Our Voice Our Choice Our Port Sunday PM

Welcome to the PB page for the 3pm Sunday 28th March PB event.

Here, you will be able to read a short description of each programme that will be shown on the Sunday afternoon.

If you would like to view the short description in a different language, then please use the table at the top of this page and select the language of choice.

Please note – this will not be the running order for the day of the event

Happy reading!

1) Maes Ebbw School PSFA: Outdoor Learning For All – £10,000

We are the Parents, Staff and Friends Association of Maes Ebbw School. We typically raise funds all year round in order to purchase resources for our school which expand our pupils’ learning and leisure experiences and assist them in wider involvement in the community. The pandemic has severely impacted our ability to raise funds, mainly due to restrictions on gatherings.

Maes Ebbw School supports 120 pupils who experience a wide range of learning difficulties. Many additionally have visual, hearing or multisensory impairments.

The events of the past year have shown us all the importance of the outdoors to our mental health. It has been especially hard for some of our young people who require specialist equipment and transport to travel to green spaces during this pandemic.

We are requesting £10000 in order to refurbish our sensory garden. We plan to resurface pathways to make them safe again for wheelchair access and independent access by pupils with visual impairments. We aim to provide covered areas to allow enjoyment of the outdoors in all weathers and accessible work areas, allowing the pupils to contribute to the upkeep of the garden and feel a sense of ownership over the space. Finally, we intend to fill the garden with plants and resources that will provide a wide range of experiences for all the senses.

We aim for this project to enhance our young people’s experience of the outdoors, allow them to access the garden independently and make it a space they feel proud of.

2) Newport Self Resilience – Revival Pilot Project: £9,875

COVID-19 crisis increased Newport community already precarious conditions: elders’ isolation, individual loneliness, families poverty, lack of sustainable organisations dealing with day-to-day matters and to bridge with local authority or mainstream supports. Such problems have serious impact on the mental health stability especially of old and also of young people walking around without specific activities for them.

This project would resume community support in tackling those issues, in voicing African communities in creating a special online new communication and information tool to address “fake news” and the digital divide, as the confinement teaches how useful social media and online communication are.

It will supply 15 families (60 persons) with a community package and kit of materials and equipment: lap top, sewing machine, cameras, bicycles and knitting. Small budget will be used to sustain SoPPro capacity building to resume the former community organisations network and for some consultancy fees, to relaunch a small online random community radio/TV addressing fake news and leaded by young. Items will make the beneficiaries to become much more connected, digital and ICT litterated, network each other and voicing themselves and, it successfully, it could become a much sustain new community project.

To minimise the cost, using our Wales Community 2.0 (ICT) training and Swansea Re-Cycling (Bikes projects) links as they promised to support us, we will only buy second hands items to be upgraded before distributing.

3) Urban Street Playfest: £7,600

Now that we are emerging from these dark times, children want to get out and play! But not everyone has a park nearby, and many parents are understandably nervous about letting children play out in the street. The Urban Street Playfest is the answer! It will bring fun, well supervised outdoor play to local streets that have been specially closed to let sessions take place safely this Summer.

The sessions will draw on lessons learned from similar street play projects in other Cities and use the www.playwales.org.uk guidance to make sure everything is safe and fun.

The project will survey households to identify key volunteers and potential play streets. Everything will be well publicised and volunteers will be properly trained, supervised and insured by professional play workers.Suitable safe streets will be closed to traffic for three hours using temporary street closure orders.The whole Summer programme will be professionally evaluated with a view to making community-run street play a regular feature of Newport life in 2022 and beyond.

The project will cost £7600, of which £1400 will be for publicity, £800 for equipment, and £5400 for staffing costs and insurance. It will:

increase play opportunity for 500 children
increase moderate to vigorous physical activity
provide an inclusive programme that encourages parental involvement and improved street community cohesion
encourage the introduction of temporary play in appropriate locations in Newport on a permanent basis.

4) NYCA Youth Sports Activities: £6,134

The NYCA is dedicated to the social, educational, and economical advancement of our community.

Specifically working within Pillgwenlly targeting young venerable members as they require assistance the most. Pillgwenlly as hopeful as we try to make it, is critically deprived. ‘The Welsh Multiple Deprivation domain rank for physical environment identifies all Lower Super Output Areas in Pillgwenlly as ranking in the top 17%’ (newport.gov.uk). ‘Pillgwenlly ‘needs substantial investment.’ (Newport City Homes sponsorship: The Pillgwenlly paradox – WHQ, 2021). Many of the children are growing up within the Pillgwenlly environment with crime rates such as ‘528 street label crime incidents within December 2020 the highest within violent crime and anti-social behavior.’ (Newport City Homes sponsorship: The Pillgwenlly paradox – WHQ, 2021).

By us providing the youth with a safe space it will benefit them in their long-term goals as they haven’t been manipulated by others or fall into the wrong trap. We at NYCA want our children to grow and pursue careers and be the best possible version of themselves and these football sessions allow them to be playful, stay safe within a stable and healthy environment, maintain their mental wellbeing, boost their confidence all while making new friends. It is critical we provide these sessions to keep the children and young teenagers passionate about a sport & something to fundamentally look forward to on Saturday rather than being indulged at a young age to their manipulative surroundings. Our future is them and we need to invest before it’s too late.

5) Strength to Strength – The Meet: £6,000

The Meet was established almost 5 years ago by parents who experienced their young disabled adults’ change of circumstances regarding their social situation when they reached 18 years of age. The Meet is a Social and Friendship Group for young adults 17-25 years with disabilities.

Covid had a major impact on participation for the group and we are aware going forward we need to establish safety, confidence, and positiveness.

Run by 2 mums who have disabled sons who are passionate about providing good social experiences, active involvement, independence and friendships. This is an important aspect of life skills, whether our young people go on to independent living, university, college, being able to undertake friendships or relationships. We actively involve our group with as many experiences and activities we can to build confidence, individuality, decision making and fun! We have undertaken Rafting, Comic-Com, First Aid, Cooking Classes, Longleat, Workshops, Historic Dockyards, Bushcraft plus lots more!

Safety is priority and young people are always accompanied by a parent/ carer our policies, insurance and DBS checks are all in place for this purpose.

We have a closed Facebook site for our young people and their parents to access, closely monitored by us. It serves as a reference for all our activities throughout the year, trips, parties, workshops and cooking classes, climbing and Drago Lounge two weekly social night. We feel our young people should access their own community and participate age appropriately in our activities.

6) Fruitful Futures – Community Space: £10,000

The vision we have is to create a safe space for people of all backgrounds to come together in a positive and holistic environment. A place where there is opportunities to create, to improve health, to engage in activities that aid in elevating your life that is as fun and social as the environments that are toxic and holding people back in life I.e clubs. Activities and workshops to be held daily in arts, expression including short films/music videos we wish aid any ideas brought forward everyone deserves opportunity, along with healing, movement, self improvement, meditation, yoga, mindfulness, reiki and more for all age ranges specific days for certain groups will be designated, We aspire to create a large holistic family through employment with the council funding staffs wage for 6 months.
We intend to have projects such as upcycling and recycling in a workshop, a healthy and nourishing vegan botanical cafe with a juice bar and herb shop, a holistic area for therapies to take place, a fitness studio for yoga, meditation, personal training and fitness classes,
our diverse team with multiple skills and qualifications hope to bring the community together in a home that nourishes and inspires them to be the best versions of themselves that they can really be, A space that is completely eco friendly, multicultural and open to everyone, we hope to make this a permanent space bringing more opportunity for projects on a larger scale which can have a large benefit to the local community.

7) The Riverfront Newport – Connecting The Community: £8,000

Connect in the Community

With the £8000 grant Newport Live will run a variety of fun, creative and active community events to kick start the Spring and Summer in Newport. Taking place from May to September in our parks and outdoor spaces there will be activity to cater for all ages and interests. This year has been a challenging one for us all. We want to spread some joy and fun after a very dark time.

Events will include some family focussed live outdoor theatre shows, music and dance, circus skills and hula hooping workshops, plenty of arts and crafts to try as well as sports and well-being opportunities. We will also provide art packs delivered to families who are identified as being particularly vulnerable, so all can get involved.

We hope to rebuild confidence as we all try to navigate safely out of Covid restrictions. These events will be prepared and planned with this in mind and be our priority.

All activity will be free and open to everyone! We want to put a smile on every face as people get together to enjoy arts, crafts and getting active. We will signpost people to groups and activities to encourage both creative and physical resilience. Let’s get together and be creative!

8) British Red Cross – Digital Training and Equipment for Newport Womens Project for Refugees and Asylum Seekers: £6,000

The British Red Cross Women’s Project in Newport works with one of the most marginalised groups – refugee and asylum-seeking women. These women are among the most likely to experience isolation, language barriers, racism and poverty.

Our project offers support and learning to over 70 refugee and asylum-seeking women. The group is a lifeline to many of its members, as it is a community as well as place of learning and support. Many of the women in the group have talked about feeling increasingly isolated and disconnected throughout lockdown as they are suffering digital exclusion. We are seeking £6,000 to provide:

15 laptops and wifi connectivity for refugee and asylum-seeking women in Newport to access key learning resources and services
Digital skills workshops to enable the women to learn how to use digital technology in their day-to-day lives, and to access our online learning

9) Literacy Recovery Project: £10,000

Covid-19 has affected people from all walks of life, in all sorts of ways. With face to face teaching not being possible and many families unable to support their children with adequate literacy material, it is believed that literacy levels have decreased. To help support this, the PTA are requesting £10,000 to regeneration the library area at Llanwern High School with the aspirations of growing this space into a community library. Primarily this area will support pupils and young children aged 10-17 with the aim of it benefiting the whole of the Newport east community; opening during and after school hours. Money received from the bid will be spent on the purchase of a wide range of books, magazine subscriptions, furnishing, stationary and contribute towards the salary for someone to manage the service. Over the years the upkeep and development of the library area has sadly been sacrificed as a result of whole school budgets cuts. The PTA feel now it is critical to regenerate this area so that the school can adequately support pupils to overcome literacy barriers; helping shape them into confident employable young people. It is also hoped that this space will provide a safe, quiet area for adults in the community to to develop/further their employability skills with a range of services provided by Newport City Homes. Supporting this bid would be an investment in our young people and our local community. Together we can positively recover from Covid-19 and build a brighter future!

10) Newport People First – Knowledge Portal: £8,320

Could people with lived experience help you become more inclusive?

Newport People First are requesting £8,320 to create a PORTal for information surrounding learning disabilities. We want to ensure that our community is inclusive and providing vital opportunities for people with a disability to have a voice on matters that involve them and have an impact on their lives.

At Newport People First we are an organisation of people with progressive learning (learning disabilities) living in Newport who want to stand up for our rights to good quality services, understanding of our needs and equal life opportunities.

People with a learning disability are socially isolated and find mainstream services and community groups inaccessible. Local groups and services are often willing to include people with a learning disability but don’t have the skills, knowledge, experience or confidence to do so.

Within Newport People First we work with our members to provide opportunities for self-advocacy to enable them have more control and make the life decisions that are best for them.

Our project will use volunteer trainers from Newport People First, who will all have a learning disability. They will plan and prepare awareness training, with support (funded through this project), which will be offered free to local groups and organisations. Our aim is to help organisations gain some understanding of how to be more accessible. It will also result in the trainers and members of Newport People First gaining more knowledge of groups and give them confidence to access these.

11) Catholic Cluster Digital Training Hub: £10,000

We want to establish a Catholic cluster training hub on the St. Joseph’s RC High School site, that can be accessed by parents, carers and our wider catholic community to enhance their digital learning. The challenges of the last 12 months have identified a knowledge gap and the need for training to be accessible for parents and carers. This hub would serve and support our vision for a digitally competent, confident and resilient community.

We are applying for a £10,000 grant to purchase items to set up the training room infrastructure (screen, sound system, interactive devices) so it is fit for purpose. The Friends of St Joseph will match any contribution and procure new furniture, additional digital devices and other items.

We have a large and diverse community with approximately 3000 families with a range of beneficiaries including:

Over 1400 families at our feeder primary schools and 1450 families at this school
9% of our school are from ethnic or refugee backgrounds
1 welsh speaking family
Over 50 families of students from other Newport secondary schools who attend our school

The establishment of this community hub will:

Give parents/carers hands-on experience with basic technology to support home learning, improve their own knowledge and confidence and improve employment aspirations
Strengthen digital skills and improve awareness in areas like coding and computational thinking via after school clubs
Enhance our communities understanding of the importance of cyber security and safe and acceptable use of technology to better support their children and their own needs

12) St Josephs Boxing Club Prayer Room: £5,650

Following consultations with local religious groups and BME representatives we have identified a need for facilities which will allow patrons to attend to their spiritual needs.

These consultations also highlighted that there was a degree of reticence of local women and girls, in particular members of the BME community, to undertake health and fitness activities at the club predominantly due to the lack of personal considerations such as a designated changing area.

We wish to adapt our facilities to accommodate these needs; this would include creation of a designated Prayer Room and Ladies Changing room. We feel that these adaptations to the gym will benefit our current members and encourage the use of our facilities by more members of the local community, who are predominately underprivileged and members of the BME community.

We anticipate that a Prayer Room would complement our existing members and coaches as well as enable them to honour their spiritual obligations without interrupting their training.

From our conversations with spiritual leaders in the community these adaptations would be a welcomed improvement to our facilities. We have had a quote for the work of £5650; this price would be fully inclusive from planning to final site clearance.