Michelle’s Blog
Hello there, my name is Anthony Jenkins but I am known as Michelle because I am transgender. Having recently joined the People & Work team on February 15, I have found the team a great pleasure to be around and very friendly and welcoming. In the office, it is never a boring day because of all the humour there and it’s just a fun, amazing atmosphere to be in. Everyone comes together to get what is needed to be done, whether that’s a sport tournament or an event like Digifest 2022.
My main role in the organisation is being a part of Rhondda Digidol (Play It Again Tech). I work with computers and also aid in tech delivery like various programming clubs around Rhondda, working alongside Justin George and Ethan Jones to deliver fun and engaging clubs for kids in after school extra-curricular activities. The clubs aim to allow the kids to obtain the skills and knowledge in an advancing field of skills/work that they might need later in life. When it comes to working with computers, I have recovered files from password protected users, changed the PCs Operating System (OS) and even reset the PCs OS.
In the Digifest on May 24, I was given the task of helping kids from various schools understand the various forms of operating systems out there as most just knew of Windows, Android and iOS when there’s plenty of other systems out there. I showcased my knowledge and skills when it comes to PCs with taking 2 laptops to showcase, one being on Kubuntu (a form of the Linux OS Ubuntu) and one being on Windows 10. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a third laptop running a different OS in time for the event. We gave sweets as prizes to any kids who could answer the tech questions I was asking them. They basically had to answer what a particular acronym stands for. For example, one I asked was about what OS stands for. If answered right or not, I would still give them the chocolate for trying.
My enjoyment of my hobby, programming, has only gotten larger by working here as seeing kids excel at programming makes me want to strive to go further myself. It has also allowed me to appreciate the art of PC building and the parts that all go together in harmony to run as one.
(Michelle is on a six-month DWP Kick Start placement (the UK Government’s employment scheme for young people)
Caelan Bradley’s Blog
Hey there, my name is Caelan Bradley – but you can call me Cae. Having recently joined the People & Work team on the 10th of March 2022, I have found the team very welcoming, friendly and great to work with. There is never a dull day in the office, full of energy and motivation we all work together to push the charity forward in providing accessible activities for the community.
My main role is sport delivery. Working with James Watts-Rees we aim to deliver fun and engaging sport activities as a team, for all ages, hoping to inspire health and well-being wherever we go. We approach things with smiles and positivity whether delivering sport or interacting with the community in other ways, like supporting local businesses when deciding where to go for our lunch. Something small like that can have a big impact and it warms my heart to see the smiles on people’s faces when we are able to do things like that.
We deliver all kinds of sports and activities ranging from things as simple as ‘stuck in the mud’, to more advanced training for sports such as rugby or football. For example, on a Tuesday 5-6pm we were tasked with delivering kids activities to children aged 4-7. This was a fun time, filled with high energy games and relay races; each time they ran back and forth, they had to complete a different obstacle, be that running around cones or pretending to be their favourite animal. Then at the other end of the spectrum on a Thursday 2-3pm we deliver walking rugby for our senior members of the community aged 60+. This is a great way to help them stay active and healthy and is one of the main motivators to me wanting to help more, which I will explain now.
On top of sports delivery, during my time in the office, I have been working on some literature which should prove beneficial to those we deliver sport to. I believe it’s important to couple our activities with understanding as that will not only help those that want to improve at sport, but also helps clear some of the fog when it comes to terminology used in sport. The first thing I did was to create a glossary of terms. I believe this is important as often literature regarding sport, health and well-being can be confusing and use terms which are alien to those not in the sporting world. I have created a document explaining the importance of things like warming up, that outlines what it means, why it’s beneficial and also how to go about performing a warm-up with some examples of warm-up techniques and exercises to try. These documents are part of a set of documents I hope to complete and get ready to hand out at activities.
Currently I am working on a document explaining cooling-down and next will be sport-specific and general work-out plans to help enhance the experience of those we deliver to. These plans will cover all ages and have separate home and gym style work outs to ensure the content is accessible and practical for all. It is important to cover all ages as the style of training should change the older you get, for example spending longer performing a warm-up, at a slower pace and building up gradually is advised for older people. This will not only help them stay active, fit and healthy into their later years but also helps prevent injuries, which become more pertinent with age.
My passion for sport, health, fitness and well-being has only increased since becoming part of the team here at People & Work. I feel supercharged and grateful to be part of something so positive and beneficial to the community. I hope to continue to work in this field as it is my passion to work with people, helping them to achieve their fitness goals. I enjoy guiding them along their journey and hope to continue this in the years to come, sharing and increasing my knowledge base for the benefit of others, as well as my own.
Caelan is on a six-month DWP Kick Start placement (the UK Government’s employment scheme for young people)
Morgan Roderick’s Blog
Hello! I am Morgan Roderick and I have recently joined the People and Work team. My role is to deliver sports activities for Play it Again Sport. I joined the crew on September 3rd 2021 which was later than originally planned due to COVID 19 pandemic. In my first couples of weeks here the team welcomed me with open arms, and I managed to build close relationships with my co-workers.
Me and James will go out and deliver sports almost every day, so far delivering to over 4 schools in the Rhondda and the delivery we have been doing the past few weeks has been super fun! Getting to deliver to all ages is exciting because no two days are the same, you never know what funny things are going to be said or done!
We do a variety of sports activities including Football, Rugby, Netball, and lots of other games, so nobody gets left out and there’s a little something for everyone.
One example of one of the games I enjoy playing with the children is ‘Hula Hoop Link Race’. In this team-based activity there are 2 groups of children linking hands to form in circle, and the groups must individually pass through the Hula hoops and get the Hula hoops around the circles without breaking the chains. The first team to get the Hula hoops around the circle and sit-down wins! James and I work fantastically with children and develop great bonds with our classes, so getting everyone to listen isn’t a problem!
Every Wednesday I also attend our Games club, which runs 5pm until 7pm, where we have people from all over RCT show up, and on a Thursday I also go to the Play Yard in Ynyswen to play Walking Rugby with the local gents 2pm until 3pm. We also had a day out with colleagues from the Llechi Glo a Chefn Gwlad (Slate, Coal and countryside) network where we went to Cwm Farm Shop for a presentation and lunch, after the presentation we went and played walking rugby before going up to meet up with Welcome to Our Woods, another local community organisation.
I want to do this in the future because it’s something I am extremely passionate about. I love working in sport and I love working with the community. I’ve always loved sports from a young age, it’s something that brings people together and something that benefits both your mental health as well as your physical health. I’m happy and confident in what I do with People and Work and hope to carry on doing this with my life.
Morgan was on a DWP Kick Start placement with People & Work from September 2021 until the end of February 2022. He now delivers sports sessions in local community settings in Rhondda in a freelance capacity.
The Green Light Project
Green Light is a project we launched earlier this year in response to the high levels of unemployment throughout the Rhondda Valleys and the affect Covid has had on the Economy. This has been supported and funded by Confused.com.
The purpose of the project is to support anyone, no matter your circumstances, transition into Employment or Education. We have been doing this by supporting individuals on a one-to-one basis remove any barriers that may be preventing them from taking that next step in life. Whether that be help writing your CV, preparing for an Interview, access to Volunteering opportunities to develop Employability skills and buff up your experience, help accessing and purchasing courses or training, and more! It is tailored around the individual’s needs.
The project has been running since January 2021 and has been successful in supporting a wide variety of individuals across the Rhondda. It has been especially successful in supporting those who may have fell through the cracks of other employment schemes, or those who may need a little more one-on-one support that has not been offered elsewhere.
One person we have been able to help was a girl called Ellie. She came to our project after not getting the support she felt she needed from another Employment scheme in the area. Ellie was an apprentice Engineer pre lockdown but due to Covid, she was unfortunately made redundant. This had an impact on her wellbeing making her very disheartened, and after months of getting nowhere with finding another job, she lost the confidence to apply for jobs and gave up. We offered her support in terms of CV building, Interview prepping as well as regularly encouraging and supporting her to apply for jobs. We helped her find temporary work until we came across an Engineering apprentice and sent it her way. She applied for the apprenticeship and she was successful with the application and Interview process.
This is some feedback we received from another individual we have been supporting: ‘’Thank you for your support, it means a lot. Also, thank you for helping me get courses and supporting my mental health. You’ve helped so much, and I couldn’t ask for anyone better. You are making my journey in living a lot easier with all the support you are giving me, and I can’t thank you enough’’.
If you, or anyone you know is looking for support with Employment or moving back into Education, please get in touch! The Green Light project is here to help anyone and everyone!
Contact:
Tomas.Jenkins@peopleandwork.org.uk
07956 811459
Rhondda Voices
Rhondda voices is a brand new project launched by People & Work in January 2021. Rhian Edwards joined us as our Rhondda Digital Stories community leader, her role over the next year is to run the Rhondda Voices project as part of the Time to Shine Leadership programme, funded by The Rank Foundation. Rhondda Voices aims to digitally capture the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Rhondda.
Rhondda Web
Ethan Jones
This is a new project that has been created with the purpose of supporting access to and use of the internet for anyone living in the Rhondda. The focus is to help those who do not have access to broadband or an appropriate digital device to get online.
Since 2015 People & Work has been involved with many different digital projects to help tackle digital issues supporting young people and others to get more involved with the digital world. Some of these projects have ranged from app creating, digital festivals, gaming and offering support to colleges and local universities. Covid has brought to light many issues people have been suffering with long before the pandemic and this was a chance to help tackle issues that surround digital inclusion.
The Digital Champion (Ethan Jones) will be responsible for working with partner organisations to help improve and increase the opportunity for people in Rhondda to access the internet and use digital devices.
Following funding from the Rank Foundation, we have been able to purchase 10 Samsung tablets and some recycled laptops from a computer recycling centred based in Rhondda. The purpose of having these is to offer a device and support to those who are digitally excluded. With these devices and support being given we hope to help people connect with friends & family and perform any other action they may want out of a device. Working with partners such as SMT and RHA Wales we are also able to refer people to other organisations if we feel they may be better equipped to help and individual or group in need.
We will also be working on making people aware of the options they have when it comes to accessing the internet at home via broadband or mobile data. There are a range of different schemes available which some people may not be fully aware of.
We are also exploring the opportunities of bringing a community Wi-Fi scheme to local neighbourhoods as an alternative for people who are not connected to the internet in Rhondda. Right now, we are looking into the experiences of other communities in the UK and USA which have tried out a variety of different community Wi-Fi options to see what our options could be for us here in the Rhondda.
For more information please contact:
Ethan.Jones@peopleandwork.org.uk
A community response to Covid-19
Dr Duncan Holtom
Introduction
The first national lockdown started on March 23rd 2020. People were required to stay at home except for very limited purposes; schools and non-essential businesses and services were closed, and those who were most vulnerable were advised to “shield” and stay at home at all times. Although communities had experienced crises before, for example linked to flooding, the scale and nature of the crisis was felt by many to be unprecedented in recent memory.
The Building Communities Trust and the Llechi, Glo a Chefn Gwlad partnership commissioned this research to explore the impact community based organisations had upon support to communities during the first lockdown. The research also looked at how county wide bodies in Wales (notably local authorities and county voluntary councils (CVCs)) planned and delivered support to those communities and the extent to which this was done with community- based organisations.
The research focused on seven Welsh counties (Bridgend, Cardiff, Gwynedd, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Pembrokeshire and Wrexham) and included interviews with staff and volunteers from community organisations and groups, CVCs and local authorities.
The importance of place based assets
The research illustrated how the nature of the crisis, with restrictions on movement, accentuated the importance of those assets (strengths or resources), tied to or rooted in communities, including:
- institutional (or organisational) assets, such as community organisations, which provided a focus and structure for organising responses to the crisis, and local businesses, which provided access to goods and services (including donations);
- the human capital of the people in the community, including people with energy, passion, leadership and/or organisational skills;
- the social capital of the people in the community, including the strength of social networks (such as links between people, local businesses, community organisations and the local authority); levels of trust in the community; and the values and culture of the community (such as traditions of mutual aid/support and a sense of community spirit); and
- the natural capital in/near the place (such as access to countryside and coast).
Community organisations and action
Community based organisations played a key role in role in identifying, linking and mobilising these assets and community led responses were often swifter, more inclusive, more human centred and more holistic than the responses of national and local government. Community based organisations and mutual aid groups identified and supported vulnerable people not known to services and were often able to integrate support. For example, a delivery of food could be combined with a friendly chat on the doorstep, providing opportunities to tackle isolation and loneliness and identify other unmet needs.
However, the scale of need, meant that a multi-layered response was crucial. Community led responses mobilised local assets, but also depended upon national and county action and support, including swift and relatively straightforward access to emergency funding, and support to co-ordinate the large numbers of people who offered to volunteer. Moreover, community led action complemented, but could not replace, action by national and local government, such as the furlough and shielding schemes, food parcels and free schools meals provision.
Community level action could also be fragile. Some organisations struggled to respond because, for example, they relied upon elderly trustees or volunteers who were forced to step back, and while the crisis energised many people, the physical and emotional demands upon staff and volunteers were considerable, and threatened the long-term sustainability of the response. The flexibility and speed of the sector’s response, while a key strength, also created risk around, for example, personal safety and safeguarding.
Collaboration
The speed of the crisis meant that the strength of pre-existing relationships and structures that could be built upon or repurposed (and which differed across counties and sectors) was a key determinant of how effectively different layers and organisations could work together. At its best, the CVC and local authority worked closely together to plan how they could support community level activities and the partnership working helped strengthen relationships. At its worst community responses, CVCs and local authorities worked in parallel lines with little communication.
Conclusions
Notwithstanding the huge economic, social and human costs of the crisis, it has created opportunities; for example, it has helped highlight the value and potential contribution of community organisations; the “permission to ask for and give help” that COVID-19 provided gives some insights into how wellbeing can be supported within communities; it has given people across the community and public sectors opportunities to step up and develop leadership skills and experience; and has encouraged community action, which provides a basis for strengthening both future crisis responses and also long term community development.
However, while there is much justifiable pride in the response and no area or community where there was no support was identified, there was also no clear picture of who had been missed and it is difficult to judge the adequacy of the response; for example, while the response in terms of ensuring access to basic needs, such as food, was impressive, there are concerns that not enough was done to address the impacts of the crisis upon people’s mental health.
A copy of the full report is available by clicking here: A Community Response to Covid-19
Men’s Mental Health
We have also been involved with supporting young men’s mental health, which we do in partnership with Spectacle Theatre. This group, based in Treorchy, is growing from strength to strength. The group meets every Thursday, 6-8pm in Too Good To Waste in Treorchy.
Spectacle Theatre was established in 1979 and has developed into an international award-winning company. They specialise in participatory arts to engage with people of every demographic, from young children to elderly people in care homes. The work they do is extremely diverse and is a credit to the talent of the staff and volunteers.
A men’s mental health group was thought up by the young people already involved with Spectacle. We, as an organisation, were brought in to help diversify the staff present at the meetings. Suicide is the biggest killer among males under the age of 40 and we believe that locally people are much more aware of men’s mental health, so it’s important we get the community and young men on board.
Currently there are young men attending the group from Treorchy and the surrounding areas. If the staff present believe those attending may benefit from other services, they can help those attending locate these services.
The young men who are currently involved are very proactive in their approach and are great at coming up with fresh concepts to keep the ideas rolling. Come along and join us – we’re all there to help each other.
James Watts-Rees
James.Watts-Rees@peopleandwork.org.uk
07392 072115
Play It Again Sport Blog
On Sunday March 1st 2020, Play It Again Sport attended the community day at St Anne’s Church Hall, Ynyshir. This day was about celebrating the acquisition of the church hall for a year – to be used by the community, for the community. We were in great company to celebrate St David’s Day with Julie Edwards, the local councillor, Pendyrus Male Choir, Welsh Water, RCT Rocks, the Deputy Mayor Cllr Susan Morgans and Cllr Jack Harries also present.
Our original intention had been to provide games for those that were attending – particularly for any children, and to find out what type of activities we could possibly provide in the church hall in the future.
However, the size of the church hall, along with the numbers of people that attended (202!) meant that this could not happen; there were just too many people in the hall for us to deliver any sports.
We saw this as a great opportunity to engage with those that were attending and find out what the people of Ynyshir would like to see the church hall used for. We spoke directly with people from all demographics, from those still at school to those long since retired and everyone in between!
There were over a hundred suggestions, and many of them can be supported by Play It Again Sport.
We look forward to working with St Anne’s Community Group to help them establish a community centre with something for everyone.
Code Club blog
Ethan Jones joined People & Work as our Digital Champion in January 2020. His role over the next year will be to help develop and introduce new and exciting coding opportunities to the Rhondda and Cynon Valleys as part of the Time to Shine Leadership program, funded and supported by The Rank Foundation and the National Lottery Community Fund. This is a 1-year role over a 3-year project called Llechi Glo a Chefn Gwlad (Slate, Coal and Countryside). The aim of this project is to help develop and support members of the community who could be future leaders. Individuals would be given support from the Time to Shine leaders to help members of the community develop any ideas they may have.
With a lack of code clubs and other IT-based clubs available in the local community and schools, the digital champion has the opportunity to support some existing ones and creating new ones that will help show young people the different digital opportunities that are available to them in the South Wales Valleys and beyond. The digital economy in Wales is growing stronger each day and giving young people the opportunity to learn new skills is essential when pursuing a potential job role in the tech industry.
Currently there are two community code clubs that are active in the Rhondda, Canolfan Pentre on Wednesdays 4pm-5pm, and one in The Old Library in Treherbert from 4:30pm – 5:30pm (part of Welcome to our Woods). As well as community centres being used, we also hold sessions in schools, such as Aberdare Church Primary for children to take part in. Over the next few months we hope to make use of other community centres and communicate with local schools to increase the numbers of code clubs available.
Not only are we offering code club opportunities but we’ve also organised a digital festival that took place at the Llwynypia campus of Coleg y Cymoedd. Many local schools from the Rhondda attended to meet different businesses and universities from the tech industry. There were over 320 attendees at the event that had the opportunity to meet universities (Cardiff University and University of South Wales) and businesses, such as Webfibre and Hawthorne HCR. We are hoping to organise other events like this in the near future in Cynon and Rhondda.
We are very grateful for support from Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm Community Fund, Moondance Foundation and the Waterloo Foundation for their support of our digital project over the last couple of years.
For more Information regarding code clubs contact:
Ethan.Jones@peopleandwork.org.uk
07960 565873
Porthcawl Blog
Porthcawl Parkrun & Bridgend County Borough Running League
In January we were contacted on behalf of Bridgend County Borough Running League – many of their members had commented that they had an excess of running kit, and they wanted to donate it to a good cause.
BCBRL were hosting their annual awards ceremony on Saturday 25th January 2020 and asked us along to take their donations. As many of the runners were running at Porthcawl Parkrun prior to their awards ceremony, we decided to open up our donation bins to everyone who was at parkrun.
The weather was freezing! But it didn’t stop many runners bringing along lots of their old kit that still had plenty of life left in it. As always, we explained prior to the event that we are happy to take ALL SPORTS RELATED DONATIONS! Subsequently, we had our first set of skis donated!
In total we received approximately 1200 units of clothing and equipment donated to us.
We received nearly 400 race t-shirts, which we’re hoping to recycle into alternative items to raise awareness of the importance of sustainability at running events. This was echoed by the BCBRL in their awards ceremony – no t-shirts were given as prizes, instead winners were given wooden trophies, biodegradable and with a smaller carbon footprint.
Due to the success of this donation we are now going to be at Pontypridd Parkrun on February 22nd February and at Bryn Bach Parkrun on March 28th 2020.
These items are then put for sale in Too Good To Waste in Ynyshir (near Porth) at affordable prices, so everyone can afford to buy the kit they need to take part in sport. The money raised from these sales then supports local sporting projects, such as walking rugby.
For more information on Play It Again Sport, please contact Natasha Burnell:
Natasha.Burnell@peopleandwork.org.uk or 07375 894007
Blog Rhondda
Cardiff Half Marathon 2019 took place on Sunday October 6th. Prior to the event we were contacted by Run 4 Wales and asked to support them.
During the Cardiff half marathon contestants can throw their clothes into a donation bin. These are then donated to a charity. This year we were the charity of choice. The volume of clothes that is donated is dependent on the weather. For example, if it is very cold, contestants tend to keep their over layers on to keep them warm or if it is too hot then contests may only wear what they intend to run in.
Participants are made aware that any clothing they remove is donated to a local charity.
We filled a van with the clothes, which were then sorted by local volunteers from Treorchy library. This was done by filtering items to see what was suitable for resale and what needed to be recycled. This was an interesting task as people had mistaken the donation bins for actual rubbish bins so we had everything from bacon rolls to banana peels amongst sweatshirts and hoodies!
The clothes that were suitable to be sold were then sent to Parc Prison (which has a partnership deal with our partners, Too Good To Waste) where the prisoners washed the clothes – this is part of the prison’s scheme where prisoners can earn money for the work they do, and is part of their rehabilitation process. The prison was perfect for this as they have the capacity to process the volume of clothing we had.
When the clothes were returned to us, the volunteers then helped hang and price the clothing. This was a tremendous help – we would have struggled to do it on our own. This volunteering event was covered by BBC Wales and you can find the link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/50368765 (Welsh website); https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000b7wc (Radio Cymru in Welsh – listen at 45:30).
These items were then put out for sale in Too Good to Waste. The money raised from this pays for sporting activities to be delivered in the Rhondda.
We would be more than happy to support events like these in the future and if you would like us to be at your event please find our contact details below.
Contact: James.Watts-Rees@peopleandwork.org.uk 07392 072115
Blog Rhondda
Over the last couple of months People and Work charity has been involved with many projects, one of these was a walking rugby tournament where teams from across the UK turned up to play on a Friday evening.
The Upper Rhondda Colliers Walking Rugby team was created in partnership with People & Work, Martyn Broughton of Active Nutrition and Welcome To Our Woods, a third sector organisation operating in the upper Rhondda Valley tackling issues such as health, wellbeing, mental health, skills and jobs, helping people within the community gain valuable life and employment skills.
The kit that we played in was sponsored by local companies, The Lion Hotel and Selsig Travel, for which we are extremely grateful. Without these sponsors we would not be able to have had our brand new kit for this tournament and all future tournaments: it really helps to build a team identity and unite us.
The walking rugby tournament was hosted in Treorchy School by the Upper Rhondda Colliers and was supported by volunteers and the Welsh Rugby Union. The night was a great success with teams attending from Cambrian, Kingswood, Taff’s Well and many others.
The aim of walking rugby is to engage people in a fun physical way which also positively impacts on mental health. As it is open to all ages and all abilities we believe this sport is for everyone.
After every walking rugby training session we all go for some food or a coffee, which we as a community feel is really important to unwind with friends around us. This is used to extend the bond from the rugby pitch into friendship
One of the players stated that “walking rugby has introduced me back into rugby which I hadn’t played since school, I also enjoy the banter and good exercise during the week”.
We meet every week at The Play Yard in Ynyswen between 11 am and 12 pm and would love to see new faces, male or female, and any age.
In the coming months we are looking to set up numerous clubs and activities such as a chess club, and Polish language club, which will be run by young people. If you have any ideas or would like to take part, please get in touch with us.
James Watts-Rees
Contact: James.Watts-Rees@peopleandwork.org.uk 07392 072115