NEWSLETTER #7 -
1st Birthday Edition!
20th September 2022
Come as you are, bring what you can and take what you need
The Keepers turns 1
On 19 July 2022, The Keepers officially turned one, a year on from opening our inner Hub doors for the first time to the public. To celebrate, we (of course) baked a cake, and held an open day and volunteer social on 8th September to take a step back and look at how far we’ve come. The Hub is unrecognisable now a year on from what it was when we first started. From no groups and no footfall at all and only a Theory of Change on an A4 piece of paper to guide us, we now have a busy hub with staff members and a great team of volunteers greeting many members of our community on a daily basis.
New Team Members
Since June, due to a mix of grants and local donations, we have recruited three new people to the Keepers’ team. They are:
Amy is our Wellbeing Gardener who works in the garden every Monday and Friday 10-12. From October, this will be Tuesdays and Fridays. Amy says: “I spend my time creating and supporting communities to play, learn and grow outdoors. I have worked in the environmental and community sector for 10 years developing my skills in nature conservation and food growing. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone over the next few months, please pop in for a cuppa on Monday or Friday mornings 10-12 to say hi - no pressure to get involved in the weeding!”
Jo is our new Hub Manager. Jo says: “Over the past month, I have loved meeting all of the team and our wonderful volunteers who all bring their unique talents to The Keepers. I am looking forward to all the new exciting projects we have planned - watch this space! Pop in to say hello if you get a moment. I look forward to meeting you"
Simone is our new Outreach Coordinator - thanks to funding from the National Lottery. Simone says: “I am really pleased to be joining the lovely team of staff and volunteers at The Keepers as Outreach Coordinator. This is a brand new role for the Hub and I'm really excited to start working with the local villages to see if, and how, we can bring a piece of the Keepers to them and to continue to support and connect the people within our communities.” If you are in one of Wotton’s surrounding communities, then keep an eye out for Simone!
UPDATES
New Keepers’ Kitchen!
Our lovely, shiny, professional-grade kitchen finally became operational on 3 August, just in time for our HAF Summer Holiday activities to take place. The Keepers’ Kitchen has been set up as a resource for the whole community of Wotton and surrounding areas. Going forward, we will be making meals for our Community Freezer, and soon will be moving onto social meals and cooking courses for all ages. We were also pleased to get a "level 5" food hygiene rating at our recent Environmental Health inspection. A massive thank you to Gail for coordinating the design and installation of the fab new Keepers’ Kitchen.
Could you be our part-time Kitchen Coordinator?
In order to make sure our future cooking ambitions are realised as safely and smoothly as possible we are currently looking to a hire a part-time Kitchen Coordinator.
Summer Holiday Activities
Thanks to our new kitchen, we were able to run 4 family cookery lessons for adults and children to learn together how to make different dishes. Thanks to Charfield Parish Council, we had nice new kitchen equipment to use for this. We were also able to offer some one-off Summer food boxes to families who needed them. Thank you to all who donated to those and helped pack and shop for them.
Water Refill Station
We are now officially a water refill station listed alongside 17 more water refill stations in Wotton on the ‘Refill’ app and map. You can pop in while we are open and one of our amazing volunteers will fill your water bottle for you - saving money, the environment and keeping you hydrated.
Anyone can download the free Refill app to tap into a global network of places to reduce, reuse and refill. With 300,000 Refill stations, offering refills for water, coffee, food containers and plastic-free shopping, 400,000 app downloads and 100 million pieces of plastic have been avoided to date. They’re proving that Refill has the power to create a wave of change and stop plastic pollution at source. To download the app and find out more about Refill's work - https://www.refill.org.uk/about/
Keepers on the road
We were really pleased to be invited to attend a number of local events over the summer, to let people know about everything that's going on. Did you spot us at the Charfield Show, the Nibley Festival and more recently, the Kingswood Show?
Weekly drop-in café (10-12pm on Wednesdays)
The Café has had the following visitors over the last few months: Longfield Hospice, Men’s Shed, Neighbourhood Warden, Chair of Neighbourhood Watch, Health Visitors, energy advocate from Warm and Well, Home-Start Stroud and Gloucester, P3 and the Older Drivers Forum for Gloucestershire.
From next Wednesday, Warm & Well will be joining us every six weeks.
What’s New at The Keepers?
Neurodivergent group
A new group for neurodiverse people and/or their parents started up in June. It runs once a month, on the last Wednesday evening, between 7pm and 9pm.
Online skills classes
A tablet course started in June and a laptop course started in August. If you missed these, they will be running again. We also have a "online shopping with confidence" course starting. You do not have to have a digital device to take part in these training courses. If you are interested in any of these courses, please get in touch and we'll put your name on the waiting list.
Digital Champions
We now have 5 Digital Champions at the Keepers! They can assist people with their digital skills. Many of those who aren't online need personal, one-to-one support focusing on overcoming the barriers of getting onto and using the Internet. Digital Champions are not IT whizzes - they just want to help people gain and improve their digital skills. If they can't answer your question they will try and find someone who can.
If you'd like to speak to one of our Digital Champions, just pop into The Keepers when we are open. You can bring your own device, or we have laptops that can be used on the premises.
Citizens’ Advice
Citizens’ Advice now come into the Keepers once a fortnight on Mondays between 10am-2pm.
Cakes and Ladders
After running our Cakes and Ladders board game sessions during the summer holidays on Tuesdays and Fridays, we have decided to keep running them from September – all welcome!
Chair yoga
Chair yoga has started back up again on Mondays between 1.30 and 2.45pm (including refreshments which are optional!) and is a great way to keep yourself moving and stretching from your own seat!
Steps Ahead
Steps Ahead is a group run by Barnados, to provide support for families with babies and young children born during the COVID-19 pandemic, between March 2020-March 2022.
This will be on Tuesdays between 9.30am and 11am.
If your baby was born between March 2020 & March 2022 you can book your place on any week by clicking on https://barnardos.coordinate.cloud/project/34483 or by popping into The Keepers.
Age-appropriate toys and activities will be available for all to enjoy - including sensory play. At all sessions there are opportunities to seek advice and guidance on a range of subjects and in addition, they will have regular guest speakers on a variety of topics including saving energy at home and breast-feeding support. This coming Tuesday - it will be First Aid.
New Keepers’ noticeboard
Thanks to donors including the Wotton Lions, we now have a new noticeboard in place outside of The Keepers’ building on Symn Lane. It is green and displaying lots of great information so do check it out!
To see what's on at The Keepers each week, just click below:
Get Involved...
There are lots of ways to get involved and/or to support The Keepers:
* Volunteer - there are a number of different roles/jobs.
* Fundraise - running a small event, or making a regular or one-off donation on our website. We are also looking for volunteers to join our fundraising committee. You can also take part in the Lucky Severn Lottery that takes place each week. Click here for more info. If you decide to join in, remember to choose The Keepers as your charity to support!
* Share info with neighbours, friends and colleagues who may not receive our newsletter.
* Follow us and like our posts on Social Media to ensure the information gets to as many people as possible.
* Or simply..... Next time you are ordering anything on Amazon, go to https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ instead and choose "The Keepers - Wotton Area Community Hub" as your charity. They will donate to us each time you order.
If you would like to made a donation to us directly, you can do so by clicking the button below or through our website. Many thanks for your support!
