A Happy New Year from the UPLIFT Central Area team!

As we draw upon the twelve day of Christmas when tradition would see that Christmas decorations are taken down, we're looking back at the Christmas activities and the community Christmas event that the UPLIFT Central Area project delivered in Worsborough. 

It was a busy end to the year for the team who worked with four different arts and crafts groups across Worsborough, who were all tasked with making Christmas decorations and ornaments to be displayed on the beautiful Christmas tree at the festive community event at the Barrow Club in Worsborough. 

Approximately 40 participants across the four groups were involved in the workshops and used a variety of crafting techniques to create the beautiful handmade decorations, all the while seeing a positive impact on their wellbeing from their engagement with the project. 

 Of the workshops, participant’s said: 

 

“I think it's relaxing. You can come 
and forget about your problems. You can get creative and meet new people - it's escapism! It gives me a boost.  It's nice to not think about anything else. This is the only thing I've seen in the area. I'd like to do more of it for sure. It’s good for socialising, everyone is friendly and welcoming.”  

“It's really nice participating in a group. There's a friendly atmosphere and it's welcoming. There's a variety of crafts - something for everyone. Feeling comfortable helps with my mental health, I feel more positive afterwards. I’d definitely like to do more of this. It's important as I feel quite lonely at home, so coming and doing things like this is such an advantage.”

The Christmas tree adorned with its homemade decorations was unveiled at the Community Christmas event and took pride of place as resident’s enjoyed the festivities around it with a delicious pie and peas supper and Christmas carols from Barnsley Brass band.   

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Barrow Working Men’s club for hosting this special event as well as Michelle Toon from the community development team at Barnsley Council for her continued support. Thanks also to the Worsborough Ward Alliance for their generous contribution towards the catering and providing the glorious festive sounds from Barnsley Brass.

A special thanks also to Linda Flewitt who ran our arts and crafts workshops, Linda came up with lots of different ideas and designs for the decorations, of which there was approximately 150! 

Speaking to Linda she told us:

"‘Delivering this project was both enjoyable and inspiring. It was amazing to see people from the local area come together to develop something for everyone in the community to enjoy. It was lovely to see people who may not usually be creative make unique decorations in a friendly, supportive environment"

One final thank you to the lovely residents who came and participated in the workshops and joined us for the event. We wish you a happy new year and look forward to bringing more community activities and events to the area.

 

Festive thanks from Green UPLIFT!

As 2023 draws to a close, our Green UPLIFT calendar concludes for another year, and what a year it’s been!

It’s been a jam packed programme of events, featuring 18 walks, 10 allotment socials, 6 Rewilding the mind sessions, a 3 night residential and a partridge in a pear tree…(ok well maybe not the last bit, although there has been lots of nature along the way!)

In this year’s programme, we’ve been lucky enough to visit some of our favourite green spots across Barnsley including, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Cannon Hall, Wentworth Castle Gardens, RSPB Old Moor and Worsbrough Mill, to name but a few, with lots of creativity along the way. UPLIFTER’s have enjoyed creative writing workshops from Chol Theatre, ukelele playing with Chris McShane, berry basket making with Karina from ‘Whittle and Weave’ and Landart with James Brunt as well as much more!

Each Green UPLIFT is designed to bring a ‘breath of fresh air’ by tapping into our creativity and connection with nature, and we are pleased to report that 95% of participants have seen an improvement in their mental health and wellbeing from their involvement in the programme.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our fantastic artists, partners, participants and in particular our funders for making the programme the success that it is, we are hugely grateful.

Green UPLIFT will return next year with lots more creative events in the gorgeous green spaces we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep. To whet your appetite, UPLIFTER’s can look forward to more sessions with multi-disciplinary artist, Hannah May Batley, more walks with the walking group, photography on the Transpennine Trail and a future ‘Big Sing’!

We’ll be back with further details in the new year, until then, we wish you a peaceful Christmas. May all your Christmas’s be white and your UPLIFT’S green!