For decades Heighington Parish have been proud of the volunteers who come forward to help make the parish what it is – a good place to live. An opportunity has arisen thanks to Tees Valley Rural Community Council (TVRCC) and Youth Focus North East a (YFNE) who are working in partnership on a project tackling isolation and loneliness in rural communities which is funded by The Big Lottery. The project is called ‘Our Community Matters’ and they work with groups of people for 5 weeks with the aim being to bridge the gap between young people and older people in communities. A representative from TVRCC will come along and support the group to create, plan, and deliver a Wellbeing Challenge for a minimum of 100 people which will hopefully make a positive difference and improve community cohesion and wellbeing for all. The age ranges that they work with on this project are 13-25 years and 50+ and they would need a minimum of 6 in each age group but there is no maximum number.
TVRCC would really like to work with a group to do a challenge in Heighington and believe this could be good for the community and the village hall. They have a budget to pay for the hire of the hall for 5 weeks, refreshments and a £500 budget for the group to use as part of the challenge. This is the 2nd year of the project and last year they worked with groups on a variety of subjects which included a VE day end of WW1 celebratory event, a community garden and a village fund day.
So young people and our ‘more mature residents’ this sounds a fun offer that cannot be refused. Someone who is going to pay for everything, an opportunity for young people to do something that will benefit the parish as well as being able to use the experience for your CV’s and a lovely opportunity for our older community to work with the younger generation – what can be better?
So, in the first instance email me if you are interested and I will set up a meeting for you all to meet the lady from TVRCC who will give you more information to move this Project forward.
Councillor Gerald G. Lee
gerald.lee@darlington.gov.uk