NCP Roundup: Top Stories and Highlights from Recent Months!

On February 14th, we were delighted to welcome Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, to NCP today. We appreciate you taking the time to discuss plans for the West Midlands Combined Authority and explore ways we can work together!

We organised a community litter pick around Northfield in support of the Great British Spring Clean! A massive thank you to everyone who joined us ! 💚🍃 In just an hour and a half, we collected 25 bags of litter!

We understand that the current bin strikes have led to more rubbish than usual, but please be mindful when disposing of your waste. Let’s keep working together to make Northfield a clean and tidy place to live. The bags have been collected.

We'll keep you informed about upcoming community litter picks!

💜 We’re incredibly proud of our CEO, Rebecca Debenham, for being invited to 10 Downing Street on March 11th to celebrate International Women’s Day!

Northfield NNS

Back in January, our NNS team organised their Jolly January campaign! You can read all about it here.

March Community Lunch On 14th March, we were at Deelands Hall Community Group hosting our March Community Lunch! The theme of this months lunch was around community groups that deliver a service outside, as spring is nearly here.

A big thank you to all our guest speakers including:

• Sara & Jackie from Allens Cross Community Centre and Garden who spoke about their "The Shed" project!

• Claire from Spring to Life who spoke about all the great things Spring to Life are up to including their allotment project!

• Redeemer Church also spoke about their great 'Arts at your door project'. Where they go out to isolated individuals and encourage them back into the community through art.

• And finally Rubery Wombles who were representing Deelands Community Garden, who were very generous to take the lunch on a guided tour around their garden.

Thank you to everyone who came, we hope you found it useful and thank you to Deelands Hall Community Group for hosting us and letting us know what they have going on!

Falls Prevention – Walking Stick MOT

Throughout our work within our project, Northfield Neighbourhood Network Scheme (NNS), Falls Prevention continues to be one of our main work priorities. Our aims and focus are to reduce the risk of falls and educate our citizens which will hopefully, over time, reduce the demand upon allocations within adult social care and reduce hospital admissions.

So far, NNS have funded two services to deliver this piece of work including sessions delivered by Systems Fitness based at Northfield Leisure Centre. These sessions are running for 26-weeks and help to support strength-based exercise and improve balance and coordination.

In addition, we’ve funded Birmingham Community Healthcare Charity (BCHC) NHS Foundation Trust Charity with the aim to visit local older adults’ groups within the community to deliver activities/sessions around falls prevention including walking stick MOT safety checks.

So far, the sessions have been extremely well attended with positive engagement throughout. The sessions focus on reducing falls and learning the main risks of falls which can include unsuitable footwear, going outside in slippers and other unsuitable footwear, trousers or clothing that is too long, undiagnosed high/low blood pressure, and poor eyesight.

The sessions are an hour long and delivered by an NHS colleague who will also change any worn ferrule free of charge. (A ferrule is the rubber bit on the end of a stick). These sessions are interactive and include a Wheel of Misfortune, a visual tool which depicts the main cause(s) of most falls and fractures. This motivates the group to talk about what effects them on a daily basis and encourages everyone to take part in various discussions/topics and an opportunity for Q&A’s.

The feedback we have received has been extremely positive and citizens have found the sessions interesting, useful and informative. Some citizens stated that if they had not attended the session, they would not have had their ferrules checked and replaced and the majority of ferrules were dangerously worn.

If you would like more information regarding our work on falls, or interested in hosting a Walking Stick MOT session, please get in touch by emailing Bev Hardman on bev@northfieldcommunity.org

For more information around activities, information & guidance, you can visit our Connect To Support website https://birmingham.connecttosupport.org

Follow us on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/

Future Proof

With the reopening of Future Proof's garden service, Ralph has successfully completed a stunning garden transformation. Incredible work, team! ☀️🍃

Ralph hung up lots of lovely pictures for a disabled resident who recently moved into their new bungalow.

We received wonderful feedback for our Future Proof team! 💚

Family Wellbeing Team

Our Family Wellbeing Team are hosting an Easter Fun Day event on April 22nd!

Digital Literacy

Our Digital Literacy team's upcoming drop-in sessions for April! 💻

Other!

In February, we celebrated one year of Northfield Community Pantry opening its doors! It’s been wonderful meeting so many new people and seeing our community benefit from the various services we offer. 💚✨

Support us on Birmingham Community Lottery!

You could win a Luxury City Break, or £1,000 cash!

Win a Luxurious City Break when you play the Super Draw this month. Whether you want to hit the West End for a weekend, see the architecture and nightlife of Barcelona, sample the art and food of Florence, or soak up the culture in Paris, this prize is simply not to be missed! Not a fan of travelling? Choose £1,000 cash, or plant 1,000 trees instead! Get your tickets before Saturday 26th April!

Enter here!