A Flax Corn Dolly on Blockhouse Park 2023

Last year we delivered a Flax Corn Dolly on Blockhouse Park. We’d like to do this again in April, building on the success of last year’s event, with a series of corn dolly workshops leading to a spectacular finale. We want to reach all parts of the community, bring us all together into the heart of the making and the ceremony. Release the spirit of the nature into the soil and reconnect with our ancestors traditions! The event will lead in to The Village Hub’s Feast and Ceilidh taking place that evening in Stoke Youth and Community Centre.

Stoke JarSquad

JarSquad’s goal: grow a solidarity economy whilst making communal preserves (and more!) as a squad. In collectively cooking up our shared abundance (of surplus, grown, or foraged food), we spark a rethinking on what we might value/waste/share.

Our idea: develop an offer of creative consultation, community coaching and organizing to get local groups to start their own JarSquad. Working with The Village Hub and their community pantry, we’ve identified a budding food-passionate group in Stoke we’d like to collaborate with, via a series of food-making and food-preservation sessions that centre our ethos of joy, connection, co-learning, sustainability and resilience.

Motherland seed

Individuals from the disperse background have been meeting and sharing the experience of growing edible plants and herbs of their origins either in grow bags or on a pallet. the purpose being to build rapport with the new soil and community their are established in as well as sharing their motherland with their homeland. The need of a a space representing motherland is crucial into healing and belonging. healthy conversation and shared experience are on high demands.
we are seeking the fund to develop the scheme and engage with more community members from diverse background.

Daily Cause to Pause @ Care Nest

Supported by Global Plymouth, Care Nest (at its new premises in Millbay) aims to run Daily Cause to Pause sessions in which local adults (20 max) can rest for up to 2 hours in silence within its friendly, cosy, and safely-held space. Rules: NO shoes / food / talking / devices

Those who stay will be invited to capture and share anonymously their experiences by mark-making on paper, which may be collated and researched in the future via Global Plymouth.

We know this is an urgent need for many through our years of working closely with local individuals and organisations.

We Count Too

Our aim is to facilitate a safe space where young people known in the local area, particularly young males can meet once weekly to develop a network where they can make safer informed decisions on how they live their lives.
The development of this work will target and support those who have been effected by social isolation, lack specific life skills where emotions and poor mental health have been a barrier.
Referral demand has increased in this area, we engage well with those in need who help to shape and deliver this work to be successful.

Home Economics – Core Skills for home, life and work!

6 core activities – open to everyone, participants can join weekly workshops to address any of the challenges they face during the cost of living crisis.
Budgeting
Cooking,
DIY
Sewing
Parental Support (Messy Munchkins sessions)
Employment & Careers Advice
Driven by participant input, we will have an adaptable delivery. We have our own premises but also use community facilities to ensure accessibility across Plymouth.
Delivering for over 10 years, with a proven track record. We have a strong membership and following. Workshops have recently finished through cessation of funding. We have a list of EOI’s which shows the ongoing need.

£4 Budget Cinema Ticket for Unwaged or Low Income

The best way to watch a film is to make it an event and see it on the big screen, with an audience. We don’t want people to break the habit of coming to the cinema because they can no longer afford it. We introduced a £4 Budget price (full price £9) in a trial from 1/10/22 to 31/1/23. We sold 241 Budget tickets and welcomed 58 first-time visitors to the cinema. Plymouth Live named PAC as one of Plymouth’s kindest businesses for this initiative. We’d love the chance to make it a permanent offer and develop it further.

Community drop in @Turnchapel

The aim of this project is for people to come together in a central warm space, chat and develop a sense of belonging within the community. This idea, raised at the last Residents’ Association, was that we need a space for isolated locals and others in the neighbourhood, to engage in activities such as board games, craft etc. Our diverse community includes older and single residents as well as young families and refugees who might be struggling financially. We’d like to welcome anybody with warm drinks, hot food such as coffee, tea, soup, rolls.

The Kit Bag Project – Is five a day all we need?

Funds acquired will be used to implement our new innovative program which is underpinned by nourishing and educating children and families about the importance of ‘not just’ consuming the five recommended fruit and vegetables a day, and will be delivered through primarily non- referral foodbanks to target the cost of living crisis & holiday hunger including the stigma.
Moreover, the program consists of the promotion of the other five core messages and ‘promoting immunity in the community’ (see below)
1. Hand washing
2. Mental health
3. Nutrition
4. Exercise
5. Climate change (the 5 Rs)

Practical ways to save money

We would like to deliver a range of practical activities on a weekly basis that not only support people to save money but also support the reduction of social isolation and loneliness.
Activities will include:- how to sew a draught excluder, Slow Cooker sessions, How to reduce food waste, A clothes swap and others .
We have engaged with the local community at our Wellbeing and warm hub and these are some of the activities they feel would be benefit them.
We will run activities on a rotational basis and change/amend activities in line with community wants and needs.