Thrive at Connect launch album
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LAUNCH EVENT<br />
TUESDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2016
<strong>Thrive</strong> is a new community space in Dewsbury,<br />
ready to be brought to life by local people,<br />
groups and organis<strong>at</strong>ions. Th<strong>at</strong>’s exactly wh<strong>at</strong><br />
everyone did on Tuesday 20 September 2016<br />
when we opened the doors…
We were delighted to welcome<br />
people to the <strong>Thrive</strong> <strong>launch</strong> – including<br />
local people, partner organis<strong>at</strong>ions, tenants,<br />
service users, shareholders, Board members,<br />
staff, a local Councillor, Paula Sheriff MP,<br />
the Commoners Choir and the Huddersfield<br />
Crusaders Majorette Troupe.
Our cre<strong>at</strong>ive space was the setting for<br />
speakers to share their stories. A huge thank<br />
you to Simon Burton from the Recovery<br />
College Kirklees who spoke about working<br />
together for health and wellbeing and<br />
Chris Chinnock from Kirklees Council who<br />
talked about community engagement.
Thank you to the Commoners Choir for singing<br />
about the world around us and its inequalities.<br />
We asked them to write a song for us about<br />
social housing and the result was Shelter<br />
- a fabulous folksy protest song about the<br />
importance of having a roof over your head.<br />
W<strong>at</strong>ch the song here:<br />
www.connecthousing.org.uk/Shelter
The Commoners Choir includes a local artist<br />
called Una, who produced a beautiful limited<br />
edition illustr<strong>at</strong>ed lyric card, based on the story<br />
of the three little pigs. Guests <strong>at</strong> the event were<br />
invited to make a don<strong>at</strong>ion in return for one of<br />
these cards, and by the end of the afternoon<br />
£200 had been raised for homelessness<br />
charity Shelter.
We celebr<strong>at</strong>ed <strong>Connect</strong> Housing’s 10 year<br />
anniversary and our Chief Executive, Helen<br />
Lennon, talked about being true to our vision<br />
and values.
The wonderful Huddersfield Crusaders<br />
Majorette troupe gave a fantastic performance.<br />
It was a perfect taste of wh<strong>at</strong> the space can be<br />
used for in the future.
In our meeting space, we held arts and crafts<br />
activities for people to try. The Gr<strong>at</strong>itude Jars<br />
were a big hit – the idea was to decor<strong>at</strong>e a<br />
jar, take it home and write down things you are<br />
gr<strong>at</strong>eful for and store them in the jar. If you ever<br />
need a little lift, open the jar and read all the<br />
gr<strong>at</strong>itude moments you have collected.
Another craft activity on offer was challenging<br />
<strong>at</strong>tendees to design wh<strong>at</strong> they would like to<br />
see happen in our outdoor space. We hope<br />
to build these ideas into our plans.
We have the kit and caboodle when it<br />
comes to arts and crafts. We have sewing<br />
machines, knitting needles and wool. All<br />
you need to add is your imagin<strong>at</strong>ion, which<br />
is wh<strong>at</strong> happened in the Knit and N<strong>at</strong>ter area<br />
of the event.
It was fantastic to see our cafe space buzzing<br />
with activity for the first time. Gre<strong>at</strong> food, drink<br />
and convers<strong>at</strong>ions were flowing.
The event was c<strong>at</strong>ered by the Real Junk Food<br />
Project Dewsbury. They have a simple but<br />
powerful mission – to feed bellies not bins.<br />
They do this by intercepting food from going<br />
to landfill and then distributing it to the local<br />
community. We have been working in<br />
partnership with them and so far this year,<br />
7,000 meals have been delivered to our<br />
Huddersfield-based accommod<strong>at</strong>ion for young<br />
homeless people and to our North Kirklees<br />
Women’s Refuge.
We think th<strong>at</strong> health and wellbeing is incredibly<br />
important, so the event fe<strong>at</strong>ured taster sessions<br />
of the kind of wellbeing activities th<strong>at</strong> we will<br />
be running <strong>at</strong> <strong>Thrive</strong> in future. People enjoyed<br />
gentle hand massages from Wendy and<br />
relaxing medit<strong>at</strong>ion and bre<strong>at</strong>hing techniques<br />
by Maria.
<strong>Connect</strong> Housing’s Money M<strong>at</strong>ters Team<br />
were on hand to show the gre<strong>at</strong> work they<br />
do in helping people with their finances. They<br />
also ran the interactive Downshift Challenge –<br />
which was about saving money and shopping<br />
differently. People tasted different products and<br />
had to guess which was the more expensive<br />
branded product.
The Richmond Fellowship came to <strong>Thrive</strong> to<br />
educ<strong>at</strong>e people about the good work they do<br />
in making recovery a reality. Their mission is to<br />
help thousands of people with mental health<br />
problems recover and get into employment.
<strong>Thrive</strong> has plenty of walls for exhibiting local<br />
artists. The event showcased paintings by Steve<br />
Short and a photography project ‘Roots and<br />
Routes’ by young single homeless people th<strong>at</strong><br />
<strong>Connect</strong> houses and supports.
Thank you to everyone who<br />
came along and were part<br />
of <strong>Thrive</strong>’s <strong>launch</strong>.<br />
If you’re interested in working with us or<br />
want to use the space, please get in touch.<br />
www.thrive<strong>at</strong>connect.org<br />
hello@thrive<strong>at</strong>connect.org<br />
/thrive<strong>at</strong>connect<br />
@thrive<strong>at</strong>connect