Awarded – Plymouth Octopus

Storyteller Festival

Collaborators

WonderZoo CIC
A Press of Suspects
Mindful Art Club

Briefly describe your project

In September 2023, we would like to create a 5 day festival around the theme of Storytelling in its many forms, which will have a daytime workshop and an evening performance event at intimate venues in Stonehouse. 10 events in total.

In 2022 WonderZoo created the Storyteller Pilot Festival, with research into how viable and popular this kind of festival would be in the city. From feedback forms, we had a very positive response, so we felt the festival would be well received this year, taking what we learnt from last year and making it even better.

During the first round, POP members will be asked to advise you. What advice would be most helpful?

The advice that’d be most helpful would be talking to us about how we can go from this level of funding to a larger amount of funding, which could create a larger city-wide festival in the future. We would like advice on how we can grow and hold space for a larger collaboration that would always include grass-roots, not just established organisations, to lead the way from the community level, so it becomes more of a People’s Festival. Maybe outside of the festival, it could lead to collaborations all year round that could support mental health, social isolation, and form new friendships.

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

We hope to create a small Storytelling festival in Stonehouse, as a stepping stone to creating a city-wide festival.

Stonehouse in Plymouth has a thriving multi-cultural community, with a demand for more arts and cultural events. In 2021 and 2022, WonderZoo created two pilot festivals around the idea of Storytelling, which has allowed us to find out what people want and what they enjoy the most.

In 2021, WonderZoo created an online festival called ‘Lost Time’, during the era of Covid restrictions, working with four other organisations. The online festival was well received, and the feedback showed us that an in-person festival was desired by the online attendees we surveyed.

In 2022, we created the Storyteller Pilot Festival with 18 other organisations, which gave us the opportunity to run an in-person festival across 6 small venues in Stonehouse, with a research element that showed us what people thought of the events we offered. We gained a lot of positive responses, which gave us evidence that the festival worked well, and we were able to see which kinds of events were the most or least popular.

In 2023, with the knowledge gained from the previous festivals, we would like to create another festival that uses small venues around Stonehouse, providing opportunities for creativity, fun, friendship-building and cultural enrichment in an inclusive and accessible way across 10 venues, featuring around 22 organisations. With the cost of living crisis, social isolation and lack of venues for performances, we want the festival to be a way of bringing people together in fun ways, to enhance lives and allow performers to have a platform. We would like to keep ticket prices either free or donation based, to ensure there are no barriers to attendance.

We hope to build new relationships with venues and organisations that we haven’t worked with before in previous festivals, including the Stonehouse Lawn Tennis Club, Oxford Creative House, Ocean Studios and Manor Street Galleries. With representatives of these groups attending the planning stages of the festival, we hope that friendships and partnerships can be formed as a result, which will encourage more exciting collaborations to emerge, thus strengthening the cultural sector of Plymouth.

We hope that this festival will give us further experience to be able to take us to a much bigger city-wide festival in the near future.

Describe how your Collective formed

WonderZoo’s ethos is Storytelling, Community and Collaboration. We like to work with other groups that don’t often get recognised and support them to grow. We would like to work with Mindful Art Club, as they are an emerging group that is learning how to run events, and they have a strong focus on mental health support using creativity, which fits our ethos. A Press Of Suspects is a comedy organisation coming from a grass roots level, which hosts comedy events around Plymouth and beyond. By including them in this collaboration, we hope to strengthen our relationships, which will set us up for a bigger collaborative festival in the future.

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

HUB AND SPOKE – Like a bike wheel, one organisation holds things together at the centre, while other organisations perform specific tasks

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

Core Funding / Time, Events, Marketing / Promotion, Outsourcing Expertise, Other / Unsure

Plymouth Community History Festival

Collaborators

WonderZoo CIC
Diversity Business Incubator
Nudge Community Builders

Briefly describe your project

An inclusive Community History Festival for Plymouth, in October 2023.

This small but exciting festival of talks, guided walks, stalls and displays in central Plymouth will offer a wider range of speakers to attract new audiences to our history events. This year, as we emerge from the pandemic, the festival will act as a central pilot, to establish the foundation for a larger festival across the city in future years

Online Advice Session – Tuesday 20th June at 12:30pm

During the first round, POP members will be asked to advise you. What advice would be most helpful?

This will be an attempt at a more inclusive History Festival for Plymouth, to include a wider range of communities and reach new audiences. What do the words inclusion and community mean to you? What could we do to improve in these areas, to be more inclusive and reach new audiences?

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

Unable to run the Plymouth History Festival in May this year, we moved it to October, to coincide with the first week of Black History Month. This gives us the exciting opportunity to collaborate with the organisers of the events for Black History Month.

For the first time, volunteers from Arts University Plymouth will support us. Working with the plans for Black History Month has made this possible. Many talks and walks with be led by global majority individuals and groups, attracting new and younger audiences.

We will use social media to promote all the history and heritage events, including support for Black History Month, in October 2023

We will offer a simple web-page of events, linked to The Box’s website, for ease of reference. The programme will list activities submitted by history and community groups across Plymouth. With cost of living in mind, though, we will keep most new events central this year, near major transport hubs, in an effort to reduce cost for the majority.

We aim to use an empty shop in the city centre as an information hub during the Festival week (30th September – 6th October).

Feedback from this event will enable us to establish a solid foundation for a larger festival, with more events across a wider area in future years.

Our history and heritage events in Plymouth have a number of key outcomes, which will determine the success of this pilot:

• Being more inclusive in the topics for discussion.
• Reaching new audiences
• Offering a wider range of speakers, walks, events and stalls.
• Promoting the archives and research materials to a wider range of potential researchers.
• Tackling isolation and loneliness
• Encouraging scholarship across the city.
• Encouraging residents and visitors to explore the city.
• Bringing new communities and visitors into the city centre area.

This pilot is intended to be a game-changer for Plymouth, making the History Festival more inclusive than ever. It will contribute to the Plymouth Plan: to be a growing and welcoming city, and to offer a diverse cultural experience worthy of an international city.

Describe how your Collective formed

Since 2013, there’s been an annual History Festival in Plymouth held in May. In 2023, the Festival could not go ahead in May, but POP’s Plymouth Community Heritage Network suggested that WonderZoo might produce a short festival in the first week of October. DBI already offer events in October for Black History Month, and it was felt that offering a more inclusive Plymouth Community History Festival, coinciding with the start of Black History Month, might create new collaborations and ideas around history events in the city. WonderZoo has agreed to coordinate the History Festival this year, in collaboration with DBI, with Nudge’s venue at The Plot hosting a final event.

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

HUB AND SPOKE – Like a bike wheel, one organisation holds things together at the centre, while other organisations perform specific tasks

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

Events

Keyham Trauma Informed Group

Collaborators

The Tree Project CIC
Trauma Informed Network Plymouth
The Wolseley Trust

Briefly describe your project

We meet for monthly workshops facilitated by Vicky Brooks from the Trauma Informed Network Plymouth and Haidee Dampney from The Tree Project CIC.
We provide a safe, reflective space for those that are supporting the local community. The group includes: local policing team, community workers, neighbourhood watch, victim support team, Young Devon and other local groups – individuals.
We’ve learnt about trauma informed practice theory and explored how it applies to their everyday interactions, we’ve learned emotional regulation techniques for ourselves and to share with community members and most importantly built a strong network of people supporting the local community.

During the first round, POP members will be asked to advise you. What advice would be most helpful?

How we can ‘sell’ our idea to POP members to secure their support four our project

Online advice session – Monday 5 June at 1pm

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

The collective and individuals who have been taking part in the monthly workshops and attended the UK Trauma Recovery conference in Feb 2023. From this the group were motivated to continue meeting to share experience and skills and to continue the collective trauma informed journey. Attendance at the conference inspired group members to continue building on previous learning and work, and we wish to explore continuing to develop Keyham as a Trauma Informed community.

From a recent review some key themes emerged as follows:
That members noticed each other’s growth over the past year and felt a sense of belonging together that has added value to our work and interactions in the community. The group believes that a safety net for the community has been created through our work together.
Those in the group feel more confident in understanding different responses to trauma and how that may manifest in behaviour. This has enabled people to maintain a curiosity and kindness when interacting in our community. Importantly group members feel supported and safe to explore how they feel too.
Over the next year we:
-want to continue to build on what’s strong in our community.
-hope the Trauma Informed Keyham Group to be a legacy of the recovery project for the community
-seek to build on the power of ‘with’ not ‘too’ in our group
-want to learn how we can continue to ‘hold’ the community
-will invite & welcome others to our group
-may give ourselves a new name
Developing the group’s learning and practice by:
-Seeing if we can link the recovery models learnt at the conference to our work in terms of stages and roles of recovery
-Seeking to understand what gets in the way (systems & processes)
-Trying to work with or solve problems
-Thinking about language and how we can rephrase
-Learning about childhood emotional neglect / dissociation / post traumatic growth / community recovery / stress responses and coping techniques
-Sharing our own learning and reflections

Describe how your Collective formed

After the events in Keyham in August 2021 it was requested that some Trauma Informed training and work took place in the area to support the community in recovering. In March 2022, the Trauma Informed Plymouth Network, Tree Project CIC and Plymouth Together started a 12-month program to explore trauma informed practice and collaborative community working in Keyham. The intention has been to provide a supportive, reflective space for the key individuals who have been at the forefront of the community response in Keyham, Ford and North Prospect to ensure they feel sufficiently resourced to support their communities.
The journey began with 2 whole day’s training offered to key members:
– Introduction to Trauma Informed Practice delivered by the Trauma Informed Network Plymouth
– Creative Community Collaborations delivered by Rachel Dobbs (Community Arts Practitioner & The Tree Project CIC)
From here monthly workshops were provided and as a group we obtained funding to attend the UK Trauma Recovery Conference in February 2023.
We hoped to create a sustainable local network of trauma-informed practitioners enabling greater community cohesion and collective recovery. Regular participants are from the local policing team, Keyham Neighbourhood Watch, Wolseley Trust, Victim Support and other local community groups. The collective has been formed to support the group in its endeavours to continue the Trauma Informed journey in Keyham.

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

HUB AND SPOKE – Like a bike wheel, one organisation holds things together at the centre, while other organisations perform specific tasks

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

Core Funding / Time, Training / Education, Events

Pride Communities Working Together

Collaborators

● Plymouth Pride CIC

● Not Alone Plymouth

● Out Youth Plymouth

● Scrapstore Plymouth

Briefly describe your project

Work collaboratively amongst divergent groups to create inclusive spaces where the wider community can then come together for shared education and learning.

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

Curate and create a safe space where various demographics of the LGBTQIA+ community, and beyond, can learn about issues that are affecting different groups within the community.

Describe how your Collective formed

Plymouth Pride CIC has actively engaged with as many diverse parts of the LGBTQIA+ communities across Plymouth as they could. From that consultation and outreach it became evident that two groups are often overlooked and underrepresented at Pride events across the country. Plymouth Pride were approached by two of those groups to work together on how to ensure they have representation at this year’s Pride event. The ‘youth’ end of the community is very keen on an upcycling activity with Scrapstore.

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

PLATFORM –An organisation, supported by others, that generates opportunities for self-expression by individuals or organisations.

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

Events, Marketing / Promotion, Outsourcing Expertise

Eco Collective

Collaborators

● Plymouth Scrapstore

● Precious Plastics Tavistock & Plymouth

● Pollenize CIC

● Art and Energy

● Clean Our Patch

● Seadream Education

● Rebel Botanists

Briefly describe your project

We are 7 small groups Micro VCSE (Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise) with a social or environmental mission, each focussing on a collective outcome but with varied themes : waste, pollution, biodiversity, climate change etc. This is a critical role in supporting positive change in local communities all trying to make a difference by engaging people and fostering respect for the environment. However facilitating opportunities in our local communities can sometimes be a capacity related challenge. Much of our time is given voluntarily but this is not sustainable. One of the best ways we have found to engage with people is at festivals and public events and we are frequently asked to attend but this is often not a paid opportunity. By engaging the community we can do a huge amount more for the environment than any of us can alone so by supporting us you can raise awareness across the city, Improve the environment and help protect our world. . The Eco collective members want to represent these issues at festivals and networking events, which often coincide with busy periods over the calendar year, and dedicating the time and resources can be a challenge. If we are able to share the responsibility of this representation we can maximise our impact and create a more significant presence.Please support us in this collaborative effort to improve the environment in our city.

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

As individual organisations each has a role and responsibility in sharing our knowledge and experience with others. Over the years this engaging and creative approach has seen the demand for our presence at events* grow, to a point where we are each finding it difficult to be everywhere we would like to be & that we are requested to attend. So enter the Eco Collective – we hope that through the next stage of our collaboration, we will learn how to represent ourselves and the collective, what language to use, what messages to share, what displays and publicity materials to use, how to talk about our colleagues funders and supporters – through this learning and sharing experience we will be able to truly represent each other and our shared missions and values. As part of this journey we hope to identify further the areas in which we can support each other and the communities we work with, and promote not only what we we do, but the value of the way in which we do it, and the style of our shared research and collaboration for the benefit of others.

*fun day in the park, a stand at an exhibition, key note speaker or run a workshop etc).

How will it work? And why is this collaboration and research project important?

Each of us will take a turn at being the main organisation representing the Eco Collective at an event, taking along new Eco Collective displays and materials, confident in giving out the collective message at an event, alongside us will be a

second member taking a more watchful role, these roles and responsibilities will be alternated amongst the team depending on availability and requests from host, learning will be shared with the wider POP membership, as we see a real value in this process for others.

Micro VCSE (Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise) with a social or environmental mission, play a critical role in fostering positive change in local communities. By collaborating at local community events and festivals, these enterprises can maximise their impact and create a more significant presence.

Enhanced Visibility and Brand Recognition;

Collaboration among micro VCSE enterprises can increase their visibility and brand recognition at community events and festivals. By working together, these organisations can pool resources, such as marketing materials and table space, to create a stronger and more memorable presence. This unified approach not only helps the individual enterprises gain exposure but also promotes the broader VCSE movement.

Resource Sharing and Cost Reduction;

Working together at local events allows micro-social enterprises to share resources such as equipment, transportation, and staffing. This collaboration can reduce costs for each organisation, enabling them to invest more in the resources required to carry out activities and workshops that can be offered for free at these events.

Strengthening the Local VCSE Ecosystem

When like-minded micro-VCSE enterprises collaborate, they strengthen the local VCSE ecosystem by fostering relationships, sharing knowledge, and building a supportive network. This collaboration can lead to valuable partnerships, mentorship opportunities, and the sharing of best practices.

Increased Community Engagement

By presenting a united front at local events, micro VCSE can engage with the community more effectively. This increased engagement can lead to more significant public support, increased volunteerism, and higher levels of community involvement. Collaboration can also lead to more educational opportunities, enabling micro VCSE enterprises to raise awareness and inspire action on critical social and environmental issues. Representing local events that are hosted in green spaces further provides the opportunity for people to experience the physical and mental wellbeing effects associated with this activity.

Leveraging Collective Impact

Through collaboration, micro-social enterprises can leverage their collective impact to address complex social and environmental challenges more effectively. By pooling resources, knowledge, and skills, these enterprises can develop innovative solutions and implement more significant change at the local level. A united presence at community events and festivals can amplify their message, drawing attention to the issues they seek to address and inspiring others to join their efforts.

Describe how your Collective formed

This group is formed by 7 environmentally focused local community organisations joining together for the benefit of all. We were all known to each other, some had worked together formally some informally. We first met as a collective in early

October 2020, having worked together in different ways and numbers prior and since that date.

Following on from our first research and collaboration project we have continued to support each other and collaborate. At the beginning of the year we hosted a facilitated evaluation of the project, where certain things pointed towards us working together again to see if a collective approach could support community events across the city. We cannot be at every event and activity that we are requested to attend, sometimes this is due to capacity, sometimes it’s due to funding where as a minimum we need to cover costs but it is vitally important that we are seen to be there for the benefit of the communities we support.

We know that we can work in this way with respect and transparency but how will the event organisers respond to having 2 organisations rather than 7 .. we hope that this will show that we can truly be representing our collective whilst meeting the needs of the community.. support them to understand the true costs and value of having us as part of their offer and the fact that we can’t always do things for free, that there is always a cost, sometimes it doesn’t need to be passed on, sometimes it can be shown as match funded or added value, but then the funder needs to be acknowledged too.

We hope that our experiences will be of value to others who can replicate this model of collaboration and partnership. Across Plymouth and with various funders we already see the achievements of collaborative working, we believe that this model could be replicated by them, showing that as individual organisations we can do good things, as collaborations we can do good things great!

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

MURMURATION – Like a flock of birds flying together, all the organisations of the collective work closely together on all aspects of the project.

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

Core Funding / Time, Events

Supporting Mens Wellbeing

Collaborators

Art, Craft And Giggles
Wellbeing Workshops Devon CIC
Andys Man Club

Briefly describe your project

We will be working together using a blended approach by combining creative workshops combining creative workshops
with positive and coaching psychology to improve the wellbeing of middle-aged men, reduce the risk of suicide and develop the skills and knowledge they need to be able to manage and maintain their own wellbeing We will deliver an in person, 6-week creative workshop series which will combine arts with a psychology theme e.g. managing emotions. We will utilise our relationship with Andy’s Man club to recruit community members and promote our workshops to those most in need.

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

We will deliver a successful series of workshops with each workshop themed to combine researched and proven psychology elements
alongside an art and crafts project. For example, when we explore identity and what makes them who they are, Art Craft and Giggles CIC will lead the creation of a collage and supply the resources and knowledge on how to do this, Wellbeing Workshops Devon CIC will lead reflective tasks, develop their knowledge of identity and how it effects wellbeing and explore what makes them authentically who they are as an individual. We
will also cover the following topics and run an arts project alongside each one: loneliness, anxiety, building self-esteem, managing emotions, and developing new healthy habits. We have chosen these topics as we have found through our experience of working with men and the data we have collected that these are all topics which they struggle with, also these topics are all linked to lower psychological wellbeing if they are misunderstood or not managed appropriately. We believe the workshops will equip those who attend with the skills, knowledge and understanding to be able to manage and maintain their own wellbeing throughout their life span, whilst also offering them a safe space to be able to open up, connect with others and have some fun and time for themselves. Reducing social isolation and increasing sense of community, whilst also improving wellbeing and mental health.

Describe how your Collective formed

We have previously collaborated and delivered a similar pilot scheme called Supporting Men’s Wellbeing in Plymouth, where Arts Crafts and Giggles delivered six, weekly in-person craft sessions for men and Wellbeing Workshops Devon CIC delivered six, weekly online wellbeing workshops specifically for men. Our feedback found that the in-person workshops where more effective than the online so we have decided to combine the two in order to increase the impact of what we are doing and we are piloting delivering together to see if this improves the quality and outcomes of our project. Also, we previously worked with the St Budeaux and Barne Barton Wellbeing hub however we have decided to work with Andys Man Club this time in order to target a different group of the community and work with different men within Plymouth who are still in need of support. Debbie also has experience of working with Andys Man club and already has a rapport with them.

During the first round, POP members will be asked to advise you. What advice would be most helpful?

Long term funding

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

MURMURATION – Like a flock of birds flying together, all the organisations of the collective work closely together on all aspects of the project.

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

Core Funding / Time, Marketing / Promotion

Plymouth Social Enterprise City

Collaborators

● Plymouth Social Enterprise Network (PSEN)

● Plymouth Hope

● Nudge Community Builders

Briefly describe your project

Raising public awareness of Social Enterprise in Plymouth through focus groups and developing exhibition material.

A small exhibition with focus groups will be the start of a six month conversation, as part of the 10th Anniversary of Plymouth becoming the UK’s first Social Enterprise City.

PSEN will be working with Plymouth Hope and Nudge to explore how we can raise public awareness of the positive impact of social enterprise in Plymouth. We will aim to engage a wider range of communities, developing visual material and ways of communicating that appeal to different events and locations, and accommodate the needs and interests of different groups.

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

Social enterprise organisations in the city employ around 9500 people and bring in an income of nearly £700 million. Yet the power of social enterprise is still largely unrecognised across parts of Plymouth. In the 10th Anniversary of Plymouth becoming the UK’s first Social Enterprise city, how do we tell those social enterprise stories to reach new audiences?

The collaborators will start by actively considering how to communicate the benefits of Social Enterprise to the public in Plymouth, using visual media including photography archives.

The collaborators will then together curate an initial exhibition representing social enterprise sectors and locations, which will create materials as part of the outreach programme for the rest of the 10th Anniversary year, including the annual Social Enterprise Festival in November.

Small groups will be invited to the initial exhibition venue for discussion facilitated by PSEN’s Network Co-ordinator and Activator, to inform how we can better reach new audiences.

Our exploration will be the start of a public awareness campaign, to consider the impact of social enterprise in Plymouth and to initiate vital conversations about the next ten years. PSEN will include data and comments from the public awareness campaign in this year’s evaluation and future strategy documents. The discussion will also inform PSEN’s research into the social enterprise sector as we head towards the annual Social Enterprise Festival in November 2023.

Describe how your Collective formed

PSEN initiated the collective, as part of their plans to celebrate and reflect upon the ten year anniversary. Nudge and Plymouth Hope are active members of PSEN. We’ve all worked together on festivals and shared events. The collective is a natural collaboration between organisations that share a vision of social enterprise in Plymouth.

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

HUB AND SPOKE – PSEN has the staff to co-ordinate the project and provide research material and source some of the images. The collaborators will meet to discuss resourcing of all the display materials and the nature of future events. They will all advise on the presentation of the stories and the inclusion of small groups for the discussion of social enterprise in Plymouth.

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

The grant will pay for our collaborators’ time and expertise, some venue costs and display materials, including printing and video equipment.

Respect International Kite Flying Festival

Collaborators

Plymouth & Devon Racial Equality Council
Four Greens Community Trust CIC
The Conscious Sisters CIC

Briefly describe your project

The aim of the Kite Flying Festival is to bring people of all ages, abilities and cultures together to celebrate the diversity of the City. We anticipate that there will be 150-200 people attending the free colourful and vibrant Festival on Plymouth Hoe on 01.07.2023. There will be 6 kite making workshops throughout the City, in communities/schools, looking at the cultural importance of Kites throughout the world. There will also be workshops online, along with people talking about what Kites mean to them. We will also have a free kite making workshop at the festival to be inclusive to all.

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

From India to Brazil, kite flying is a beloved pastime and we want to bring that joy to Plymouth! In doing this we also hope to bring people together to look at the commonalities that we share and breakdown negative myths and bias to build a more friendly and caring society. This is even more important during the time of finanical crisis, where people seek to blame ‘the other’ for their situation.
The event is totally free to be inclusive for all. We will be running a series of free workshops in various communities (including learning disabilities) and schools, prior to the festival and will have a workshop on the day, so that everyone will be able to participate in the kite flying fun.
We also hope that the festival will help to improve the mental health and well being of families and individuals by encouraging them to take part in outdoor activities, make new friends and networks.
The online kite flying workshop and online collection of stories about Kite flying will be a continuing resource for schools and community groups.

Describe how your Collective formed

The collective has formed over 2 decades with informal collective work between Karen Evans from The Conscious Sisters CIC and Isatta Kallon, who now works for Four Greens Community Trust CIC, on a wide variety of events and activities including the Annual Respect Festival, International Women’s Day and PDRECs women’s group.
The 3 organisations have come together to organise the Respect International Kite Flying Event as we all idenfify this event as a fun way of bringing the communities that we work with together with the rest of the city.
We are natural partners in the collective because we have worked in partnership many times together and have shared values and ideals about grassroots community work and the benefits of working collaboratively together to support people in Plymouth.
We hope that there is a lasting legacy in the city with an annual kite flying festival that will grow year on year, bringing people together, as well as encouraging people from diverse communities to go out to parks and other green areas to fly kites and have fun.

During the first round, POP members will be asked to advise you. What advice would be most helpful?

PDREC and the International Kite Flying Festival Collective would appreciate advice on how to publcise the event to POP members an optain postive votes to enable us to deliver the festival and workshops.

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

HUB AND SPOKE – Like a bike wheel, one organisation holds things together at the centre, while other organisations perform specific tasks

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

Events

Community Wellbeing

Collaborators

Wellbeing Workshops Devon CIC
Colebrook SW
Moments Café

Briefly describe the project

The funding will be used to enable us to deliver two, six week in-person wellbeing workshop series, one in the Moments Cafe and one in the St Budeaux and Barne Barton Wellbeing Hub to improve the community’s ability to be able to manage and maintain their own wellbeing and mental health. The topics will cover elements of positive psychology including: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishments as well as helping the community to develop a tool kit of coping strategies they can use throughout their life span.

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

We believe that the project will improve approximately 15 members of the community’s subjective wellbeing, ability to manage their own emotions, improve self confidence, increase social connection and reduce loneliness and equip them with a tool kit of coping strategies they can use within the future. The community group who attend our workshops struggle with their mental health and experience high levels of loneliness, depression and anxiety, we also have found that our workshops help them to manage and understand their emotions in more depths around these topics. Previously 66% of participants demonstrated an improved subjective wellbeing score, 100% said they would like to attend more workshops and 100% indicated that the workshops have improved their knowledge of wellbeing. The age range of those who attended varied from 30-96 years old. Also, previously the theme of the qualitative feedback indicated that the community developed a handful of skills and knowledge to help them to manage their own mental health and wellbeing. Whilst also developing a sense of community around mental health and wellbeing by sharing similar struggles. Therefore, we believe that the workshops will also help to reduce stigma around mental health and increase sense of community, which are both linked to positive psychological wellbeing.

In order to measure the impact of this workshop series we will continue to collect both quantitative and qualitative feedback, using the WEMWBS questionnaire to measure subjective wellbeing and collect data at the beginning and end of the workshop series and also use open ended questions to collect qualitative feedback and perfuming a thematic analysis on this. Also, based on previous feedback we will also measure the ‘ripple effect’ of the project and measure the bigger impact that we have on individuals.

Describe how your Collective formed

We are an established collective who have worked together on several different projects, we formed early in 2022 and found each other organically and through networking. Our collective operates on shared values – (People-focused, Compassionate, Open, Positive, Creative & Fun) and we believe this is an amazing opportunity for us to create positive change throughout Plymouth. We want to continue our offer to the community by maintaining this project to create a stable support network for people in the community and enabling them to develop knowledge and understanding on how to manage their own wellbeing going forward. The Moments Cafe and St Budeaux and Barne Barton wellbeing hub have access to the facilities and already have great relationships with the local community and Wellbeing Workshops Devon CIC provided the expertise to deliver bespoke wellbeing workshops for the community groups and we want to continue this work.

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

HUB AND SPOKE – Like a bike wheel, one organisation holds things together at the centre, while other organisations perform specific tasks

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

Core Funding / Time
Events
Marketing / Promotion
Other / Unsure

Setting Sail Together

Collaborators

Horizons (Plymouth)
DCRS Plymouth
Open Doors International Language School

Briefly describe your project

Horizons (Plymouth) Children’s Sailing Charity will partner with Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support centre (DCRS) and Open Doors International Language School (ODILS) to provide a programme of Royal Yachting Association accredited training for 6 refugee community members to progress from complete novices to competent sailors. Once participants complete their training, they will be invited to join the Horizons adult volunteer team to support the Horizon’s charitable youth sailing programme. Beyond the initial training opportunity, this project will aim to build the participants confidence around water, enhance wellbeing, reduce isolation, and improve employability.

Describe what you hope your Collective will achieve

Horizons are a small, local charity dedicated to removing barriers to sailing, each year over 1,000 disadvantaged and disabled local young people participate in our inclusive and accessible sailing and motorboating projects. With only 3 paid staff we rely heavily on the support of our adult volunteers to deliver our projects. Since Covid-19, Horizons has faced a shortage of adult volunteers which has sometimes caused us to restrict numbers of young people sailing with us. The participants in this project will be trained and invited to join the Horizons volunteer team, this will promote inclusion, diversify our volunteer team, and enable Horizons to connect with a community who do not currently access our activities. It will provide our young sailors with a range of positive role models from different backgrounds, encouraging acceptance and inclusion.

Horizons are a Royal Yachting Association accredited training center delivering sessions that are enjoyable, and empowering. Horizons will be responsible for all sailing and water based aspects of the project. ODILS and DCRS are well placed to identify suitable project participants. They also have the ability to encourage the local refugee community in Plymouth to engage with this project and will provide participants with pastoral care, and language and learning support to maximise the chances of success, ensuring that this project delivers a positive experience.

On completion, we hope project participants will choose to continue with Horizons as adult volunteers. Horizons would then be able to offer fully subsidized, ongoing training opportunities for individual learning and development.

Plymouth prides itself on being the UK’s “Ocean City”, however our beautiful coastline and marine environment can also be a site of exclusion. It is well documented that across the world BAME communities are less likely to be able to swim and will avoid marine environments. For certain communities, especially refugee communities, water is a site of exclusion and fear. Through this project we hope that our local marine and waterfront areas can provide opportunities for inclusion and community cohesion, rather than exclusion.

The project participants will have the opportunity to experience sailing, gaining new skills, and qualifications, whilst improving their English language skills, and being invited into our Horizons community. The training will emphasize team work and peer leadership to encourage a sense of confidence and collaboration. We believe this project will empower the participants, boosting their wellbeing, and delivering long term improved employment prospects, and community cohesion.

Describe how your Collective formed

Horizons are a local charity providing inclusive sailing opportunities for young people from the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Plymouth aged 8-19 and young people with disabilities aged up to 25.

Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support (DCRS) provides advocacy, advice, support, education, and a welcoming community space for asylum seekers living in Plymouth. DCRS has over 20 years of experience in supporting asylum seekers to access legal representation, financial support, and housing. DCRS also run a varied activities programme including language support, and social groups.

For over 20 years ODILS Learning Foundation has been central to serving the Plymouth Asylum Seeker and Refugee communities, and all those of ethnicity who have an English language need. The charity also has collaborations with local universities and the Plymouth business community for Refugee employment mentoring and support.

In 2022, following conversations between volunteers and trustees Horizons provided some informal sailing taster sessions for DCRS staff and service users. The DCRS service users then expressed a keen interest in learning to sail and we have worked together to develop a way to provide that opportunity.

Horizons will accommodate all sailing provision and provide essential equipment (buoyancy aids, waterproofs etc). DCRS and ODILs will identify individuals within the asylum seeker and refugee communities whose English language skills are at the necessary level.

The participants will receive pastoral care and support from DCRS to facilitate maximum engagement and ongoing benefits and involvement with Horizons beyond this programme. ODILs will provide English language and learning support to maximise the participants benefit, and successful completion of the accredited training and certification assessments. We hope to use this as a pilot project, and if successful we will seek further (multi-year) funding to continue.

Which collaboration “shape” do you expect will best describe your project?

HUB AND SPOKE – Like a bike wheel, one organisation holds things together at the centre, while other organisations perform specific tasks

In which areas would you expect most of your grant to be spent?

Training / Education