charity, Community News, Funding, fundraising

An encouraging final phase of the year as funding rolls in

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

The 2.6 Challenge to raise much needed funds

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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.

Funding, Premises

It’s going to be a warmer winter!

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Our new windows and doors are finally complete and been given the thumbs up from our regulars 🙂

It seems like forever since we first decided to replace our old windows and wooden doors, which made the hub too warm in the summer and too cold in the winter, but thanks to a combination of funding from The National Lottery (our previous award), Medway Rotary Club, The KM Group and the Co-op Community Fund,  the installation has been carried out – and it all looks fab!

With huge thanks also to Clarke’s Glazers of Gillingham, whose service was excellent.

There are still more improvements to be made but we’re very proud of our progress in the past two years to make the hub as welcoming as possible.

With core funding secured for three years, thanks to the Kent Community Foundation, we’re looking forward to expanding our services and activities, so if you’ve any ideas of what you’d like the hub to offer, please do get in touch on 01634 319633 or email community@waldersladehub.org.

We also have evening and weekends (and some daytime slots) available for hire at very reasonable rates – £7 per hour for community groups and charitable organisations, or £10 p/h for individuals and businesses. More information on hiring the space can be found here.

Before, during and after …

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Activities, Funding, Resources

Fabulous news from Awards For All!

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We’ve done it again!

Two years ago, we were fortunate to be awarded £10,000 Awards For All funding, which kick-started many of the projects we currently have running, i.e. Chairobics, Time To Talk etc.

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve just been awarded another £10,000 by the National Lottery Community Fund (aka Awards For All) which secures Time To Talk and Brunch and a Bit More for another year, and allows us to open up a Reminiscence Cafe once a month too, working even more closely in partnership with WALT than ever before.

This, coupled with the Kent Community Foundation’s core support funding, means we can truly go full steam ahead in our aim to get the space open seven days a week. Part of the previous fund is also paying towards our new windows and doors – and installation is now scheduled in, thanks to various other donations!

It’s been a helluva year all round so far, with the Co-op fund going great guns, and the support of the Medway Messenger too. Most importantly, all our volunteers, and those of you who play the lottery and support the work of thousands of charities like ourselves – thank you!

The Net Community Hub Open Cafe

Activities, Funding, fundraising

Magic Moments! We’ve been awarded £500 from Magic Little Grants.

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In partnership with Postcode Community Trust, Magic Little Grant from Localgiving has awarded us £500 to support our Monday afternoon Chairobics activity, securing it for a further year.

The session has gone from strength to strength since we instigated it two years ago, with over 25 people taking part regularly. It runs from 1.30-2.30pm on a Monday afternoon, although many participants stay after our coffee morning, or arrive early to have a chat and a cuppa. And often, there’s more chat afterwards! It’s hitting all the right notes with regard to gentle physical exercise for those less mobile, and offering a chance for people to meet and make friends. Drop by anytime!

The Postcode Community Trust is a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Localgiving is the UK’s leading membership and support network for local charities and community groups.

For information on how you can apply, visit the following links:

www.localgiving.org/magic-little-grants/
www.postcodecommunitytrust.org.uk
www.localgiving.org/

Find out how to play the People’s Postcode Lottery, and support even more charities by clicking here: www.postcodelottery.co.uk

MLG Logos

As part of this grant, we’ve been provided with an annual Localgiving membership. This will enable us to benefit from a range of online fundraising services and campaigns. We’re able to receive donations through Localgiving via this page:

www.localgiving.org/the-net-community-hub

Funding, fundraising

We’re a recipient of the Co-op Local Community Fund for 2019!

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We received the most fantastic piece of news recently – the Cooperative has chosen us as one of the causes it will support in Medway in 2019!

The Co-op Local Community Fund helps to support local projects that its members care about. Since its launch in 2017, Co-op members have raised £39 million pounds for over 12,000 local causes. We’re delighted that we will now be able to access this funding opportunity, which will help keep our weekly cafe open for local residents to continue to meet their friends.

As a member, every time you shop at the Co-op, 1% of what you spend on Co-op branded products and services helps fund community projects. You can shop at any Co-op Group stores across the UK to raise money for our cause.

Please choose us by signing into your membership account or by calling the membership helpline on 0800 023 4708. We’ll be available for you to select until November 2019. If you don’t yet have a membership card, simply ask for one the next time you’re in your local store, and register to support us.

You can view our profile page here – considering we haven’t told anyone yet, it’s pleasing to see funds are already coming through!

I suspect we’ll be down at the Walderslade store in due course, helping you pack – make sure you come and say hello!

Funding, fundraising

We’ve a Crowdfunder page for new doors and windows!

The Net Community Hub WALT Walderslade

With the release recently of the national Loneliness Strategy, we here at The Net Hub are keen to do our bit for the older people in our community and not only make our space available to them, but also make it as comfortable as possible.

We run a number of activities, from Chairobics to Time To Talk, a DIY Arts & Crafts Cafe, and an open cafe every week. We’d love to get the space open even more and to help this, we want the space to be welcoming to all.

Thanks to England’s temperate climate, most people can enjoy the space in relative comfort. However, during particularly cold or hot phases, the old wooden doors and windows can leave it either cold and draughty or humid and sweaty.

We’ve already got £1000 towards replacement costs, but we need another £3000 in order to install new pvc doors and windows with openings that will help to regulate the temperatures. This would also include a new back door, which currently cannot be opened from the outside and makes logistics a little tricky when we have a group meeting in the space.

Any help you can give us would be much appreciated.

Thank you!