Tag: medway

Activities, charity, Community News, Events

Medway Women’s History Month Event – Overcoming Adversity: Medway’s female community doers

The Net Community Hub

Saturday 22nd March from 1pm-2pm (as part of Brainstormz!). Doors open 12.15pm. You can book tickets here.

The Net Community Hub plays host to three extraordinary women, who, in spite of the difficulties they face, make the lives of Medway residents so much richer.

Sue Bulpin, Sam Rapp and Kate Belmonte are in conversation on Saturday, March 22nd at the Net Community Hub from 1pm.

Sue lives with Functional Neurological Disorder and, as she put it “hit a wall” at weekends. Volunteering since she was forced to give up work due to her condition, Sue kept herself busy all week but found herself losing energy at the weekends.

Thus Brainstormz! was born. Beginning at the Hub on Saturday afternoons and now expanded to Rainham Healthy Living Centre on a Monday, Sue has engaged many people with neurological conditions, and was rewarded with being a Pride in Medway finalist in 2022, MVA’s Volunteer of the Year in 2023, and being chosen as one of only 500 Royal Voluntary Service’s Coronation Champions, also in 2023.

Sam Rapp, the Dyslexic Poet, is a lawyer by trade and if that wasn’t impressive enough in itself, she has been a stalwart of Medway’s creative writing scene for many years. She has performed as The Dyslexic Poet in the UK and internationally, and has won awards for her poetry and plays. She runs many creative writing workshops under the banner of Fun With Words Productions, dedicated to making writing fun for all abilities.

Sam is chair of Dyslexia House Association, Medway and Co-Chair of the disabled staff network for legal services in the public sector. She writes a regular blog for Dyslexia Scotland and has published her first book Rant Dyslexic Me.

Kate Belmonte co-founded and is the director of an award winning local non-profit social enterprise, the Mutual Aid Road Reps, which was created in 2020 to combat loneliness and isolation across the Medway Towns during the pandemic. It continues to expand, offering essential services such as befriending, shop and drops and taking people to appointments.

Self employed since 2007, Kate ran a sign company before specialising in graphic design and website building. She has worked with and for small businesses across the Medway. A keen environmentalist, she has campaigned to protect our green spaces and agricultural land in Rainham, Twydall and on the Hoo Peninsula, and stood as the Green Party candidate in Gillingham and Rainham at the last general election.

We’re honoured to host Sue, Sam and Kate. The event is free, and tea and coffee will be available for a suggested £1 donation. If you have difficulty due to mobility or finance issues attending the hub, please contact Jaye at: community@waldersladehub.org as there is a travel bursary available to people living in Medway.

For the full programme, visit here.

We look forward to seeing you.

Activities, Community News, Events, Patron

Medway Women’s History Month Event: From Suffragettes to the Political Now

The Net Community Hub

Saturday 22nd March 11am-12noon. Doors open 10.15am for refreshments. Tickets can be booked here.

Jennifer Godfrey talks to former Chatham and Aylesford MP, Dame Tracey Crouch, DBE, and current Gillingham and Rainham MP, Naushabah Khan, about the rise of female representation in parliament and what struggles they still faced in the 21st Century, drawing comparisons between them and the early female pioneers.

Jennifer Godfrey lives in West Kent with her husband, two children and dog. She is the author of two non-fiction books, published by Pen & Sword Ltd, entitled ‘Suffragettes of Kent’ and ‘Secret Missions of the Suffragettes – Glass breakers and Safe Houses’. She is currently researching and writing her third book, also about women’s suffrage. Jennifer has enjoyed writing stories since she was a young child and over the years has been involved in many writing courses, groups and projects. 

Dame Tracey Crouch DBE was MP for Chatham and Aylesford for 14 years, 2010-2024. Within that time, Tracey held various posts, including Minister for Sport, Civil Society and Loneliness in 2017. She took a principled stand over the delay to introduce reduced limits on the stakes of fixed odds betting terminals, and resigned the post in 2018.

With a particular focus on older people, Tracey was responsible for implementing the Loneliness Strategy, and held regular Over 55s fairs, where the public could meet service providers and see what was available to them. She said: “From a Member of Parliament perspective you see so many people in the community when they reach crisis point and sadly, they’re not necessarily aware of some of the activities that are out there for them which may have prevented them getting to that crisis point.” Tracey is also the Patron of The Net Community Hub.

Naushabah Khan has been the MP Gillingham and Rainham since July
2024, after serving for a decade as a Medway Councillor. She proudly identifies as a feminist and previously served as a trustee for the Fawcett Society, a leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights. Naushabah has been consistently vocal on issues affecting women, particularly those from diverse communities.

Her commitment to amplifying these voices and addressing systemic inequalities has been a driving force throughout her political career. In Parliament, Naushabah continues to champion policies that promote equality, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring that the concerns of underrepresented communities are brought to the forefront of political discourse.

Get their early for this fascinating discussion. The event is free, although there is a donation ticket. Tea and coffee will be available for a suggested £1 donation. If you have difficulty due to mobility or finance issues attending the hub, please contact Jaye at: community@waldersladehub.org as there is a travel bursary available.

For the full programme, visit here.

We look forward to seeing you.

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, Funding, fundraising

The KM Medway Big Charity Quiz 2019

The Net Community Hub

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The first KM Charity Team event in the 2019 calendar is the Big Quiz, which takes place on Friday, February 15. It starts at 7.00pm and is scheduled to end at 10.30pm. Doors open at 6.20pm.

It will be staged at The George Hotel in Chatham, so come and join in the fun and encourage your friends and work colleagues to join you.

We will be entering at least one team, so if you’d like to be in it, please contact Jaye via email at community@waldersladehub.org, or call 01634 319633. If we are oversubscribed we will enter another team – the more we enter, the bigger our size of the pot! However, we will need you to secure your spot with cash or cheque as soon as possible!

Along with taking part in a fantastic quiz you will receive substantial nibbles with a bottle of wine and a bottle of fizzy water on the table. There will also be a great raffle and the chance to win a fantastic on-the-spot star prize of 2 x Eurostar tickets. Remember you can bring along as much additional food as you like but please do not bring drink as this is where the money is raised for the event, with Barclays Bank doubling all spend at the bar. Also, there will be a goldfish bowl at the bar – drop your business card in for a chance to win a prize!

Teams of eight are invited to take part at a cost of £55 (use discount code KMVIP), which will raise funds for various charities including the children’s road safety service at the KM Charity Team.

If you would like to book your own team, here’s the link to the booking form. Please nominate us when you enter and we may win an additional prize! Thanks for your support!

Volunteers

The Net Community Hub signs up to Time Credits

The Net Community Hub

We couldn’t operate without a crew of volunteers helping us out – but we always need more!

With that in mind, we’ve joined the great team at Medway Time Credits, so the lovely folk who volunteer with us are rewarded for their efforts.

A Time Credit is a ‘thank you’ for getting involved in your local community and giving your time in a voluntary way to help others. You can earn Time Credits for all kinds of activities, such as helping run our open cafe or assisting with the activities the hub organises. You might even have an idea of an activity you can run yourself, with which we can help you.

For every hour you give to your community, you can earn one Time Credit, which is worth one hour of an activity with any of the Time Credits partners across Medway, London or beyond. Gyms, museums, tourist attractions, art classes – you could access interesting and rewarding opportunities for getting involved with your community.

You can donate Time Credits to someone in your family or your neighbourhood who may benefit from them. You can also spend Time Credits as a group of volunteers or friends. Have a look at www.timecredits.com for places to spend Time Credits and follow Medway Time Credits on FB @KentMedwayTimeCredits and Twitter @MedwayTC.

You can visit our profiles on timecredits.com and take a look at how our earn offer and spend offers. We’d love to see you, so don’t be shy, come in and start earning today.

Activities, fundraising

Fundraising Talk: Places of Entertainment in the Medway Towns

The Net Community Hub

PLEASE NOTE, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

Join us for a journey through Medway, with a ‘then’ and ‘now’ look at the entertainment venues across the towns.

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Starting from Cliffe and moving right across through to Rainham, our host Ian will fascinate us with the history of these iconic venues.

Ticket price includes refreshments of wine, hot drinks, soft drinks and snacks, although you’re more than welcome to bring your own.

The talk will take place on Tuesday, July 17 from 7pm-8pm, with time to enjoy some more refreshments and a chat afterwards. Doors open at 6.30pm and tickets are £5.50 including booking fee.

To book, please click here for our TicketSource page.

We do hope you’ll join us 🙂

Book now