On Monday this week our Saturday Social spilled over into the Bank Holiday!
Place of Contribution was buzzing with our wonderful community members who were all catching up over a brew and discussing the cost of living crisis and how we can support each other as well as sharing money saving tips.
The LGBTQIA+ Safe Space group was the perfect continuation of the recent New Brighton Pride Event that we attended. We continued the discussion by talking about our experiences, what we liked, what could be improved upon, and how we can get involved with future events. We also talked openly about what it is like to grow up LGBT+ on the Wirral, which many have found to be difficult, but is getting better as we work towards having specific safe spaces and events specifically for the LGBTQIA+ community.
At Arts & Crafts, we knitted, we made origami boxes, did some colouring in, tea and conversation was flowing, and it was a great opportunity for our community to express their creativity freely in a safe space, starting next week we will be turning our Arts & Crafts group into the Creative Corner, as the group is so much more than just arts or crafts, it's about creativity, it's about building confidence and social connection.
We are so grateful to Wirral Environmental Network W.E.N on Falkland Road and Naomi Graham for having us for a visit this week, everything you do for the local community and the environment is amazing!
We explored the W.E.N community gardens which were full to the brim with fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, butterflies and so much more, which we had the opportunity to sample and take some home with us (not the butterflies!), including a handful of bay leaves.
It was incredibly eye opening, we discussed the environmental projects we want to see in our local area, including recycling projects and collecting rain to avoid water waste, which you can find out more about at our Nourish to Flourish sessions at Place of Contribution 10am-12pm every Tuesday.
The Men's Group on Tuesday discussed language associated with negative stereotypes of men. There were explanations given as to the origin of certain phrases and the true context in which they would be applicable. It is vital as a community that we are understanding of the true meaning of these phrases and words so that we can work together for a better future across all genders.
In our CARE Project day this week, we looked at the important topics of both Expectations and Boundaries within the workplace for both staff and volunteers alike. Group mindmapping activities took place and there was a wonderful Healthy Boundaries PowerPoint that had been created by our wonderful team, a big thanks to all those that attended!
Creative Writing took place as usual on Wednesday, “What Your Name Means To You” at Place of Contribution, which started with a debate on personal beliefs, wants and needs and respect on why other peoples opinion matters.
This was to facilitate a creative flow and got individuals ready to write… we exchanged thoughts and ideas for 40 minutes, then we started to write on What Your Name Means To You. We’re always blown away by how engaged we all become when we get down and start to write and this week was no different.
Learning outcomes: understanding personal boundaries around other peoples opinions and beliefs. Debating, writing and social skills was also evident and agreed upon by whole group. An awareness of identity and seeing yourself as you in a crowded world was learned about as well.
Our breakfast sessions are all about having a well balanced and tasty meal to ensure we're all nourished and ready to flourish throughout the day, but it's not only about breakfast, it's about social connection too! Throughout September we will be using Place of Contribution to transport ourselves around the World for Breakfast, this week we've landed in Brazil, for a mixture of fruits, meat, bread, coffee and so much more which is only fitting, considering Brazil produces the greatest quantity of coffee in the world!
To kick off the month we've gone right back to the basics in our Community Cooking session, chopping skills, and all necessary preparation needed to cook a tasty, healthy and well balanced meal.
We made a vegetable curry, which consisted of onions, potatoes, broccoli, peppers and a delightful (not too spicy!) mild curry sauce, everyone took responsibility for making it happen, including boiling the rice and working on our vegan option of Tadka Dal.
We would just like to say a big thank you to Coffee Aroma for inviting members of their community to join ours, who did an incredible job today, with one person making us aware that in school they were told they would never be able to cook, well we proved them wrong!
We started our Project Yourself session by having an informal chat around what we learned last week on the functionality of our Nikon camera. We then used the desktop computer to look up the work of an 8 year old boy who has won a competition for photographing a stag in the wild, in a snow setting, which we all gave our opinion on and discussed between ourselves.
We also took a leisurely stroll over the road to Hamilton Square and all took turns taking photos of the area, using the rule of thirds - breaking frame down into 3 to gain maximum affect, with photos taken of the Hamilton Square monument, capturing surrounding chimneys and the local train station tower.
Everyone was confident with their ability, which is testament to the experience, wisdom and teaching from Chris, our marine photographer. Back at Place of Contribution we imported photos we took in the field onto desktop, which everyone learned, and reviewed our photographs on a larger screen.
We finished off by informing group that we are all photographers in our own right, due to how we judge and perceive our everyday surroundings and observations of our environments, and how we put them into context.
The Saturday Social had a real community feel this week and the group as always was led by the members themselves and was extremely productive. From the breakfast morning we had lots of bananas left over and the group decided to make banana cake for everyone. The was a real sense of togetherness which was amazing to see. After tucking into hotdogs and banana cake, people set up games and chatted.
It's been another wonderful week at Make It Happen and Place of Contribution - we hope to see even more of our community next week!
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