Droylsden Better Together Evaluation

Number of Agencies in ‘Approximate’ number of Attendance – 50 attendees – 2500

Photos www.photobucket.com/droylsden-better-together

Promotion of the event We had a definitive strategy planned for promoting this event.....

We leafleted every single home in Droylsden - around 11,500 leaflets, done in the week running up to it, not too far in advance.

We had 100 posters printed and they were put up in various public locations across Droylsden - chippys/schools/shops/library/community centres etc…

We asked every attending agency to promote the event within their own organisation, via websites, social networking, newsletters etc.

Utilised GMP Twitter and Facebook pages to promote, 2000 combined followers/friends on the sites currently plus we asked people/organisations to ‘ReTweet’ our promotional messages getting the information out to all of their followers! This was an invaluable tool.

Newspaper articles in the Tameside Reporter in the 2 weeks running up to the event.

Mention on Tameside Radio.

Use of our local contacts list in the police via Neighbourhood Management System.

Handed out leaflets to parent/carers at each school at home time, requested schools inform parent/carer in their newsletters.

The event was mentioned at District Assembly and local community meetings like Homewatch, PACT and Surgeries.

Promotion to Homewatch members by email database and requested to pass on.

Some other factors in Success...

The brand new building was a definite draw for people so that helped us.

FREE food and drink also brings people in along with entertainment from 2 local bands.

We moved the event from the Sunday to Saturday to avoid clashing with 2 football matches with City and United both playing games on the Sunday, so it’s worth looking at other local activities to avoid making people choose!

Interactive displays like St John’s Ambulance demonstrations / Local Martial Arts Groups / Blood Pressure Checks / Full range of Emergency Services (Police/Fire/Ambulance) etc makes it more interesting and holds people at the event for longer.

Making the event personal to a locality and thus giving local people a feeling that this is for their area and will affect them or have the ability to improve lives.

Offering the ABCD element (Asset Based Community Development) which was the focus for the day. A series of 3 maps of the area where people can pin up – 1. Local Problems (Any Issues at all), 2. Locations for community groups and agencies, 3. Local offers of support and any skills that people have that they might like to share. This process is analysed and actioned out at a date after the event.

Attendance of key people who you would consider to be ‘connectors’ in the community – Event organisers, councillors, MP etc…. anyone who is likely to attract other people simply by their standing in the community, contacts or mere presence. Attracting ‘connectors’ is not something that can always be done easily and in our case has taken years of networking and building relationships to get to a stage where mutual trust is gained by ‘organiser’ and ‘connector’.

And of course the enthusiasm and effort of the event organisers and hosts!

Agency Feedback

Tameside Patrollers

It was a brilliant day. It was really well organised. I can’t believe how many people attended. I think the attraction of the new Academy helped, along with all the local groups/organisations that turned up to support the event.

We got 16 people to register their mobiles and got 8 Home Security Assessment requests. As well as numerous environmental requests and a few people asked if we could do presentations at local youth groups.

It would be fantastic if this could become an annual event in Droylsden and rolled out throughout Tameside, in all the new Academies.

Droylsden Academy

Following the Better Together event quite a few new projects have started to move forward. MP David Heyes returned to visit the Academy to have a full tour round with Mr Davies (Principal). He seemed very impressed with the building and the environment generally. I have set up a programme with Tony Boylin from the Fire Brigade for him to give presentations to several year groups on road traffic safety and fire prevention through their PHSE classes.

I am working with Tameside College now and hopefully coordinate with Tameside Adult Learning to establish the Academy as a centre for Adult and Family Learning (early stages here though).

Finally I have recently had a really fruitful meeting with David Burdis at New Charter about setting up a Credit Union Centre at the Academy.

St Martin’s Church

Well done for all that you achieved yesterday - it was a great event and it was wonderful to see so many people coming.

Those people who came from St Martin's said how much they enjoyed the event. For us as a church, it was good to have an event where we can be seen alongside other agencies/groups working to make a difference in Droylsden and to raise our profile in this area. It provided the opportunity to break the stereotype that some people have of churches is that we are just out to 'convert' people rather than being a group of people who have a particular motivation to engage in communities.

It was also very well timed for us as one of my particular aims for St Martin's is to encourage the concept of us being there to serve our community and so this provided an encouraging, and enjoyable way for some in the congregation to realise that we could have an active role in working alongside other agencies/groups. It will be an experience that I can use to help us think about how we could do more in this area.

Droylsden West Homewatch

56 Brand New Homewatch Members for the ward!! This is a huge figure, at an event like this you could hope for half a dozen new members and consider that a good result! Lots of security devices given out, light timers, window shocks. Stocks ran out.

Bowel Cancer Screening

I thought the event was really good. I can’t believe how well attended it was. I used to live in Droylsden about 10- 15 years ago and it was nice to see so many familiar faces.

There was a good mix of people in attendance and the day seemed really well organised. I think it should be an annual event as not only was it good for promoting the bowel screening, I was also able to make several contacts.

I had 40 detailed conversations about bowel cancer screening – which is a brilliant result!

Prime Youth Club

There were lots of people who hadn't even heard of PRIME and all our goodies went within the first hour!

I saw Janet Hardware who is running a Junior Youth Club in Droylsden so I passed the information on to Diane for her to promote. A very well ran and organised event for Droylsden.

The Stroke Association

We thought it was a brilliant event for us with some really good outcomes. We did about 85 blood pressures and we actually recommend quite a few people to go and visit their GPs as a result. Particularly male’s aged 40-50 who don’t normally go to the GP so good result. That’s really what we are looking to do, prevent someone from having problems later on. In the past we have done events at supermarkets and see a lot of older people who are already receiving treatment so this is a good indicator of the different types of events we need to target, different ages.

We made a lot of networking contacts for ourselves and have been invited to do another event at Audenshaw. Many thanks for organising the event.

430 Sqn Air Cadets

We believe our participation in the Droylsden Better Together event at Droylsden Academy on Saturday 21 of January 2012 has been extremely useful to us. We met a number of potential cadets and possibly some adults who can help us with the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. We haven’t done this for some years, and we restarted it last year but there are parts we need help with. PSCO Hayley Davies has promised to call in to see us and has offered to do a talk on personal security that can be used as part of the skills part of the D of E. There is also a gentleman who is a qualified D of E Assessor for the Expedition. We talked to a man that was a bugler in the army and can teach, as we have been trying to start a band at the squadron -this could be very useful if this is to get off the ground.

We have a number of cadets at Droylsden Academy and meeting some of the staff from there was great and something we probably wouldn’t have been able to do without this event and it appears we may be useful to each other. The Academy has requested some prints of pictures featuring some of their students that are also cadets which can only help both. Seeing and meeting the group from St John is always good there is always a great feeling between us with just a little banter.

Seeing the people from Tameside Link and T3SC was productive, we received a grant from T3SC last year and meeting with them was very interesting and may lead to further grants. We talked to a number of the other groups, some we have worked with regularly such as Friends of Copperas Fields, Littlemoss Memorial Garden and others who we haven’t worked with so much, but hope to in the future. With the contacts made with the local community groups and the chance to talk to members of the community with the possibility of recruiting young people this affords, we thought it was a great success and can only hope it is repeated in the future.

Friends of Sunnybank Vale

The Friends of Sunny Bank Vale all thought the day was great and would attend another one. We signed up about 60 people as friends and raised the profile of SBV significantly. All in all a really good day!

Tameside College

It was a good networking event for us – the number of people that attended was excellent – we did get some contacts from the other stalls regarding links they could make with the college and services they could provide for our Apprentices. We also had a steady flow of enquiries for Apprenticeships either from individuals themselves or family members that would pass the details on – this helped to spread the news of what Apprenticeships are and what is currently available. An immediate impact regarding individuals starting an Apprenticeship is not possible, however we had 36 enquiries regarding Apprenticeships so we are hopeful that this will lead to between 4-6 Apprenticeships starts.

Thank you for inviting us to the event – and if you are hosting future events we would be interested in attending.

Youth Services

Thank you for all your hard work and the rest of the team in pulling together the day, I like everyone was very surprised at the turn out, it was the best turn out I've ever seen at such an event, I know many people also wanted to come along and see the new school, which looks fantastic.

The day from my point of view was a great opportunity to see and meet other services and groups working in the Droylsden area, I made a good few links that will be of great benefit in our work with children young people and families, I also met many new parents and young people who didn't know about PRIME, which is good on the one hand but could have a knock on effect if the numbers increase, I also met parents who were able to see the faces of people actually involved in working with their sons and daughters.

I took the opportunity to speak to young people and parents about the big conversation which closes this week it was a great opportunity to actually involve the voice of young people and some parents.

GMPA

Firstly I just want to say what a fantastic event it was! We go to quite a few community events throughout the year, and we were amazed and pleased for you and your team to see so much support from the community.

Like I said on the day, we were surprised that so many people attended and how quickly we ran out of our questionnaires and freebies. We had well over 200 questionnaires filled in, and all with detailed responses about their local area. The questionnaires asked the public if they had any concerns/problems in their local area and what would be their policing priorities. The vast majority stated that they had no problems in their community and were pleased with their local NPT.

New Charter Housing / Streetwatch

We had a lot of interest from people enquiring about the Streetwatch project so we gave them the leaflet and told them to watch out for publicity re the start meetings so they could attend. 40 plus attended our stand in relation to NCHT issues 95% of which were positive. It was a good day with massive involvement of public and agencies I don’t know how you can quantify the success but it certainly was.

Citizens Advice Bureau

Some feedback from the Citizens Advice Bureau stand – we felt it was an excellent event attended by the community of Droylsden. The facilities were superb and the public played a major part in supporting the day, and taking from the relevant agencies information they felt they needed. We would say well done to the people and services of Droylsden for a fantastic community event, and huge thanks to you for your organization and coordination of such a well attended, well organized event in a fantastic location!

We got the opportunity to raise awareness of our local services in Droylsden, services across Tameside, and also to distribute information on a range of enquiry areas to Droylsden residents including debt, benefits, employment, fuel supply, utilities, warm homes, safety online and others. We feel this event gave us the opportunity for raise profile of and promote our advice and information services to former clients, existing clients, but also to those who have never accessed our services before. We were also able to network with other local service providers on the day.

Thanks very much for inviting us and having us on board, we were pleased to be able to be involved, and distribute information to those who attended. The photographs look great and we’ve circulated them around the organization here.

Do let us know when you’re holding another………!

Droylsden Christian Church

Thank you also for a great day on Saturday, we all had a great day.

We met some fantastic people and had some amazing feedback. After we performed, we had so many people approach us for our details and to say how "refreshing our music was & they really enjoyed it".

We all felt this event helped to put us on the map in Droylsden. At the same time, we were made aware of the diversity of services available to the community and just how much Droylsden has going for it. We made some contacts for activities for our children & hook up with other churches etc.

The atmosphere was so peaceful and positive you could sense the excitement in the air that Droylsden was proud of itself on Saturday.

Droylsden has always had a great community feel, which is why we chose it to plant our church there, this event helped to bring together that community, however diverse the groups, under one roof.

Thank you to you and everyone who organised it, it was excellent! Thank you also for the opportunity, as a church we loved it and had an amazing day.

I haven't had chance to ask if anyone took photos yet, we will be looking out for the Reporter on Thursday, very exciting.

God bless and many many thanks

Nicholson Academy of Theatre Dance

Yes we have had a good response with many enquiries from the leaflets that were handed out on the day, so please let me know of anything like it in the future.

TMBC / Cash Box Credit Union

Heard report featured on Tameside Radio - had a brilliant afternoon, gave away all the resources Environmental Health had supplied me with (energy efficiency, AWARM, Toastie Tameside, and everything we had brought along to promote CashBox Credit Union). Colleagues made links with staff at the Academy who are keen to establish Cashbox there and I had a similar conversation with the Vice principal and networked with a number of other agencies re community building (in Glossop) who want some info regarding forming a management committee in a redundant school as we have for Broadoak Community Centre! Well done!

Lincoln Ave Residents Association

We had some good things which came from the Droylsden Better Together Event on the 21st of January plenty of interest in LARA Advice Centre, plus we are looking into having a slimming club with the change for life team so I am looking forward to that.

It was a great day we must do it again a lot of people got a lot out of it

Droylsden Methodist Church

Thank you for sending the photos and for organising a really great day last Saturday. It was brilliant and thank you for all the effort you put into it. We felt it was really worthwhile - got to talk to lots of people and really felt we are part of a thriving community. Looking forward to the next one!

Pennine Care NHS

As the representative of the NHS’s health improvement team the event was a great opportunity to meet with local residents from various parts of Droylsden and let them know about the services we can provide here.

Many people discussed a range of health issues and 11 people signed up to a course (either stop smoking, weight loss or a cooking course). Some of them also mentioned having friends who’d be willing to join in, so the final number could be higher. The level of interest from this event means we can start to run more courses again here in Droylsden to meet the resident’s needs.

Overall, the event was without a doubt the busiest and one of the best I’ve ever attended. The hall was constantly filled with people throughout the 3 hours, and the even the fire engine and ambulance outside were busy too. It was packed, well planned, and well executed. I’m sure it would’ve been a nightmare to organise but it more than paid off in the end.

As I said on the day you’ve set the bar really high.

By the way, keep me inform with the ABCD because I’m really interested in how the process works.

Church Lads and Church Girls Brigade

Just to say that Saturday was excellent. It gave me and my officers the opportunity to do some valuable networking and promote the Church Lads' and Church Girls' Brigade. We distributed about 350 leaflets advertising our Brigade Company and hopefully this will result in us getting some new members. The event also allowed me to arrange for a visit by our group to the local Fire Station, a visit by St John’s Ambulance and a visit by PCSO Hayley Davies. Also, I was asked if we could go to a ladies meeting at Ryecroft Hall to talk about the Church Lads' and Church Girls' Brigade. A local councillor approached me to see whether we need any funding so all in all an excellent day.

You should be pleased with how the event went and thank you to you and your colleagues for arranging this.

T3SC

A great opportunity for T3SC to get the Directory of community groups out to residents. Tameside LINk picked up a couple of potential new volunteers and we had lots of people who have participated in our questionnaire about their involvement in local planning. Good networking opportunity and found out more information from some of the other stall holders.

Great event and it would be good to learn from you folks about your publicity for the event, it was one of the best turn outs from the local community I have ever seen at this kind of event. Well done so would be good to learn how you did it.

YouThink Health Intervention and Prevention

The day had a great atmosphere, the publicity definitely worked as the attendance was fantastic. In regards to our service, this was a great opportunity to speak to young people in Droylsden and their parents/carers About how we can support them and inform them of services available. I must say we do these kinds of events a few times throughout the year, sometimes we do not get much response from people because of the nature of our service or we get positioned right next to face painting. Thank you for a very well attended event and the positioning of our table worked, we were alongside youth and family teams.

Water Adventure Centre

The event resulted in increased numbers of children & young people attending Sunday Funday, our weekly junior youth club. Indeed there were 5 new members the very next day and yesterday's attendance was up again. It was a good networking opportunity and was good to have an overview of all the groups in Droylsden, we were impressed with the high visitor turn-out and we had underestimated the footfall so if it was done again we'd bring more leaflets to give out.

Friends of Copperas Fields

We spoke to quite a few people on the day all of which wanted to know more about either the home watch or Friends of Copperas Field. We gave them our contact details and have been in contact with some of them via email. Some have shown interest at coming to the fun day event in May which is good.

We were glad that quite a few people had signed up to home watch from both sides of Droylsden as the more people we have involved the better it is for Droylsden as a whole.

We met quite a few agencies that we had no idea were in Droylsden so it will have been good promotion for them

Droylsden Scouting

Thanks for all the hard work that went into organising the Droylsden Better Together event. Not only did we have at least 8 young people who attended 2 of the local Scout groups last week (not sure about the third group!) we also have the valuable opportunity to meet other agencies such as PCSOs and Friends of Sunnyvale Park who are willing to work with us with our youngsters over the coming months! A real success for Scouting in Droylsden I would say! (Plus one of my children's parents who attended the event has volunteered to come along and help with our meetings, a much needed boost to our staffing levels!)

Health and Well Being Team

Thanks for organising a great event, we were able to meet and network with other professionals and groups working in the area, we recruited 4 information ambassadors and got several referrals for wellbeing advisors.

339th Scouts – St Martins

Following the Droylsden Better Together event I would like to tell you what impact it has had on our Scout group. I am involved in 339th Scouts (St Martin's) and since the DBT day we have had about 12 new members, several of whom attend the school. We also made links with the Friends of Sunnybank Vale who are already doing valuable work to clean up the park and make it more accessible to local groups and residents. One of their members, Roy, has created 5 bird nesting boxes which he then brought to Cubs and Scouts yesterday and helped the youngsters to assemble them. We will be going into the park on a Sunday morning in a couple of week’s time to place the boxes into the trees for the birds to nest. During the year the children will then be able to go out and check which are being used and by which species. This will enable them to earn a Naturalist badge in a few months time but also, hopefully, it will encourage them to respect the environment in the local area. For me, DBT was a real success and I hope that it will be repeated in future years! Many thanks to you and Chris for all of the hard work that went into making this such a success for the people of Droylsden!

Jian Taiji Martial Arts

We were very impressed with the whole event. The turnout was larger than you usually get at these sorts of events and it seemed well organised.

We found that we had a constant stream of people coming to our stall asking more about our classes - we even ran out of leaflets there was that much interest. (Now we are just hoping that some of them actually turn up!)

The school was a great venue; the refreshments were good and all the school staff friendly. So a thumbs up from us.

Family Health Mentor Team

On behalf of the Family Health Mentor team, I would like to thank you for allowing us to have a stall.

I thought the event itself was brilliant; with plenty of things for the public to see and do and was very impressed by the number of organisations that were involved.

Our own service benefitted greatly from the event, with many people enquiring about our role, taking the leaflets on display and we even had two referrals from parents who wanted us to help their children with healthy eating.

Many thanks again for a terrific day!

St John’s Ambulance

Excellent feedback from the public and team including fellow community agencies with great cross networking opportunity made possible by a well organised day by the organisers. I and the team would look forward to working and supporting you on future projects.

Shin-Ga-Do Martial Arts

We felt the event was very positive and there have been a few enquiries from potential new members. We would be happy to help with similar events in the future.

Fire Service

The event was excellent and we took a lot from it. Your work and commitment was outstanding. We took 68 referrals for home safety checks I also took future appointments to visit various other agencies and arrange talks to their groups. Scouts, boys & girl brigade over 55 club to name a few. Once again well done.

Superintendant Spragg

Very impressed with the Droylsden Respect Week.

I have just been through the evaluation and it is evident that you put an incredible amount of effort into this, and were rewarded with a fantastic turn out at Saturday's finale! Speaking to CI Barr today, I understand that this last event was fantastic. A superb week of activity!

Chief Inspector Barr

I attended this event on Saturday afternoon. It was organised at the new Droylsden Academy by Claire Galt's team but in particular by PC Chris Hayden. I just wanted to bring to your attention what a success the event was. There were representatives of all sections of the community from local church groups to NHS, Police horses, Citizen's Advice and Charter Housing through to keep fit and Zumba classes, fortunately supported by blood pressure checks and St. John's Ambulance just in case.

The opening speeches for the event were made by David Heyes MP and Cllr Ged Cooney.

ABCD Mapping Exercise

The mapping exercise was at the heart of the day – Asset Based Community Development. There were 3 large maps of Droylsden and on the tables in front were sets of post it notes and 3 questions posed to local people and groups –

1 - What can we make better in Droylsden? 2 - Do you have any special skills or talents that you would like to offer the community? 3 - Location of local community groups and agencies?

We asked people to write in some detail for any of the above areas and post it into a confidentiality box and also write a quick note about it on a post it and put it on the map at the relevant place. It’s important to know that this process continues long after the event itself, it’s no good asking people for their thoughts and not following upon it!

We had 31 notes posted on ‘What can we make better in Droylsden?’ All issues have been forwarded to the relevant agency or person who might be able to help along with the contact details, with all persons to be contacted where possible. Those actioned were as follows –

Droylsden Councillors

Please can we have the Junior Youth Club. More Sure Bingo for older people yellow box back at Start Sessions. Less cuts to Market St / Greenside services. Detached team in Lane lights? Thank you Droylsden. More senior youth club sessions. Pot holes on Leicester Ave, Droylsden reported to council but nothing done. Speeding cars down the same Ave.

Clearing the verges alongside the fence to Sunnybank Park of weeds and rubbish, over grows into residents gardens. Ban commercial vehicles from being brought home and parked on residential estates, interferes with bin services and commuters trying to get in and out of their properties.

Tameside Patrollers

Dog Fouling, reported many times to Dog fouling Dawlish Ave Patrollers but still happening (usually and Buckingham Rd outside my gate!!)

More dog fouling bins in Droylsden. Recently the council issued a notice about fines for dog fouling on fields and dogs without leads YET they removed all the bins for dog fouling specifically on Lewis rd park. How are the residents supposed to clean up when there is nowhere to dispose of it? Also Too many yobs and not enough places to go around Droylsden, they need a variety of different places to go and activities for all ages.

Droylsden East Neighbourhood Policing Team

The traffic at Market St / Greenside Lane - drivers completely ignore the yellow box and traffic from greenside lane blocks the entire junction leaving the traffic coming from market st Parking on the corner of Thornhill toward town centre completely still. A journey that should take Rd, Moorside St is a problem. 5 mins takes half an hour! People also use the cut through past St Marys even though it has a no entry sign.

Droylsden West Neighbourhood Policing Team

Speeding cars Parking on road on Shelley I think we should Crack down on off road down Leicester Grove by 5ways vans. have a skate park bikes in Droylsden West, Ave, Droylsden and a skate teacher! more mums and tots groups, family activities, easier to find local info.

Chappell Rd / Greenside Lane speeding cars

A more comprehensive overview of services in the area

Motorbike issues Sunnybank Park, more patrols Utilise Lewis Rd park more for community events, more consistent youth clubs, cycle path Sunnybank Vale

We had a total of 12 offers of support/skills/talents from local groups and people pinned on the map. From requests for volunteers from the Stroke Association and Friends of Copperas Fields to support offered for young people from the Droylsden Family Health Mentors. Some of the offers and requests have been, where possible, posted on the Tameside West Facebook and Twitter pages for local people to see, consider and take up – As follows –

The Stroke Association has an The Lees St Congregational Church, Openshaw (0161 231 0004) allotment on the Moravian has a Women's Guild every other Wednesday and a drama group Settlement for Stroke survivors and every Monday and Thursday. Give them a call! is looking for volunteers to help out. Call 0161 330 4006.

The Family Health Mentor Service in Droylsden offers brief intervention, advice and support to all young people with Friends of Copperas Fields are looking for regard to healthy eating, smoking, drugs and alcohol and volunteers to help their project, Please inbox emotional health and well being issues. If you would like info us with your details and we will pass on to please message us. them.

Numerous local groups and agencies posted their location on map 3 for all to see.

Community Stories

John Rogers is also compiling all the ‘Community Stories’ that have both come out of this event and also stories from local people showing their involvement in the Community in years gone by, highlighting the spirit in Droylsden, inspiring development potential and future stories that will go towards making the area a better place.

A snapshot below, this is a work in progress though and more are available on request if need be.....

Droylsden Academy & Greenside – Student Voice

· Me and my friends went out and decided to pick up all the rubbish in the park. So we did that and we saw a man drop some rubbish so we ran to him to explain that today we were cleaning up all the rubbish and we asked if he would be so kind to pick it up and he did.

· Me and my friend went into a shop and we found everything all over the place. So we tidied it up. I felt sorry for the shop keeper.

· I frequently go out of my home and get my brush and shovel and sweep up all the litter in the street.

· My mum and dad on a Monday night run a club for poor people for free.

· I once shovelled snow out of my neighbours garden. · When a car got stuck in the snow me and my friends helped get it moving again.

· My old street had litter all over it. We wrote letters and got some litter bins.

· All our neighbours run a neighbourhood watch scheme where we look after each others houses and keep an eye on each other. · We go litter picking together.

· People plonk poo bags in our garden and we have to pick them up. We have put a bin up to help them.

· As neighbours we look after each others houses and pets when somebody goes on holiday. We also look after each other all of the time.

Littlemoss Memorial Garden Greenside Year 6 – Student Voice

Thanks to the Littlemoss Memorial committee Droylsden now has Me and my friends were walking in a a beautiful memorial garden that will be in existence for the next street. After some time we all saw an old 40 years. A true legacy for the residents in Droylsden. This lady who can’t see where she is going. I committee have worked tirelessly to renew the wrought iron asked the lady where she wanted to go fencing, improve and upgrade the garden with new planting and and she told me that she wanted to go seating and provide a memorial stone that the residents in home. I took her home and she thanked us Droylsden can truly be proud of. The committee is made up from all. local residents who wanted to see an improvement in the local area and who decided to work together to provide this lasting legacy.

Droylsden Academy & Greenside – Student Voice · I help Droylsden by recycling.

· I went carol singing with my friends and donated the money to charity. · I pull the old lady’s bin in. She lives next to me and is called Millie.

· We go round and wash neighbours cars for nothing—it gives us something to do.

· I went and tidy my Nan's back yard and my mums back garden. · Me and my dance school did a dance show to raise money for an old folks home.

· Me and my friend went round to houses and did jobs for people to raise money for the flood in Pakistan. · We went on a sponsored walk with Brownies and bought equipment for us to use.

· I do shopping for my older neighbour.

· I visit old people to keep them company.

Friends of Copperas Field

Friends of Copperas Field are a group of volunteers that have banded together to try to make a difference to their area. We are hoping to transform Copperas Field (an underused field) into a green oasis in Droylsden to be used by the whole community. The field is situated between what is known locally as John Street estate and Buxton Lane estate. We feel that the field is mostly unused. This is a waste and with funding, determination and a lot of good will we hope to transform the area into a space that can be utilised in a way that can benefit the surrounding area. We aim to try to make the field a safer environment for activities to suit all ages and the wildlife. We have employed a landscape architect who has created a master plan for the re-development of the field which enables us to put in for funding bids. To date, with the help of our local Council we have changed the field by creating a wildflower meadow with 2 boardwalks, we have now got 5 new footpaths, there are 5 entrances/exits with either “A” frames or “Kissing Gates” to help deter “off road bikes” and anti-social behaviour and make the field safer to use, we have had 3 notice boards erected, we have now got waste bins at every entrance/exit and we have worked with Fairfield Primary school to plant daffodil bulbs and make and erect bird boxes. We are hoping to introduce better lighting, a 0-5 playground, 6 - 12 adventure playground, a teenage shelter, nature trail, fishing platforms, a separate dog walking area, a picnic area, a ball court and events area. We strive to achieve this by attaining funding and help from the local community.

Graham Halliwell on 0161-292-9735 or mobile: 07849432891, email: [email protected] Or Keith Crockett on 0161-370-4821 or mobile: 07876113210 email: [email protected]

WE DESPERATELY NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS. We meet the LAST Monday of every month in Droylsden Working Mens Club (Better known as John Street Club) at 6.30pm. Why not come along and work towards making a difference to your area. All we ask is for you to give 2—3 hours a month to help with projects.

Droylsden Better Together Website

Richard Higgins at Droylsden Academy has offered the possibility of a website for Droylsden Better Together which will detail all we did to plan, carry out and all the outcomes and contacts so that we can direct the public to the results and keep it up to date for the future. We can promote out ABCD procedure and outcomes also. This is something that will be discussed after this evaluation has been completed.

Droylsden Better Together – Community Fund

As a result of the ABCD we did here John Rogers is looking at working together with Droylsden Academy, GMP and possibly one of the Credit Unions to create a fund which local people can apply into to carry out a project to improve Droylsden. Small grants of up to £250, the idea of local people and local solutions coming to the fore, the fund will pay people for their time and/or resources to carry out the said project, in the process improving the area and giving more ownership to residents. John is looking to Fair Share for a bid of £9500 to start this project off.

Droylsden Directory

The extensive list of community groups and agencies that attended have provided us with an opportunity to update the ‘Droylsden Community Groups’ booklet which was produced by T3SC. John Rogers will be working with Town Manager Ian Cochrane to get this in motion.

Agencies attending and contacts –

Contact Me Any further queries please contact me –

PC Chris Hayden 11015 [email protected] 07584225066

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ATTENDED TO MAKE IT A SUCCESS!!