Putting ABBEY on the Map

Putting ABBEY on the Map was a Big Lottery Reaching Communities funded project based in the Abbey Ward area of Lincoln. The main aim of the project was to create a dynamic focal point for the benefit of the local community. Fully utilising our existing premises at developmentplus and a Community Development Worker, to establish and develop community involvement in the running and development of activity for and by the local community.

Doing this, allowed us to deliver training to volunteers to meet identified need, and support them to establish social and recreational activities to help meet the needs of their communities, including social and recreational opportunities for children and young people, such as youth clubs, sports activities, older people’s programmes and community events. All activities and support are developed alongside local people. We monitored and evaluated this work by numbers attending, feedback sheets, focus groups and case studies.

With a Health and Wellbeing focus to the project too, we offered a number of free workshops and courses throughout the year, covering a number of different areas. What is most important about these sessions is that they were requested by members of the Community as areas of interest and therefore will have the most benefit on individual lives.

Sessions to date have included:

• Health & Wellbeing
• Herb Study Workshops
• Cancer Awareness
• Practical Mindfulness
• Lincolnshire Volunteer Card Training
• LiveWell Champions Course
• Dementia Friends.
• Art Therapy
• Drama Therapy

This project also ran a Facebook page, to keep those in the local community updated: http://www.facebook.com/PuttingABBEYontheMap/