It's been another jam packed week at Make It Happen and Place of Contribution, with lots of community members joining us for a variety of activities.
At the LGBTQIA+ Safe Space group we discussed homophobia, and what it meant to everyone and experiences the LGBTQIA+ community have endured in their lives, including the language that surrounds homophobia.
On a positive note, we also discussed being an Ally, and what it takes to be one, including being supportive and standing up for any injustice we may see. We also did a bit more preparation for the New Brighton Pride event we're attending at the end of the month.
In our ever growing Men's Group we talked about self care to protect our mental and physical health, things we can do and work on to improve our sleep, friendships, diet and overall health. We've also committed to one thing that we can all work on to better ourselves.
In Creative Writing on Wednesday we covered the topic of FREEDOM and what it means to the individuals who attended at Place of Contribution.
We answered questions on what freedom meant to us to generate inspiration and imagination. Great turn out of participants, including 2 of our very own Make It Happen volunteer girls and we produced some really good work! We also read our individual pieces out to the group and we were given feedback from our peers. All in all, another successful week of creativity.
This week also saw the launch of our new Health Checks on Thursday - this is a brilliant risk check tool for those aged 40-74 without underlying heart issues. The checks are carried out by our specially trained team, taking about 30 minutes, and can aid in preventing a range of conditions including heart disease and strokes. To find out if you're eligible or to book an appointment, please call the team on 07875 692 142 or email poc@makeithappenbirkenhead.co.uk
During our CARE Project day we broached the positives/negatives of living on the Wirral, everything from anti-social behaviour and environmental issues through to ideologies surrounding culture and diversity, along with ideas that could be implemented in order to turn the negatives into positives was discussed!
We also focused on the importance of the 5 ways to wellbeing, not only did our volunteers identify ways in which the 5 ways to wellbeing have had a positive influence on their own mental health but also how they can be utilised as an important tool to enable volunteers to check on the wellbeing of our wonderful community members.
Our breakfast morning on Thursday went down a treat as usual, the sausages were flying out! If you fancy joining us for a great breakfast, pop in between 10am and 1pm every Thursday for some yummy food and a hot drink to set you up for the day!
Our Textiles Session was a hit as usual with more than 10 people attending, we spent time knitting, drawing and upcycling bags for life. This is an environmentally friendly alternative to using plastic bags (which contributes to landfill), whilst looking stylish at the same time during your weekly shop in our social supermarket - Make it Happen on Market Street!
This weeks Unity for All session revolved around religion, faith and beliefs we all either have, or were willing to learn more about, with questions like what does religion mean to you, have you grown up in a religious environment and how has that affected your perspective on life, people and everything around you. You can join in with our Unity for All sessions every Monday from 12pm to 3pm.
We also want to say a huge thankyou to Michelle at Crea8ing Community for inviting us to volunteer at their fun day at the community centre in Noctorum and to Dan at Gautby Reptiles for allowing us to participate within the Reptile Room. We thoroughly enjoyed keeping the masses of children fed and watered throughout the day, it was a fantastic event!
We had a visitor to our Community Cooking session today from Wirral Borough Council, Sue Percy, and we had an open discussion about the cost of living crisis, food, budgets and more.
Today we created a veg stir fry with vegan versions as well, it was a mixture of potatoes, sweet and sour sauce, mangetout, chick peas and spring onions, everyone got stuck in and did a great job, well done everyone!
Big strides this week for our Photography and Nourish to Flourish projects as we found ourselves in Hamilton Square surveying the local environment, the trees, the birds, the bees and everything that could possibly do with some community TLC. We accomplished this by taking photographs of the area while learning more about our local area, well done everyone who got stuck in, including everyone who has never used a camera before!
We also learned about the history of photography - starting from the early 1800s when the camera was first invented - that would change the way we see the world forever.
We also worked on self portraits that we can compare to our future self portraits to measure our progress and development over time.
Saturday Social was great this week, there was food and drinks and plenty of chat, and a little karaoke going on with lots of people participating. It was really good to see people coming out of their shell and building their confidence!
We also had our fabulous barber, Chase, back in on Saturday!
Chase had four haircuts and a beard trim in - one of the haircuts was also a little chat and connecting about being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. Chase chatted with customers about joining the Proud Mary’s choir, Chester Pride and the upcoming New Brighton Pride which is on next weekend. Customers totally loved their haircuts and it gave them a little boost of confidence and was just nice to connect!
All in all it was a fantastic and very busy week at both Make It Happen and Place of Contribution, so a day of rest is in order before we start all over again!
If you would like more information about any of our sessions, please get in touch with the team at poc@makeithappenbirkenhead.co.uk or give us a call on 07875 692 142 or 0151 306 4840
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