In the Loop Autumn 2022

Welcome to the Autumn 2022 edition of our In the Loop members’ newsletter, where we focus on the work of new members who are joining us at Hunts Forum. Please take a while to learn about these organisations as they introduce themselves. Each one is a possible partner, collaborator and inspiration.

Our monthly News Forum newsletter now includes all the latest news from our members and the wider VCSE, as well as training, events and funding updates. If you haven’t already signed up to receive our News Forum newsletter then you can do so here. These are published on the third Thursday of the month. If you have something you would like to be included in either In the Loop or News Forum, please do get in touch.

We have a new look for the newsletter this quarter, and even more excitingly we have 6 new member-organisations to introduce you to – click on the circles below to learn more about each of our new members:

Fitness Rush Community CIC Somersham Community Library YANA Friends of Haddenham Library Fenland Family and Baby Bank YMCA Trinity Group

Fitness Rush Community CIC

Fitness Rush, based in Old Hurst, near Huntingdon, was created by owner and founder, Liam Rushmer more than 10 years ago from his parents’ garage where he learned the art of bodybuilding through nutrition and exercise. Fitness Rush was born following the expansion of his first business, Just In Gyms, offering a friendly but focused training atmosphere as a members gym. Liam is proud to see the transformations that occur in users of the gym he worked so hard to build.

The mission for Fitness Rush is to encourage all individuals to begin, enjoy and benefit from fitness. Liam believes that exercise should be used as a tool to increase physical attributes as well as our mental state. The focus is on providing exclusive personal training facilities to maximise clients’ results, whilst making them feel relaxed and comfortable in their environment.

Following the success of Fitness Rush and it’s links with the local area, Liam began creating a solution to take his services to the wider community.

Fitness Rush Mobile was then born. A fully inclusive state-of-the-art mobile fitness facility capable of visiting individuals at their homes, public spaces and work places.

Recent developments and the creation of Fitness Rush Community CIC has helped establish work within communities to offer free personal training and level 1 qualifications to deprived and homeless individuals and families.

With the help of funding, Liam and his team ensure all individuals can utilise professional fitness training and health services, no matter their financial or living situation.

Website: FitnessRush.co.uk

Email: community@fitnessrush.co.uk

Somersham Community Library

Somersham Community Library is a library and information centre located in Church Street in the village of Somersham, Huntingdonshire.

We are run solely by local volunteers for the benefit of the community.

The Friends of Somersham Library are responsible for funding, running and maintaining the library. We started in 2003 in response to the announced closure of 10 libraries by Cambridgeshire County Council. All the 10 communities stepped up to the challenge and took over the running of these libraries. 20 years on, we are still going strong and better. Somersham Community Library (FOSL) has been a registered charity since 2012.

We currently have 8 Trustees and around 40 volunteers. Our volunteers do an array of tasks, not just working in the library during opening hours, but tasks such as preparing the books to go on the shelves, sorting the book donations we receive, organising fund-raising events, cleaning, gardening, maintaining the building. The library building is owned by the County Council but we are responsible for insuring and maintaining it. Our volunteers work incredibly hard to ensure the success of the library. We always welcome new volunteers and new trustees to join this worthwhile cause.

We fundraise constantly and apply for grants for specific projects all of which is done by our volunteers and Trustees. The dedication of our volunteers is recognised by our receiving the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2007 and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Valuing Volunteers Award in 2015.

We have links with Cambridgeshire County Council Library Service. Anyone who signs up at Somersham Community Library is automatically a member of the county-wide library service. This enables our customers to access the entire County book stock. In addition to books, we also have magazines and local newspapers, free public Wi-Fi, free access to computers for library members, printing, and photocopying facilities.

Customers will also find an abundance of information leaflets on health, education, leisure, and public transport. We have an information board for visitors to find out what’s on in the village and surrounding areas.

Our Children’s Library is a dedicated and welcoming space. This has been improved recently with a grant through Cambridgeshire Community Foundation.

Website www.somershamlibrary.org.uk

Email Somersham.library@hotmail.co.uk

Facebook www.facebook.com/somershamlibrary

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YANA – You Are Not Alone

YANA is a mental health charity that has been supporting people working in agriculture and countryside rural businesses in Norfolk and Suffolk for the last 14 years, and is now extending it’s support to Cambridgeshire.

My name is Emma Haley, I am the Charity Manager and joined YANA just over a year ago.

YANA was established as a result of the loss of life through suicide. This life changing event triggered a desire amongst the farming community in Norfolk to do something to help those that might be struggling. After 18 months of research YANA was launched as a project under The Clan Trust. We are now a registered charity in our own right, have recently appointed two part time staff, and work closely with our committed volunteers.

We work to improve mental health amongst those working in the agricultural sector through:

Providing a confidential helpline & funded counselling
Building a better understanding of mental health to reduce stigma and encourage conversations
Investing in Mental Health First Aid training
Running a national suicide prevention campaign called ‘7 Tractor Facts to Save a Life’

In 2021 we provided 204 hours of funded counselling and received a staggering 80% more calls to our helpline than the previous year.

YANA now supports more than just the farming communities, anyone over the age of 18 years who is involved with agriculture and other countryside businesses can call our helpline. Whether they are concerned about someone, or need someone to talk to themselves, we are here when people are struggling. Six counselling sessions can be put in place within a couple of weeks and we do not have a waiting list.

I would love to hear from you and understand more about how we can work together to raise awareness of our support. I am able to supply hard copy or digital resources. It is also equally important for us to understand other organisations we can signpost to.

I am often out and about talking to groups, at events and conferences about our work and mental health.

It is important as many people as possible know about our support, especially in the rural parts of Cambridgeshire, so that they can get direct people to help when needed.

You can contact me by email: emma@yanahelp.org or tel: 07548 833 267

Visit our website to find out more www.yanahelp.org

If you, or someone you know, feels unable to cope, is feeling down or having thoughts about self-harm or suicide, talking can really help. The helpline number is 0300 323 0400 or email helpline@yanahelp.org.

Friends of Haddenham Library

Haddenham Library is over the border– we’re one of 12 volunteer-run libraries in Cambridgeshire. Recently our 21 volunteers have returned to a post-pandemic world onto an uphill trajectory.

Over the last year, Robin Gildersleeve, co-chair of the Friends of Haddenham Library, guided us through a discussion of ‘where we are now’ and where we want to go as a library. A user survey led to a vision which we are now working towards. Meanwhile we achieved charity status with a hard-working team of six trustees.

Given the direction that larger county-run libraries have gone over the last two decades, offering a wide range of activities, classes, advice sessions and events etc, we’d like to do some catching up as we approach our 20^th year as a volunteer-run library. Often village offerings are fragmented, so we’d like to see a more co-operative and cohesive offering. We know our village wants it, we think our residents deserve it, and we know our village library should be at the heart of it.

With the enthusiastic support of our Parish Council, we’ve been heartened as we helped initiate and co-ordinate a cross-community response of Haddenham organisations to create a winter warm hub at our village Sports and Social Club.

We’ve already found Hunts Forum’s support invaluable in finalising the charity’s policies for an imminent website launch, and we hope our membership continues to keep us on the straight and narrow. Along with that support comes, we hope, a wealth of experience from other organisations who are also striving to achieve change in their communities at a time of ever dwindling funds and ever decreasing numbers of people in our communities with time to spare.

We are big on ideas and small on space as our bijou library is also Parish Council office and local history archive. Future plans depend on more space – we just haven’t quite worked out how yet! Meanwhile we’re strengthening links with local village organisations, and we never forget our roots – a library run by volunteers who love books (we have about 7000 on the shelves, mostly donated) and we want to see a community of readers around us.

We’d love it if you’d come and visit us, or check out our lovely new website www.haddenhamlibrarycambs.co.uk (created, of course, by a community volunteer) or follow our very active Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HaddenhamLibraryCambs

Keep reading.
Andrea Chambers (co-chair of the Friends of Haddenham library)

Fenland Family and Baby Bank

Fenland Families and Baby Bank was established in November 2020 because of increasing child poverty in the Fenland area. Our aim is to help relieve child poverty, for families with children between the age of 0-5 years old, where their parents/carer are experiencing financial hardship. More recently we have become open to the wider community, as families on moderate income, start to feel the pinch of rising costs of living.

Founded by Rachel Green, Initially the project was launched, without premises and working out of a ‘lock-up’. Within months, the Baby Bank had secured a small shop in March, to allow member of the public safe access to identify the items they required and later moved to larger premises in Wisbech, where at the same time became a registered Community Interest Company in October 2021.

We have a team of 9 volunteers who sort through donations and place them out on the shop floor. Our donations include: second hand baby items, such as clothing, bedding, prams, buggies, car seats, baby care goods and toys. Our volunteer team make themselves available to our Baby Bank community and where possible will sign post to other services, should they want to seek further support.

Fenland Families and Baby Bank have a dedicated Facebook page, which can be easily found by searching our name. On our facebook page you can find out more about our service, what we have available, as well as sign posting to services relevant to our community.

The Baby Bank is working on improving the shop facilities and storage, so we can hold more stock and have more items available on the shop floor. We also want to improve our small child play area and community space to make it inviting to our local families to access our services and find out about other local and national support available.

If you would like to know more about our current services, offer donations or are interested in supporting our Baby Bank developments, you can contact Rachel Green on 07985727025 or e-mail on fenlandbabybank@gmail.com.

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YMCA Trinity Group

The YMCA Trinity Group is a local charity that has been at the heart of community transformation in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk since 1852.

YMCA Trinity Group works across the Eastern region, with bases in Cambridge, Peterborough and Ipswich. Our teams, projects and services support young people and communities, particularly the most vulnerable, in a variety of different ways – all with the aim of supporting and inspiring people to discover who they are and transforming their lives when they need help the most. Key areas of support include mental health, family work, youth work, accommodation, childcare, and projects that support people to find sustainable employment, supporting victims of domestic abuse and helping young offenders get their lives back on track and active members of the community.

We have recently been awarded the Trusted Charity Mark, which is supported by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, at the highest level. The Trusted Charity Mark recognises best practice across 11 key areas of charitable management and governance.

While all YMCA groups self-assess against the same criteria, YMCA Trinity Group becomes only the second to have officially achieved the award in England and Wales.

Our Chief Executive, Jonathan Martin, said: “We are very proud and humbled to receive the Trusted Charity Mark award.

Our team are incredibly passionate and committed to being there for our young people and communities at the times when they need the most support, that it can sometimes be difficult for them to recognise just how good their services are. Our team of almost 500 people deserves a huge amount of credit for achieving this award.

The Trusted Charity Mark gives us the confidence to know that we are doing the right things as a charity – providing a solid platform for us, partners and commissioners to develop our programmes of support to deliver the most impact for our communities.”

To find out more about YMCA Trinity Group, please visit ymcatrinitygroup.org.uk or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.