Unity in the Community with Community Matters

Could community collaboration be the key to overcoming the challenges posed by a global pandemic? Join us as we chat with the inspiring Janet and Jacqueline from Community Matters, who have turned the hardships of COVID-19 into opportunities for positive change. Learn how their organization's initiatives, such as the Bread and Butter project, coat drives, and school uniform donations, have provided essential support to residents in need. Discover the power of partnerships with local businesses like Tesco and community efforts at St Barnabas Church that have been pivotal in lifting community spirit during trying times.

Community Matters Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hattersleycommunitymatters

JOSH'S BAD JOKES

Chapters

• 2:01 Community Matters
• 12:14 Community Support Through Projects and Collaboration
• 23:51 Collaborative Community Support Initiatives
• 27:55 Promoting Community Unity and Collaboration
• 35:07 Acknowledging Community Contributors

Transcript

Speaker 1: 2:01

Hello and welcome to another episode of Hats, chats and Giggles podcast. Today we're thrilled to have Janet and Jacqueline from Community Matters joining us for what promises to be an exciting conversation about the amazing work they're doing inside our community. Exciting conversation about the amazing work they're doing inside our community. But before we dive in, I'd like to give a special shout out to all you fantastic listeners out there, whether you're tuning in from Attersley or Greater Manchester or anywhere around the globe. Yes, you heard that right, we've gone global. We are amazed to have listeners from 12 different countries, including Spain, the United States, australia, singapore, sweden, france, greece, cape Verde, turkey, india and Hungary. Your support means the world to us. So sit back, relax and get ready for some great chats and plenty of giggles. Beryl put the kettle on. Today in the studio we've got Atta Lee's answer to the Scissor Sisters, jackie Owen and Janet Cooper. They're going to be talking to us about their community interest called Community Matters. Good afternoon or good morning, should I say Good morning. Thanks for coming in Very welcome.

Speaker 2: 3:27

Thanks for inviting us.

Speaker 1: 3:29

To start off, thank you for all the work that you do in the community. Tell us about Community Matters and what's Community Matters.

Speaker 2: 3:37

Community Matters is a constituted community group that Janet and myself set up following the COVID pandemic. We decided that that had shown us that there was quite a lot of gaps in services that we felt that we could be filling and as councillors because Janet was a councillor at the time we're not able to access funding. But as a constituted community group we could be filling and as councillors because Janet was a councillor at the time we're not able to access funding, but as a constituted community group we could.

Speaker 3: 4:08

So Community Matters was born out of that. Yeah, because there was a fair bit of funding around at the time to bring things on, but, as Jacqueline said, we weren't able to actually access it. So we said, right, we need to find a way that we can access it because we could see how much it was needed within this community, ourselves included. You know we'd all had a really bad time during the pandemic, but we'd done the best we can. But we felt we needed to move that forward.

Speaker 1: 4:34

So tell us a bit more about your constitution. Who makes up Community Matters, then?

Speaker 2: 4:41

Well, janet's the chair, I'm the treasurer and secretary to Candidate Stroke. We have the church warden from St Barnabas sits on our steering group, janice, and Sue Ayres from the food bank, the manager of the food bank. She sits on our steering group as well so that they have a say in what's going on and they're keeping an eye on what's going on, but also because we're using St Barnabas facilities a lot of the time and the food bank are based here as well. And also we have Sam Powers from Onward Homes. They're the registered social landlord. She's one of our advisors, yeah, and she sits at the side of that because she's got a different role and she's one of their social investment specialists.

Speaker 1: 5:29

I've been down there on Fridays at the meeting point at St Barnabas and it's like a hive of activity and I think it's quite a warm environment and it's nice seeing all them different people coming together for a good cause. What involvement have you had in that?

Speaker 3: 5:51

I think most of our involvement has been with the bread and butter thing which came into Hattersley a few years ago. Most of my engagement has been since. It's been at St Barnabas a little bit while he was at the hub, and it's just brought a lot of people together. Not only is it a place to get your food the bread and butter because you pay for it is a hand up, not a hand out but it's also become part of people's safety network. You know, we, we chat about people, we chat about things that have gone on.

Speaker 3: 6:27

At the end of the pandemic, when people were struggling for coats, because people said, well, sometimes we buy our, our new inverted commas, winter coats from the charity shops. But they were all shut. So we put a shout out for coats, put, put a rail out and said if you've got anything in the wardrobe that, like me, I'm not going to slim into, but I never have, there's quite a few of them, I'm sorry to say. But we said you know, whatever you've got, bring up and within you know a day the rail was full so we could help people. And then we've got lots of things like that going on. We've still got the rail, it's still out there. It still brings in a little bit of money but helps people. At the time we also had the uniformed people caring and sharing, helping with school uniforms. That's mostly gone now to schools because they do their own, but at the time they weren't yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:16

We've had tabletop sales schools because they do their own, but at the time they weren't. Yeah, we've had tabletop sales so we've been able to. Uh, we've worked very closely in tesco the community champion there, sonia, and the manager, ton, who give us stuff like end of line and and stuff like that which we then been able to sell, which made a big difference to people, particularly when we've been able to sell things around about Christmas. So, you know, a toy that may be 10 or 15 pounds, we're selling for three or five, you know. So that makes a big difference. It allows people to purchase some of those things. And we have actually, during the pandemic, we actually did acquire from all over the place different toys and stuff so that everybody could have, you know, one big gift, two small gifts and a book kind of thing, so that families were able to have something to give to their children.

Speaker 1: 8:07

I know you don't run the bread and butter thing, but just tell me so. How does it work, the bread and butter? How does that actually work? Do you have to be an employee to go there? Do you have to be unemployed to go there, Do you? Have to be referred.

Speaker 3: 8:21

No, it's not means tested at all. You can apply to join the scheme. It's within this postcode area of Londondale, although we do a little bit of outreach if people are stuck. You sign up for the scheme and then, once you're accepted, on what normally happens, you get a text, usually on a Tuesday, to say whether you want your order or not and you have to respond to say you do and then hopefully you'll be on the list. Sometimes it's oversubscribed and recently it hasn't been.

Speaker 3: 8:53

So that's been really good because we don't like turning anybody away and you come along and you pick your three bags of food up an ambient bag, fresh fruit and veg and then a chilled bag that comes on the chilled van. It arrives and we unpack the van and then the bags are packed and then we start serving approximately 1.30pm and then we finish at 2pm. But there are several people with a larger family who have a double order. So I think it's £8.50 at the moment for a single order, so it's double. That it varies every week, but I can always say it's. I'd be wrong to say I always say, but you know, the majority of the time it's really really good value. But it dips, like everything else because supermarkets are having issues with supply, so we get the same issues with supply at the bread and butter thing.

Speaker 1: 9:53

What motivated you to start up Community Matters?

Speaker 2: 9:57

Oh, before I was elected I didn't actually know Janet very well.

Speaker 2: 10:02

I knew of her and I knew her to kind of pass the time of day with, but that was it.

Speaker 2: 10:06

But when I got elected, when we started working together, we very quickly realised that we shared similar values and thoughts about how things should be done. So for us, it's very much about community. We're very much about how can we support people to get the best they can from their lives and the situations they're in. We don't want to do it for them, we don't want to do it to them, we want to do it with them. So for us, it's very much about trying to help people to find solutions themselves, to offer some support, to offer our advice, our knowledge, expertise, whatever, so that people can do stuff for themselves ultimately. And also I think we're very mindful of things being sustainable that what we've experienced is that people come into Hattersley. They come with budgets and pots of money. They spend that money over a two or three-year period and leave and the project finishes with them, because they're not building in sustainability, they're not building in ways of people working out how to keep it going for themselves yeah, and that leaves groups high and dry.

Speaker 3: 11:53

Once. Once, whoever was running the group has gone and and again people feel let down again. Well, yeah, we enjoyed that, but now it's gone and you know what's to replace it. So that's something that we were conscious of and we didn't want to happen. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:09

Beryl, can you shut that door? I can hear the kettle. Sorry about that, folks. What specific projects, then, and programs are you involved in supporting in the community?

Speaker 2: 12:21

I think one of the major ones has been the well-being bags, um, and I think you're more qualified to talk about that, jacklyn, because you've been more involved than I have, so, um, we had some um, sanitary products that were given to us at the meeting point by the district nurses and the school nurses from the local doctor's surgery and that was some funding that they'd got and it was running out and they came and said you need to see if you can source some other funding. So I started looking at it, putting an application to Action Together, and, speaking with Dawn from Action Together, she was saying oh, maybe if you put in an application for toiletries as well, you might be able to get some money for that. So we put it in, not really expecting to get it, but hoping that we'd at least get some for sanitary products. Fingers crossed, we were, yeah, as usual. And, quite honestly, what's, to my surprise, they actually gave us the money and it was £6,000. So we got the money and it was six thousand pounds. So we got the money.

Speaker 2: 13:29

So what we've actually managed to do is distribute over 600 bags. In each bag there's been a box of washing tablets for your clothes, a bottle of washing up liquid, a spray cleaner and a cloth, a bottle of shampoo, body wash and some toothpaste, the thinking being that if your clothes are clean, your body's clean, your house is clean, even if you're struggling with the cost of living and the day-to-day difficulties that people are having, you would at least feel that maybe a bit better about managing it all and that it would help with your self-esteem and your mindfulness and whatever. So that was the thinking. The bags have been distributed mainly through our primary schools, through our doctor surgeries, through the church groups and some community groups across the whole of Londondale so that we actually have eight schools. We've got seven primaries and a high school, so that accounted for a big chunk of them.

Speaker 2: 14:36

We've had fabulous feedback from families from the hen. Teachers have said we took 20 bags and they're saying we could have given out 40 more. You know, if you've got any more, let us know and whatever. So we've come to the end of that project now, um, and the day after I'd sent in the evaluation and got a message back saying that it was great, sent lots of pictures and lots of testimonials and whatever, they sent me an email saying the funding's open again and we'll do a lot to reapply. So I've just submitted another application, but this time I'm looking to do it differently so that myself, janet and Gary Ferguson one of our counsellors who's been brilliant in helping to do the shopping, that we won't have to do it shopping that we might have to do it, and that we'll kind of pass that responsibility to the schools, who you know. They've all said that they've got the capacity to do that. So hopefully, fingers crossed, we'll get the funding again and we'll continue with that project.

Speaker 3: 15:37

And working with the schools. They're the ones that know which families are most in need, because they work with these children all the time, whereas sometimes we'll we'll talk to a family that that are okay at the moment, but then things go worse, or vice versa, where the schools are the most appropriate place for that to go right.

Speaker 1: 15:59

Well, that's interesting, because my next question was going to be how do you identify the needs within the community? But you just answered that by going through the schools, which seems like common sense.

Speaker 3: 16:10

We're really good on common sense. We try to apply that to everything.

Speaker 2: 16:14

And the thing just to say that the other roots of the GP, the community groups, the churches and faith groups meant that we could look at older people as well and vulnerable adults, and you know it isn't just focused all solely around families and young children. You know. So, and that's what if we get the funding again, we're going to split it, so we will hold back an amount that we will still shop and do, so we can all still support those people in our community as well, so do you collaborate with other organisations other than the schools and the church.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Is there any other organisations or individuals that you work with in the community?

Speaker 2: 16:54

Yeah, so we work with prime active communities. We've provided some care bags of a different nature, I suppose for some of the girls. They were doing a girls project and we provided some notebooks for them to write down their feelings and things.

Speaker 3: 17:13

We provided some toiletries and some nice little extras, again looking at trying to improve people's self-esteem and their self-worth we've also worked with mind, so we've got we've got them here now, but the old air cadet put running projects and that's been really beneficial to our community. We work with the food bank, um as as really an addition to uh, and we've also got um mind matters here every two weeks. So there's an awful lot going on that we and we try and tie things together so they're not in isolation. So what's mind matters then? It's um a well-being service, um, where you can talk about your feelings and and things like that and they can send you down the route that they think will work better for you.

Speaker 3: 18:14

Whether, whether you've got mental health issues, anxiety issues, you're stressed about something, they they can point you in the right direction, can help with, you know, taking you to other agencies. It could be that you know you're stressed even more because you can't pay your bills. We're all pretty stressed about our bills at the moment every single one of us but they're a really good resource as well, because they've got the facilities to really send you where you need to go, and that's what we do to help. We can't solve everybody's problems, but we're trying to bring in services that can help. So we're all working together rather than in isolation right.

Speaker 1: 18:57

So that is that what you see like community matters, as being, as being, you know, an organisation that is going to support different elements of community the community.

Speaker 2: 19:09

Yeah, I think it's. What I always say to people is that I have all these strands and I'm weaving away. So my thing is that, and what we do a lot is, we'll meet somebody and we'll be talking to them about what they're particularly doing and we think, oh, hang on a minute, we know somebody else is doing something similar and if they work together they might be able to do something a bit more, you know, sustainable, or something that will be a bit more useful or whatever. More useful or whatever. Just a simple thing is um, recently, uh, the hats, the health champions, grenville from the champs was making jam.

Speaker 2: 19:49

And I've got a friend who, um, has just started, um, a small community interest company and she's going to be doing some foraging and and that kind of thing and she's going to be setting up workshops and stuff. She's got a family owner farming, um, on the broad of motrum and broadbottom and she's got public footpaths across her land and what they've decided is they're going to fence the part of it off and they're going to have a food pack so they're actually going to grow food so that people are able to go up and plant something, grow something, taste something else. So you, you know you take some kerosene but you've planted cauliflower or whatever. So, um, and then there's the how to see projects that have got little allotment blocks. So and I'm sat thinking, listen, thinking, oh, hang on a minute, these people could call together. So I spoke to them. They went to the community soup event, um, and won 75 pounds of seed funding to start making their jam and getting it sorted.

Speaker 2: 20:53

I wrote to um pooler. Janet suggested to me I didn't know they did class jars but, um and asked them would they donate some jars to a little community project? They gave them 53 jars and they're making jam chutney. There's a lemon curd workshop coming up shortly I can't put my name down, pop, yeah. And they're selling them at the Maker's Market that's held at the Hub on the first Tuesday of the month. They're having a store that our Christmas lights switch on and that one is then going back in, and so that helps to keep the groups going. And you know they're providing a bit of funding. They're making relationships, which you know. Now Grenfell didn't know, jen and now they've kind of working together on projects and whatever. So now, in a way, that's my job's done now I've joined them up and now I move on to the next project.

Speaker 1: 21:51

What kind of challenges have you faced working in the community? What are some of the biggest challenges in doing this work?

Speaker 3: 21:57

I think for me, some of the biggest challenges has been filling the holes that have been left over by services that have come in and done what they promised to do and then gone and left those big spaces behind where people have got together and they felt comforted with each other for want of a better term and then felt they'd been abandoned. So you can see the holes that were there. So it was joining the lines to join the holes up, a bit like dot to dot um.

Speaker 3: 22:31

As Jacqueline said, it's about communities working together, but you can't work together if you don't know about each other no so, yes, that's why the network meetings are so important, because, um, that's where we got our pencil case, um, even in well, even more publicity this time, when I was actually the mayor, I did a pencil case appeal, um, and provided 100 filled pencil cases for some of our children on the active care team. And a little girl rang me up and she said Mrs Mary just want to say thank you. It's the first time I've ever gone back to school with a new pencil case and I felt, like everybody else, that kind of touched me. So we've carried on that. So at the moment we're probably providing 200 or 300 pencil cases ready to go back for term.

Speaker 3: 23:25

We've also got some there ready if children are changing schools or more children come in. We also put them to children, parents who've got no resource to public funds. We help those as well because the schools are also dealing with these children. So the pencil cases go to the schools as well. So we've gone a little bit oh mad. Now We've got lots of companies who really want to get involved. We've got the Yorkshire Building Society, who've come on board Findel, our local education supply. They're actually, as well as getting involved in the Pencilcase Appeal, they're also sending volunteers up on a Friday to help bread and butter and things like that. So it's a case of as many people being involved as we can. More the merrier.

Speaker 1: 24:17

If there's anyone out there listening who wanted to either make a donation or even come up with some area where they might want your support, how would they get in contact with you? Are you on social media or what?

Speaker 3: 24:32

Yeah, I'll leave Jacqueline because she's much better than I am, so I'll leave that to Jacqueline.

Speaker 2: 24:36

Yeah, we've got a Facebook page which is called Community Matters. So if you do Facebook, which is called Community Matters, so if you do Facebook, you can look at us there. And we've also now got an email address. So our email address is communitymatters at gmailcom.

Speaker 1: 24:58

So if anybody wants to get in contact, they can send us an email. For anyone who's listening, you can find all these in the in the podcast description. Uh, if you want to get involved, what's the future? Have you got anything coming up? Have you got any any anything coming up? What are your plans for the future then?

Speaker 2: 25:13

um, yeah, we've got um a christmas plan for um teenagers, young people that we're going to put together some toiletry sets. I was doing some research recently that was saying that 9 million adults in the country are currently living in hygiene poverty one in five which is a shocking statistic and it was particularly saying that young people struggle when they don't have toothpaste and toothbrushes because that really impacts on their self-esteem. So we're going to put together some kits of toiletries that we're going to distribute and through a variety of places and then we will be aimed more at young people.

Speaker 2: 26:00

Yeah, yeah, so I've put the funding bids in again for the care bags going forward, and we're always looking for ideas and ways to support the community and in ways that they can either sustain themselves or because there's an issue with funding. You know a lot of the funding, as you'll be aware. You can get it once and then you can't often apply for it again until some time afterwards, so we have to be creative. I suppose that's the thing.

Speaker 1: 26:36

As we come to an end of this discussion on community matters, it's evident that the dedication and efforts of individuals like yourself, I want to pull this community together, and evidence of that could be seen on a Friday at St Barnabas Church I can't remember what it's called the meeting point At the meeting point. Thanks for that, janet. Thanks for that, janet. Evidence at the meeting meeting bike. And just while we're on that subject, can we just tell me a little bit more about the, about the uh, bread and butter thing there? How did all that come about? What? How did all that start?

Speaker 3: 27:12

well, it's it. We've been running in hattersley now for a few years and, um, it was emma layla that brought it here and she was using one of the hubs and she thought, well, hattersley needs to have one of those. Up till then I'd never heard of the scheme, but she pushed for the scheme and it's been running ever since and it's been a massive boost to Hattersley and the surrounding area. Some of our families will say they don't know how they managed it before and, like I say, the great thing is we've been able to wrap services around it and that's made a huge difference. You know, even even to the to the, we recall it, we call it the table.

Speaker 3: 27:53

We have a table on friday where people bring bits and pieces um, really good as new stuff, and we have a donation box. People take what they need, put a donation in. That feeds back to St Barnabas, towards the meeting point, towards the gas and electric which we're all struggling with because we need to keep this place open. It's the hub of our community and we're just sort of thankful that they've allowed us to be here and work with us and they are understanding the needs of our community, especially our new vicar, sam. He's been really, really how can I say? He's been really enthusiastic to work with us, which has been fantastic.

Speaker 1: 28:38

I'm hoping to speak to Sam at some point, While the stuff goes on on Friday there at the meeting point.

Speaker 2: 28:48

The food bank, which is the Truffle Trust food bank. They are open between 10 and 11. So the volunteers get there a bit earlier in set-up. So people who are resettled through their GPs or through a social worker or a care team or whoever, can go along when they're in crisis and get food for the next few days and get people signed up to Bread and Butter so that they can move out of that crisis into something that's more stable, so that they can get signed up. So they know They'll help them to do that, because you need to register online and if people are struggling with their not having a phone or they can't afford the top-ups or whatever, then they'll actually help them to do that and they provide other advice. And then they'll actually help them to do that and they provide other advice. So, and then they finish at 11 and bread and butter steps in then and we do as they've described and we're there till about two o'clock and we quite often have visitors, don't we?

Speaker 2: 29:56

We have various people come from other organizations to see what's going on and to see and because we use it in a way as well of distributing information. So if somebody wants a lot of leaflets putting out, we get them to bring them towards. A leaflet goes in each of the ambient bags and we've got our community well trained. Now they know that once they've read it, whatever, they pass it on to somebody else. So it could. It's a way of disseminating information across the community about events or services or whatever. So last week we put in the christmas lights, which on a flyer for that and a booklet for older people about keeping well in the winter.

Speaker 3: 30:42

So they went out um last week so we can spread information and the good thing about doing that is we know that everybody's not on facebook and social media, but that's actually hard copy. Hard copy, that's the word I'm looking for. So so and they, you know, they can pass it on so that we can reach even more people. We know that, basically, you can reach the people who are on social media, but there's an awful lot who aren't, so we reach them as well. So it makes a huge difference.

Speaker 2: 31:14

Just before you finish, can I just say that thanks to Janet's banging her drum and then I joined in when I was elected and came along with my trumpet that the bread and butter thing is now extended into inside and there are five other projects. So with some of the Covid recovery money the council decided to to pay for a van, so they've they spent the money on that, which then becomes self-funding, because the 850s every week are what pays for the staff and the petrol and whatever. So now in five other areas that are the most deprived areas in Tameside, there's now a bread and butter thing as well. So, and that was because Janet kept pushing it and Janet was shouting about it on her own I joined in, we did a joint presentation, we invited people to come and visit. Only one came, but we kept banging the drum and blowing the trumpet and in the end. So it's now making a big difference in five other communities. Right, that's do you do in others follow.

Speaker 1: 32:24

Yeah, others follow. Yeah. Well, listen, thanks for coming in. You're welcome to stick around barrels in the kitchen so you're going to make a brewing of it, but uh, just remember listeners, right the step. The strength of our community lies in its unity and its collective action. Whether it's through volunteering, supporting local initiatives or simply being an engaged member, every contribution matters. Let's continue to work together and promote unity in the community. Beryl, I said unity, keep your clothes on, really. So let's continue to work together and nurture our connections and build a brighter future for Hattersley, motrin, londondale and the universe. Thank you to all who are dedicated to the betterment of our community. Your efforts make a massive difference. You've been listening to Hats Chats Podcast. Thanks for listening. Tune in, turn on and rip the knob off.

Speaker 2: 33:26

Do you know how happy I am? We didn't do the big thing.

Speaker 1: 33:31

Hold up folks. We're not gone yet.

Speaker 3: 33:33

There's always a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 33:37

Always forget something Pro body's nervef X, especially on Axe Chat's podcast. Would you like to do I know you've got something else to say who would you like to give some thank yous out to?

Speaker 2: 33:48

yeah, we obviously don't do this in isolation. We don't work. It's not just down to the two of us. We might coordinate some stuff, we might come up with some ideas, but there's lots of people who are contributing to the community effort in in hampshire, sleigh, in londondale. So I'd like to say a big thank you and I have, if I forget anybody, that's not intentional but to thomas on you, from tesco to reverend sam janice and the congregation at saint barnabas church to sam powers and the unwood home staff, to thames and glosset mind. Thank you to Mark and Charlotte and the team at PAC, to Hattersley Projects, the friends of Hattersley Station, catherine from Everyone's Game, hattersley Health Champions and all of our schools and everybody who's doing their bit for the people.

Speaker 1: 34:53

Yeah, big shout-outs to you. Just before we go, I'd like to give a big shout out to Tiddles the Cat and Lucky the Goldfish, still hanging in there. See you later, folks. Thanks for tuning in Mashed potatoes.