CLC Outreach – February 2023

Our Take part coordinator Tom Wild has been busy over the past months engaging with our partners, forging new links and attending various events promoting the centres services for members, recruiting new volunteers, networking with local and national organisations and raising awareness of Creative Living Centre.

Autumn/Winter round up!
Men & boys coalition conference -Stoller Hall Manchester November 2023 – Cody and Tom attended this one-day conference specifically about men’s health (including mental health). This included looking at the national and international picture and hearing from some amazing organisations such as Andys man club, The Man Hug podcast, Movember, Talk About It Mate, Men’s sheds and many more! Lots of really interesting work going on both locally and around the country which was inspiring and we made lots of great connections.

Bury VCFA forum- Great to catch up with other organisations in the Bury area and share ideas/learnings. Tony Foster also announced that after several attempts he will be retiring in March 2024. We are sad to lose such a great ambassador for the voluntary sector, but we look forward to welcoming his replacement in due course!

Aviva Crowdfunder – Allotment group - We had a successful crowdfunding campaign raising over £1400 for our planned allotment group (starting in spring). This means we have been able to engage Ciaran from Sow the City to provide a 6-week growing vegetables course for members and volunteers. This started on February 15th and the feedback has been great. Our thanks go to everyone who donated and to Aviva who provided match funding to us

Nina from RHS Bridgewater provided another free workshop – Tree grafting on the 8th February– attended by members and volunteers at our allotment, learning about creating new trees and supporting older trees.

Part of our regular outreach is to attend monthly volunteer forums hosted by Salford CVS, MACC and Bury VCFA, brilliant organisations offering support, training, information and skill sharing to volunteer coordinators across Manchester.
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Thanks go out to Nas & Nicola at Prestwich job centre, Grace & Claire at Salford CVS, Tony & Neville at Bury VCFA, Barkery & team at MACC, Nina at RHS Bridgewater, Malcolm and team at Claytime Stockport, The Men and Boys Coalition team, Aviva and all our volunteers at the CLC. Engaging with all of these wonderful provisions in our local area has provided some excellent opportunities for our members and we look forward to our continued work with them.

Thanks for reading
​Tom