As part of this year’s Ageing Well Festival (formerly known as the Brighton & Hove Older People’s Festival) we held a special event at Woodingdean Community Centre – this offered local people the chance to meet like-minded people, enjoy some refreshments together and to learn about what’s on in Woodingdean.

Here’s what Sue Sayers, our Ageing Well Project Manager and Participation Worker, had to say about the event:

Despite the dreadful weather (and if the weather is bad, it’s extra bad in Woodingdean!), we had a fair turnout for our social and information event for the over 50’s at Woodingdean Community Centre on Friday 11^th October. We played Boccia and found out about library resources, Warm Homes, Stay Steady Exercises and reps were on hand for many of the activity groups that happen in Woodingdean – all on the theme of Ageing well in Woodingdean.

The response was – “can we have these events on a regular basis?”!

The Trust for Developing Communities, along with Brighton’s ONCA and MakerClub are delighted to have been awarded support by Curiosity (co-funded by Children In Need and Wellcome Trust) to run Curiosity Club, a three year science engagement project with young people in East Brighton, starting in autumn 2019. 

TDC Director Athol Halle says, “The aim of Curiosity Club is to enable young people to access exciting science, technology and creative learning opportunities that they would not usually get. The project will build participants’ inspiration and agency, supporting them to turn their ideas into innovations and make a difference in their community by generating solutions to problems they experience.” 

Young people will work together to explore and address issues they care about, linking personal empowerment with solutions to real world problems. We will use the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Brighton’s UNESCO Biosphere status as catalysts for engagement with environmental and social justice issues. 

The Curiosity Club project will be based mainly in East Brighton and it will proactively seek to engage participants from groups, including young people with disabilities. It will foster community building and feeling safe as well as creative thinking and exploration of emerging technologies.

To find out more please email [email protected] and have a look at what happened when MakerClub came to the Whitehawk Youth Cafe earlier in the year →

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The project is supported via ‘Curiosity’, a collaboration between BBC Children in Need and Wellcome. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of BBC Children in Need or Wellcome. 

We are proud to be a part of a brand new citywide mental health and wellbeing service which launched this year on World Mental Health Day – 10^th October.

Community Roots is a network of 16 organisations providing services and resources to support mental health across Brighton & Hove. The services are all person-centred, responsive and flexible to meet people’s needs, help them manage their mental health and realise their full potential.

The network is the first of its kind in Sussex. Led by housing, care and support organisation Southdown, in partnership with Allsorts Youth Project, Assert, Brighton Women’s Centre, Cruse Bereavement Care, Fabrica, Friends, Families & Travellers, Grassroots, The Hangleton & Knoll Project, Mind in Brighton and Hove, Mind Out, Money Advice Plus, Trust for Developing Communities, Rethink, Switchboard and The Clare Project. 

TDC will be working together with the Hangleton & Knoll project to deliver and facilitate services that improve the mental health and wellbeing of people from local BAME communities. We’ll be particularly focusing on those who have limited access to community mental health services, those living in areas of greatest socio-economic need, and those coming from high-risk communities such as refugees and migrants.

The freephone service is available on 0808 196 1768 is open Monday to Friday between 9am to 5pm. Callers will be given help to navigate and access relevant services.

TDC is commissioned by the Clinical Commissioning Group to conduct health consultations with the BME communities in Brighton with the aim to gather feedback about using health services in Brighton. On the 25^th of September our TDC BME Engagement Worker Sayanti organised a health consultation for East Brighton residents held at the Whitehawk Inn. The event was held in partnership with Sussex Interpreting Services (SIS) and residents were invited to share their experiences about using local and citywide health services. Some of the other service providers who were present on the day included the Hangleton and Knoll Project, the local community worker from Serendipity, the Brighton and Hove City Council Transport Planner and Wellsbourne Healthcare CIC. Residents from diverse ethnic backgrounds participated in the event and used a number of different languages  to communicate – Arabic, Spanish, Russian and Oromifa. The SIS interpreters and TDC MESH worker supported the residents by translating for them and presenting their health experiences.

The participants had long term health conditions, and everyone gave positive feedback about the surgeries. We learned that the main challenge for patients with language need is arranging for an interpreter when trying to access a same day appointment. The session was the perfect opportunity to circulate information about interpreting services, local exercise and health classes and services offered by the surgeries.

Sayanti said “We were pleased to host this event where BME residents from East Brighton had an opportunity to share their health experiences and access information about local services. The participants gave some very positive feedback about the event and said they would like to have more of these in the future.”

Over the summer we’ve been asking residents of Moulsecoomb and Bevendean about green and open spaces in the area.

Working together with Local Wild Spaces, a collaboration of local outdoor community groups, we asked residents about their favourite open and green spaces, how they access them and what they thought needed improving. The purpose was to help identify potential projects around the local green spaces, bring people together, help people to enjoy the neighbourhood, and increase the number of outdoor, sports and health activities.

Many people took part and the outcomes have now been analysed. Priorities have been set with some projects already in motion such as:

• Planting trees on the Avenue green,
• working on Maggie’s Corner playground,
• creating an Outdoor Gym at Wild Park & 
• planning outdoor community events for 2020.

You can see a summary of the findings below, and for further information, or to get involved, contact Anke Thurm, TDC’s Community Development Worker in the area, on 07449 464695 or [email protected]

Above photo courtesy of Local Wild Spaces: Moulsecooomb & Bevendean Nature Trail on Facebook. 

By Céza Da Luz, Community Development Worker – Hollingdean & Saunders Park

Local young people in Hollingdean have created a Youth Council which is designing how to transform the disused skate park area at the back of Hollingdean Park into an eco-café and chill out area open to everyone.

The plan is for WILD.ECOCAFE to be made of recycled shipping containers and powered by sustainable energy and negotiations with Brighton & Hove Council for use of the land are going on right now. WILD members aim to reclaim disused local spaces, restore local ecology, chill out in nature, gain enterprise skills and earn money working in the community enterprise eco-café. A beautiful decked space is included in the plans, looking out over Brighton and the coast. Everyone will be welcome. Dog walkers are particularly pleased with the idea!

How is this all coming about? Local resident and Fundraising consultant Julia Blagbrough, (WILD Director) talked to local people and others who use the area about the disused skate park and how it could benefit Hollingdean. It is clear that local young people want a safe space to hang out in, and to make a positive difference to the environment on our doorsteps. Since then, there’s been massive support. A growing community membership is stepping forward to get involved, including Hollingdean resident and architect, Stuart Hoyle.

Julia has been busy gathering a board of Trustees and establishing WILD as a charity and community enterprise. Local permaculture hero Stephan Gherels will head up WILD’s ecological restoration programme. WILD is also working together with Friends of Hollingdean Park, Hollingdean Ecological Action Project, Brighton Permaculture Trust, and Youth Strikes4Climate Change to name a few.

Ruby Orsola, Sonny Da Luz and Joe Evershed are founder members of the Youth Council who are sending out a call to action asking everyone who wants to join to get in touch.

It’s an exciting time! Want to join in? WILD want to hear from Youth Council and adult community members as well. Email Julia at: [email protected] or check out Facebook: wild.ecocafe or Instagram: wild.ecocafe

Photo of the group below courtesy of wild.ecocafe on facebook

We are seeking an experienced Chair to lead our Board of Trustees as we deliver community-led solutions to tackling inequality. 

At TDC  we deliver grassroots community development work across the city of Brighton and Hove. Last year we supported over 6,000 local people across 250 community groups and provided over 67,000 hours of volunteering support.

We work in neighbourhoods, across the city and beyond, delivering a broad range of community-led solutions to tackling inequality including research, training and youth work.

We are seeking an experienced Chair to lead the board and ensure it provides governance of the highest quality and rigour as the organisation grows and develops.

Our new Chair will share TDC’s values led approach and bring experience of making a significant impact.

You will have the insight required to lead a high performing board and to both challenge and support the Senior Leadership Team.

You will bring skills from holding senior leadership positions, feeling comfortable in an ambassadorial role and have governance experience from within the charity sector.

TDC is committed to achieving greater diversity in its board, and welcomes applications regardless of sex, gender, race, age, sexuality, belief or disability.

If you have the skills and passion we are looking for and feel inspired to apply you can find more details here: https://www.trustdevcom-chair.org/

Closing date for applications: Friday 18th October at 10am