is important.
Corin talks about what baby Norwood is, how it is a safe space and how it is a place for parents to network. And also about what she wants to do next.
Louise talks about why she was there to support the Idea Fairs, and to promote Parent Champions.
Pam from Unique Roots talks about her gardening project and how it helps to improve emotional well being.
Terrie talks about services provided by Off the Record, their counselling support for young people, the Young Carers and the BME groups' project. Also mentions why he found this Mental Health Forum event (8/3/2017) useful.
Croydon Mediation attended our Mental Health Forum event on 8/3/2017. Hear from their volunteer mediator Sheila about the amazing work they do in the community.
Lorna from Home Group talks about her organisation, based in South Norwood, which provides housing and support to referred ex offenders.
The Director of Care to Listen counselling talks about the low cost counselling sessions they provide in Croydon and what the benefit was of attending our Mental Health Forum network event on 8/3/2017.
Croydon Drop In attended our Mental Health Forum event in March 2017. Hear from Angela on what services they provide to young people in Croydon and how she benefits from her involvement in the Forum.
Raising Great Aspirations attended our Mental Health Forum event on 8/3/2017. Hear from Margaret about linking up with other young people providers in their passionate preventative work in Croydon.
The Community Family Project from New Addington Baptist Church attended our Mental Health Forum event in March 2017. Hear about what services they provide and how they support residents' emotional well being in New Addington.
Matthew from Active Minds (part of Mind in Croydon) on our Mental Health Forum market place on 8/3/2017 and what his project provides in the borough.
Barbara from Hear Us attended our Mental Health Forum event in March 2017. Hear from her about why she believes event like this are important for local providers.
John, who volunteers at the Town Hall, meeting, greeting and directing visitors, talks about how volunteering keeps you in touch with what is happening in your local community.
Deborah, who volunteers with the CVA Volunteer Centre as an Appropriate Adult volunteer, talks about her passion for helping disadvantaged members of the community. Deborah, who cannot work due to her disability, finds volunteering help her to be engaged, get out there and, best of all, helps others, which makes her feel good about herself. She work with offenders in custody.
Wandle House Association partners with local third sector organisations across nine boroughs in London to run projects for their residents, including one on volunteering, which is key to people getting back into work.
Sandi, who is retired, volunteers as an administrator on the CVA Volunteer Centre's New Routes project (supporting women going through the court system). She feels the role helps her to get out and meet people.
Jennifer, health champion, on how the course helped her and what her next steps will be.
Maria, Health champion, on how the course supported her and what she plans for the future.
Mohammed, health champions, talks about what the course provided to him and how it helped him to grow his idea into a project.
Yoga, #healthchampion on how the course helped her to develop her idea and what her plans are for the future, working with 20 families in West Thornton.
Anita from Disability Croydon talks us through the support she provided a family as part of the Croydon Family Power Programme, led by Croydon Voluntary Action, to a mother, her young daughter and grandmother before and after she sadly died from a terminal illness. As a Family Navigator, Anita signposted the family to numerous services and also provided emotional support.
Pam is a local resident, passionate about gardening and growing your own food, who is keen to review her role as a community leader. She has set up a community allotment in Valley Park.
Jennifer comes from the West Indian community and lives in Woodside. She wants to initiate a project supporting residents' emotional well being through African arts. She hopes this course will link her into other professionals, funding opportunities and support her in setting up the project.
Margaret lives in Waddon. She is passionate about supporting young women going through depression and wants to deliver a project that improve their emotional wellbeing and create awareness in this area.
Yoga comes from the Tamil Community in West Croydon. She is passionate about changing attitudes towards healthy eating in her community. She hopes the course will help her to develop her skills and knowledge on the topic.
Maria is passionate about healthy living; having received training on healthy eating at Croydon University Hospital, she feels this is the right time to create a project that covers all aspects of healthy living, including healthy eating, and deliver it to the community.
Mohammed is from South Norwood and has a passion for making Afro-caribbean food healthy in an affordable way.
Roianne lives and grew up in Thornton Heath; she is passionate about health and well being for everyone, so that healthy living can be accessed by everyone in the community.
Ricardo talking about his idea of a HealthKit, supporting residents to understand how to get help to improve their health. He hopes the course will help him to get more structure and be more effective in engaging with the local community.
Yuliana talks about how the course will give her a structured approach to her new project idea, links to other peers doing similar work and access to a small bursary.
Horace has been working in the community for a considerable time and wants to step up his level of involvement, learning how to better influence at strategic levels and how to partner with other community projects.
and how ABCD helped her to set up her project and transform her passion/idea into reality.
Sorrel speaks about the Super Highways project Impact Aloud and how you can get in touch.
Super Highways is an ICT project supporting small organisations and charities within #Croydon.
A shopper describes how useful he found his NHS Health Check at the Volunteer Centre today. Our VC in Centrale is hosting NHS professionals to provide quick sugar level, weight, blood pressure checks (results provided on the day) every Saturday 10-17.
Austin Taylor-Laybourn, from Trust for London, who spoke at the 1st July event about funding available to voluntary sector organisations.
Ian Anantharajah, from Beats and Eats, who attended our 1st July "Meet the Funder" event.
Daniel Labonne, from Croydon Club Citronelle, talks about attending our 1st July "Meet the Funder" event and how its networking element was useful.
Patricia Stevenson from Elevating success UK talks about how the 1st July event was useful in understanding the shifting funding scenario and what needs to be re-adjusted in their applications for funding.
Marcia talks first about her own project supported by CVA's ABCD Community Builders - FAM (For Alternative Means), and then about her new role connecting patients to local activities & community projects based in the Selhurst Medical Centre.
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Anita talks about her role as a Family Navigator based at Disability Croydon and supporting New Addington families.
Paulette talks about her involvement with the Community Garden and how Pam has really driven it forwards and involved lots of local people to make it happen together.
Pam talks about how she started the Community Garden and was supported by CVA's Community Builders and EcoLocal to create a thriving community project and successful edible garden.
Simon from Ecolocal talks about the support he has provided Pam and the Valley Park Community Garden.
The Family Navigators programme is part of the Croydon Family Power project, led by Croydon Voluntary Action and funded by the Big Lottery.
Sarah talks about her experience of being supported by the Keisha - the Family Navigator based at Croydon Dropin.
We walked past this area every day and the very least we hoped from this project was that at least we could help tidy up the area. We had to bring a lot of people together.
It was everybody's dumping ground and grafitti ground especially the air raid shelter. Since the girls cleaned it up - it is wonderful. There are two local schools that can make use of it. There's lots of wildlife - foxes, parrakeets, the usual birds, woodpeckers, bats. It's all here - hopefully it will be an asset once it gets planted and the girls decide what to do with it.
With the air raid shelter behind her and a table full of items from the second world war collection at the museum, Renia Jenkins kept up a steady stream of stories about the items on display. I just caught the tale end of this heartbreaking tale from the ARP warden who wore this helmet.How he risked his life to sit by a dying child who had dashed back to fetch her teddy as a bomb hit the house.
AM really impressed - a lot of work done to clear up in the first instance . It is so nice to walk off a dull, traffic filled area and find a lovely open space
Gemma Dawson Thorpe is a Citizenship Teacher at Norbury Manor Girls School. Citizenship is a subject that aims to get young people involved in local, national and international politics. The aims of the course work at GCSE level is to involve the girls in the local community to make change and that is how this project came about.
Council services are too bitty - there does not seem to be any logic or planning on issues for residents.
We hear from young people aged 18-26 who have been on the free community leadership training course at CVA. They have been creating their own projects in the community.