Community

Hemmingwell Community and Skills Centre

Introducing a local community centre and charity that is working hard to achieve their goal of being a community centre that is run by the community for the community. Paula Elmore and Marion Lamont have recently taken over the management of the Hemmingwell Community and Skills Centre CIO with two general assistants. Paula and Marion are both trustees who give their time freely and are supported by their wonderful volunteers and other trustees, who all help to keep the centre open and running smoothly.

Kate and Paula tell us about the activities at the Hemmingwell Community and Skills Centre

The centre is recovering from a couple of difficult years (as many others are) and Paula and Marion are hoping to improve the centre, and attract more groups to help enhance peoples’ lives around the area. These groups could be older residents’ groups and coffee mornings, mother and toddler groups, home education groups and more, watch this space as they grow. These and many more exciting things are happening now:

  • Fit & Fed local children can come and have fun in the school holidays through exercise, with qualified instructors. They also do crafts and get hot meals for themselves and their families.
  • Nest Youth Club on Mondays 4 to 6pm
  • The Compound Our Trustee, Kam works his magic all over Northamptonshire! Based in the centre, he works educating and mentoring young people through exercise and music. He also has raised funds for calisthenic bars to be placed outside in Hemmingwell, where he can often be found training and talking to our young people.
  • Elmore Education has a learning room in the centre, where Paula teaches vulnerable young people who can’t be in school for any reason.
  • Bingo evenings on Wednesdays, run by the new Hemmingwell Residents’ Association.
  • Seventh Evangelist Church on Saturday mornings
  • Shudan Martial Arts run by Jeff Gonsalves are regular users of the centre for young leader and self defence classes
  • Arts and Culture with Made for Many for young people.
  • Employment Training with Goodwill Solutions CIC bring courses to the centre to help local residents build their working potential and enhance their lives.
  • Food Bank (sponsored by Goodwill Solutions CIC) on Tuesdays at 1.30pm to 3.30pm, with extra parcels available to help those in need throughout the week.
  • Police Local PCSOs have an office at the centre, helping with events such as ‘Safer Streets’ initiative.
  • NN8 Off the Streets have placed a bleed kit at the centre and are working with their trustee, Kam, in to schools to help educate our children in the fight against knife crime

The centre’s wonderful hall and separate meeting room are available to hire for community events, parties, functions and meetings, both during the week and at weekends. This is at a discounted rate for local residents. The centre also hosts parties for the community, including a Christmas party this Saturday that has completely sold out!

Open 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday, visit Hemmingwell Community and Skills Centre CIO at 119 Nest Farm Crescent, Hemmingwell NN8 4TU Wellingborough, there is car parking at the rear of the building, or call 01933 405595.

High Street Hub

After many years of planning, High Street United Reformed Church are embarking on their largest project since the current Church building was opened in 1875. The aim is to make the Church more welcoming and amenable to all the people of the town and beyond. The project received Planning Approval in April 2017 and is fund-raising to make the dream a reality. The Project, with estimated costs of £600,000 consists of four stages:

  1. New external ramp to the front of the Church to allow for an easier, more dignified and inclusive access to those with disabilities and for coffin bearers at funerals.
  2. New glazed door providing an elegant and secure enclosure to the external lobby.
  3. The foyer, under the balcony, will be enclosed by a glazed partition through which you can enter the worship area of the Church. The foyer, which will become the High Street HUB, will be a multi-functional area, separately heated and encasing a servery and a meeting room.
  4. The existing main worship area of the Church will be redecorated.

The most exciting change is to the foyer, creating The High Street HUB. They already hold Coffee mornings daily in the Church, which attract a number of regulars, some of whom are out of work and some are homeless and in need of a safe place for refreshment and a friendly chat, but this could be better.

Creating The HUB will enable the United Reformed Church to offer better services to the local community. With easily heated and adaptable spaces for use by the whole community that are easily accessible by all and right on the High Street!

The HUB will give the church the opportunity do what they currently do and more, with a purpose built servery, offering quality light refreshments; and a meeting room that’s able to seat 40 persons, for small gatherings, for those seeking counsel and for further outreach work.

Wellingborough Swap Shop

Wellingborough Swap Shop is a free and local exchange where members of the public can pass on things they no longer want, in exchange for something they need. You could describe it as a kind of cashless bring-and-buy sale. Participants do not need to bring anything in order to take away goods, and vice versa. Our ‘Swap Shop’ recognises that things no longer wanted by someone, might be another person’s treasure. By reusing things we cut down on the amount of waste that goes into landfill and reduce the amount of resources that we use in manufacturing of new products. And it saves you money!

Wellingborough Eco Group originally set up Wellingborough Swap Shop last year as a Facebook group (join in!) so items can be swapped or shared with others; and in February we started hosting Saturday Swap Shops at the Victoria Centre on Zoom with the One Wellingborough Plus project. In September we started hosting in person Wellingborough Swap Shops at Animals in Need’s Open day. This proved to be very popular, so we decided to have weekly Swap Shops in Glamis Hall’s Community Room during our Tuesday Tidy Ups with Wellie Wombles.

This Tuesday’s Swap Shop promises to be bigger and better than ever! With food surplus from Glamis Hall and Redeem Funds, plus produce from Wellingborough Eco Group’s Community Allotment there’s lots of stuff for all. In Glamis Hall’s Community Room from 2-6 it’s all for swaps or just take anything you want, it’s all free! Find out more here.

Scope

The Scope Wellingborough shop sells a wide range of new and second goods including: clothes, shoes, homeware, accessories, furniture, CDs and DVDs, books, toys and much more. They offer discount prices, with tops for £1, bags and shoes for £2, dresses for £3 and jackets for £4.

They are urgently requesting donations of good quality clothing, bric-a-brac, electricals, toys and shoes and bags. Don’t throw your unwanted items, give them a new life by donating them to Scope, the disability equality charity in England and Wales. Every donation of a pre-loved item helps them to fund their vital advice and support services; and it stops usable items ending up in landfill:

  • Scope provides practical information and emotional support to disabled people when it’s most needed, through a telephone helpline and via an online community forum. They also provide a range of employment and child sleep services, community engagement programmes, partnerships and more.
  • Scope are campaigning to create a fairer society with their Everyday Equality strategy. For the last 5 years they have campaigned for social change, on issues about fairness, justice and rights at home, at school, at work and in our communities; so that the 14 million disabled people in the UK have equal opportunities.
  • Donating items to charity shops like Scope for re-use, diverts millions of usable items from landfill and into low-income households, tackling poverty, saving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2, and supporting a vast, growing network of people through volunteering, employment and training opportunities.

There are no limits on number of bags you can donate and you don’t need to make an appointment at the Wellingborough Shop. Just drop off at your convenience to 26/27 Silver Street, Wellingborough, NN8 1AY. They are open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and closed on Sunday. Call 01933 227001 or visit https://www.scope.org.uk/ for more info.

Glamis Hall For All

Glamis Hall consists of a wellbeing centre for the over 50s, a large sports hall with a kitchen and servery, a community meeting room, and sports changing rooms. After being closed by Wellingborough Borough Council in 2014, Glamis Hall reopened as a charity run by volunteers and relatives of clients in January 2015. The Hall’s many daily visitors, who range in age from 51 to 103, help to decide the programming.

The wellbeing centre’s regular activities include a Monday to Friday lunch club, yoga, raffles, and bingo. They have a shop on site and host visits from hairdressers, optometrists and district nurses– making it easy for their clients to access the services they need with minimal travel.

They also hire rooms by the hour, including the main hall that can host a wide variety of functions.

Glamis Hall’s mission is to provide an affordable community hub for the residents of the Borough of Wellingborough and the surrounding areas. Glamis Hall is run for the community, by the community. Home to the day centre for older people, a youth club, football and GLJ Theatre. Hall & rooms for hire, use their Contact Us page or call to check pricing and availability. Free parking is available or take the W1 bus from Church Street in the Town Centre.

Address
 Glamis Hall
 Goldsmith Road,
 Wellingborough,
 NN8 3RU

Telephone – 01933 677326

Website – https://www.glamishall.org.uk/