Category: Community News

Activities, Community News

Want to Learn How To Make Podcasts?

The Net Community Hub

This is your chance to learn how to produce and launch your own podcasts, as everything you ever wanted to know about podcasts is coming to the Hub across five Wednesday nights.

The sessions start on Wednesday 21st February at 4.30pm to 6.30pm and will run every Wednesday until 13th March, when the final session will finish at 6pm. Cost is £112.50 for the whole course, which can be paid in advance in full, or in 3 x instalments of £30 on the night, with a final payment of £22.50. 

You’re in very safe hands with your tutor, Kieran Poole. He has produced at BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Kent and Absolute Radio. Kieran has presented an award-winning radio show, a number of podcasts and is a stand-up comedian.

The cost of the five 90 minute sessions £112.50 per person, and you can book and pay in advance, or pay £22.50 on the night. If you’re unable to make any of the sessions, there will be a catch up zoom.

The only equipment required is your own laptop and wired earphones/headphones to each session. To book, email community@walderslade.hub.org.

charity, Community News, Volunteers

Brainstormz! Volunteer Sue is crowned as a Coronation Champion!

The Net Community Hub

We are thrilled that one of our star volunteers, Sue Bulpin, has been selected as one of the 500 official Coronation Champions.

Sue lives with Functional Neurological Disorder but in spite of this, she runs a peer support group called Brainstormz! at the Net Community Hub on Saturday afternoons, for people with similar brain conditions and injuries. Sue supports her group with art therapies and by sharing advice, and provides a warm and welcoming space for those like herself, who tended to “hit a wall” at the weekend.

Commenting on becoming a Coronation Champion, Sue said: ”I’m amazed that I’ve got picked to go through – things like that don’t happen to me! It’s second nature what I do, I just enjoy helping people and giving back to the community, seeing people smile. I’m proud of what I’ve done and am excited to go to the celebration event. I’m proud of what the people I’ve supported have achieved, that gives me a lot of satisfaction.” 

The Coronation Champions Awards, launched by Royal Voluntary Service and supported by Her Majesty The Queen Consort, is all about celebrating the work of extraordinary volunteers across the UK. 

A total of 500 volunteers have been selected as Coronation Champions and will receive an official Coronation Champions pin badge, a signed certificate from Their Majesties, and an invite to one of the Coronation Celebrations, such as the Windsor Castle Coronation Concert or a Coronation Garden Party.

Huge congratulations to our Sue, who is off this weekend to the concert at Windsor Castle (we’ve never seen her so excited!) and will be proudly wearing her new pin badge. And quite possibly a new hat, shoes, coat … 😀

Find out more about the awards here: https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/volunteering/coronation-champions-awards/

Community News, Female Focus, Support Services

Special guests for Female Focus

The Net Community Hub

We’re delighted that we will be joined at the next Female Focus (January 12th from 1pm) by Medway Council’s Breast Cancer Awareness Team, alongisde a representative from MVA and Macmillan Cancer Support’s ‘Year of Listening’ programme.

Come along and have your say on helping to shape the future of local cancer services for women, as well as advice on how to reduce your risk of developing breast cancer, or advice on how to cope with receiving a diagnosis yourself or supporting someone you know.

Feel free to drop by to this support group for females only, which usually takes place on the second Thursday in the month.

charity, Community News, Funding, fundraising

An encouraging final phase of the year as funding rolls in

The Net Community Hub

Huge thanks to us from three of our biggest supporters over the last five years.

Firstly, we received another £10k grant from The National Lottery Community Fund, which will cover most of our regular activity sessions for the next twelve months.

Following on from the advise of that, the Sir George Earle Benevolent Fund via the Kent Community Foundation has awarded us £3000 towards our costs costs, covering the period now to the end of February.

And at the end of November, we will be receiving our main tranche of funding from the Cooperative Community Fund, which will be used to run our Brainstormz! session (Saturdays, 1-4pm).

None of what we do would be possible without the generous support of our local community, both national and Medway lottery players and the fundraisers brought together under the Kent Community Foundation banner. You’re our heroes!

The Medway Lottery is an ongoing opportunity to raise funds for us – set up your account and choose us as your charity here.

Activities, Community News, Funding, walderslade together

Celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

The Net Community Hub

The BIG bank holiday weekend is almost upon us, and thanks to the ever-wonderful Kent Community Foundation, we’ve been awarded £1900 to help Her Majesty celebrate!

While maintaining our usual activities, we’ve extended our opening times with bonus editions of arts and crafts with the fabulous Natasha at Creatabot, an afternoon tea, courtesy of WALT, finishing off with live music and other activities in the Big Tea Party.

The full calendar is below, do come along and join us!

Wednesday 1st June: 10am-3pm

Open Cafe with Chairobics at 11am and Creatabot Arts between 12.30-2.30pm.

Thursday 2nd June 12noon-4pm

Waltie’s Open Cafe and Afternoon Tea.

Friday 3rd June 12noon-4pm

Open Cafe with Creatabot Arts in residence from 1pm.

Saturday 4th June 11am-4pm

The Big Tea Party with WALT. All welcome to drop in for live music and activities throughout the day.

We do hope you will join us to raise a toast to Her Majesty 🙂

Activities, Community News, Funding

Brainstormz! to receive Coop support

The Net Community Hub

We’re delighted to advise that The Net’s neurological support group, Brainstormz! has been selected by our local Coop as one of their charities of the year for 2021/22.

Brainstormz! was instigated by our volunteer, Sue, back at the end of 2019 and carried on via Zoom throughout the lockdown. However, it’s now back in person and funding we receive from the Coop secures it for another year. Funding from Comic Relief enabled the project to begin.

To support the project, please select Brainstormz! on your membership card. Every penny makes a huge difference!

Come along and join in the sessions, which take place on Saturday afternoons between 1-4pm. A donation of £2 to the group helps to cover any further outgoings. Read more about it here.

Thank you 🙂

Community News, walderslade together, walt

It’s beginning to look a lot like normal

The Net Community Hub

I hesitate to say it, because COVID19 cases are still way too high BUT, we are starting to buzz again.

While we’re not advertising the sessions as such, we have got most of our regulars back in two or three times a week now, albeit with a slightly amended social schedule.

Walderslade Together has done an incredible job, keeping members in the loop with both old and new activities, with every session now coming with the in-person or virtual participation options.

Most of our external groups are back, and we hope to welcome the foodbank back in the near future. In lieu of their return, we are continuing with our free brunch on a Thursday morning.

The Coffee and Craft session running on a Friday afternoon may change but we will of course update that as required.

If you have any queries that aren’t answered by our What’s On page, you can reach us or WALT on 01634 319633, or email community@waldersladehub.org.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Jaye, Ruth and Sharon.

Activities, charity, Community News, Funding, fundraising, walderslade together, walt

The 2.6 Challenge to raise much needed funds

The Net Community Hub

26challenge

The 2.6 Challenge is a simple and fun way for everyone to do their bit to help save the UK’s charities. 

Sunday 26 April was the scheduled date of the 40th London Marathon, traditionally a huge earner for charities throughout the UK.

Due to the COVID19 outbreak, this – along with many other fundraising activities – has been cancelled. In response, the organisers of the biggest mass-participation sports events across the country have come together to create a new campaign to raise vital funds to help save the UK’s charities.

This is a challenge for all ages and abilities and all you need to do is think of an activity based on the London marathon around the numbers 26 or 2.6.  

This could be something as simple as pledging to run 2.6 miles as your daily exercise to doing 26 minutes of yoga or even juggling for 26 minutes non-stop. The only requirement is that the activity must follow the Government guidelines on exercise and social distancing. 

Thousands of fundraising events across the UK have been cancelled due to Covid-19 with a devastating impact on charity income that means many charities are facing closure. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) CEO Karl Wilding estimates that the UK charity sector will lose £4 billion in income as a result of the pandemic. 

This impacts all sectors of society – from children to the elderly – as well as the vital work in areas such as palliative care, serious diseases, mental health, housing support, food supplies and countless others that charities support. 

We’ve seen overwhelming support from the public for Medway’s charities and community groups, working with Public Health Medway, to ensure that the vulnerable people we represent are not forgotten during the lockdown. To help us cover some of our income losses due to the hub closing, and to prepare for getting back to normal, please do what you can as part of the 2.6 Challenge and donate to our fund here: https://localgiving.org/charity/the-net-community-hub/

Thank you.

Community News, Support Services, Volunteers

COVID19 Update

The Net Community Hub

stay at home web

We hope everyone is staying safe and well at this difficult time.

We wished we had been able to stay open and offer a limited drop in service for our most vulnerable residents, but we quickly realised this wasn’t possible. The ongoing advice at present is still to stay at home and only leave it if absolutely necessary.

The NHS in Kent and Medway produces regular updates on the response to Covid-19 and important news you should know about is here:  https://www.kentandmedwayccg.nhs.uk/…/covid-19-update-02-ap…

Further advice direct from the NHS can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

It’s important to filter out misinformation. If you are going to share anything regarding COVID19, please be responsible and check it via a reputable source. Many people are becoming more panicked by conspiracy theories and fake news circulating at a time when mental health is already becoming ever more fragile.

There’s a humongous effort on the part of Medway’s voluntary and charity organisations to ensure that vulnerable people are not forgotten, with volunteers out shopping and dropping essentials and prescriptions.

Medway Council has a dedicated site for residents who are vulnerable, or who want to offer help: https://www.medway.gov.uk/coronavirussupport

Stay safe everyone.