Category: Good News Stories

To celebrate International Men’s Day, RotherFed hosted a Men’s Day breakfast and Men’s Mental Health Session. The event was attended by eleven people from across Rotherham and included a mix of RotherFed group’s members as well as people new to RotherFed events.

We invited local mental health group leaders down to talk about their groups and talk about useful hints and tips on keeping mentally healthy. Simon from Talk & Train did a small talk about the beneficial effects of exercise on mental health and promoted the fact that men need to talk more about their feelings as male suicide rates are on average 3 times higher than female.

As part of the event we held a mental health themed quiz with questions about if people knew where they can get help with mental health, and what they can do to help people in crisis.

By Sharon Smith & Noor Salih, Community Energy Advisors

Energy Know How successfully presented a session giving details about priority services register and warm home discount to a large group of elderly people who attended their regular luncheon group.

The meeting was arranged following a discussion at Rotherham Show with the group organiser, Julia who proceeded to contact us via the office.

A telephone discussion took place to discuss in detail the services Energy Know How could deliver, and agreement was made to attend the luncheon group on 27^th October 2021.

We intended to speak to the group as a whole and took our projector and equipment however, on arrival it appeared that due to the social nature of the group, chatting and enquiring on each others’ wellbeing and the fact that there were several attendees that were hard of hearing, our original plans to talk to them as a group would probably not be the best option.

We discussed with Julia who organised the event and we suggested that we talk at each table individually allowing us to engage more personally with the group as there was a maximum of 4 people per table. It also allowed for questions and answers and a more personal service particularly for those that were hard of hearing.

In total we spoke to 35 elderly residents each one informed about priority services register and the warm home discount scheme, 5 people booked to have home visits for free draught proofing measures and to fit new led lightbulbs.

Each person was given a thermostat which will help them to regulate whether their homes are too warm or too cold and we then left the group to enjoy their lunch and bingo.

By Rachel Cole, Projects Officer

Due to the success of last year’s Halloween activities, we decided to do something very similar this year. On Friday 29 October we held a free Halloween crafts and pumpkin session at The Hub.  Over 200 people attended over the 4 hours the event ran and over 100 pumpkins were carved.  Everyone who attended said how good the event was and that it was nice to see people getting together.

Quotes from some of the people who attended:-

By Kiera Lambert, Community Organiser

A big thank you to the team at Rotherham College ESOL department for allowing me to come along and speak to their more advanced English learners! I was able to speak to them about all things RotherFed, our services, and how we can help support them!

There was a fantastic response by the students there who were all keen to get involved in some way or another. The session allowed RotherFed to hear from a group of tenants who can often be left unheard and promote ourselves to the diverse community within Rotherham.

We look forward to continuing our work with Rotherham College and expanding our support for BAME tenants alongside this.

By Rob Gooding, Community Organiser

The Peregrin Way TARA’s committee decided to step down during lockdown after years of service to the community, working with Nicky Hayes from RMBC Neighbourhoods and Kiera from Rotherfed, we set about holding engagement events to identify new members that are interested in taking over the running of the group.

We identified several members that could fill these rolls moving forward. Despite a number of setbacks over the last few months Julie and the committee are now happily in position and running regular sessions from the centre.  Residents have stated that they would like to see new activity’s taking place in the centre, and not just the usual bingo and luncheon clubs. We are currently working with the residents to identify activities that the new group would be able to hold in and around the centre. So far, the group has mentioned gardening clubs, knit and natter’s, craft groups and potentially a breakfast club one or two days a week.

The first event held was an open event for the local community to come along and put their ideas forward. This event was a big success with people from Peregrin coming along to have a chat and discuss what their interests would be. We hosted with tea and coffee, cakes, and even an art station which had an extremely positive response from the attendees. The group are now currently running these coffee mornings every Monday morning and hope to expand to other activities soon.

By Sam Dixon, Community Organiser

Groups of individuals from all over the Dalton Thrybergh ward have been litter picking and participating in other Green Spaces projects for a number of years. As all of these groups have the same aims it was suggested by Cllr Michael Bennett-Sylvester that they all come together, formalize and then the group can start applying for funding and ensuring sustainability for the future.

The East Herringthorpe Pickers: A project run by Michael and Natalie, a local resident who has been engaged with RotherFed for more than 3 years. No matter the weather, Natalie and Michael meet in East Herringthorpe every single Thursday and pick litter from the streets where its agreed need the most attention that particular week. The group has had coverage in various local publications including the Advertiser.

By Dan Barron, Community Organiser

Rother Phoenix FC has progressed incredibly well over the last few months from non-existent to an ambitious footballing community group. Dan had first spoken to Natasha about a football project for children currently out of education. Tasha was then assistant coach in Kiveton. Due to circumstances could no longer work with the club. Natasha started looking into a community football group for Ferham. In doing so parents and children have followed Tasha’s football sessions to Ferham Park as well as engaging residents.

Natasha had spoken to parents who have said they would follow the project to Ferham because of Natasha’s reputation of putting the welfare of the children first. It only took a week for parents to come forward for potential community leadership roles as well as some volunteers who want to help the project with less responsibility. That is a massive credit to Natasha and her passion to become a coach in football and engage with children in sport. Natasha brings previous footballing and coaching experience enabling the project to begin immediately.