By Rachel Cole, Senior Project Worker
Rachel is currently in the process of working with Rotherham Council officers to support a group of residents to set up a TARA on the Fitzwilliam Estate. They held a couple of meetings early this year, where residents attended and expressed their interested in getting involved and starting a group. They agreed to hold a Litter Pick and a Teddy Bear’s Picnic in August as their first event.
Due to the success of the Litter Pick and Teddy Bear’s Picnic event, at the meeting in September, the group agreed that they wanted to hold a pumpkin painting event in the October school holidays. Rachel did the group a donation letter and they contacted Tesco who supplied 40 pumpkins, I used some of my budget to purchase the extra 20 they needed. FLUX agreed to come along and support this event and provided an artist to help with the painting. The event was held on Tuesday 25 October from 11am until 2pm and despite the cold wet weather, 60 children and their families took part in the pumpkin painting, which took place under gazebos on Calladine Way. They group did a raffle which raised over £45. It was another fantastic event which everyone enjoyed.
Rotherham Council are running a Christmas grotto on the estate for the families, this will be on Wednesday 13 December, the group have agreed to hold a tombola at this to hopefully raise more funds.
Four residents from the group are attending the Tenants Conference on Tuesday 31 October at New York Stadium and there are also have residents who are interested in joining the HIP meetings and Scrutiny meetings.
It has been a long time since there was a TARA on this estate, therefore, they are really pleased to see the progress and hope that it continues. Rachel will continue to support the group until they are more established and then hopefully, they’ll become constituted, which will enable them to apply for additional funding allowing them to deliver activities/events/trips for the estate.
