Author: Fran Arnold

Hidden along Infield Lane, at the top of High Hazels Park in Darnall, is a community allotment, packed full of all kinds of plants. On Tuesday 18^th July, on a very wet afternoon, a group gathered at the allotment to celebrate the official opening of a new outdoor shelter, which has been built at the plot thanks to funding from the East Local Area Committee.

Participants from Darnall Well Being’s “On The Plot” sessions and the weekly Grow Together allotment group, along with some of the allotment’s founding members, were joined by local councillors Mary Lea, Zahira Naz and Mazher Iqbal to mark the occasion – and the new shelter provided much needed cover from the afternoon’s rain!

Dr Jack Czauderna, a retired Darnall GP and founder of local community organisation Darnall Well Being, opened proceedings by talking about his vision for health across the whole of Darnall. He pointed out that health isn’t just about not being ill; it’s about growing plants, being outdoors, nutritious food, mental wellbeing and so much more. Sixteen years ago, Jack worked with local resident Alamara “Cookie” Munshi to take on the community plot, and he recalls Cookie saying from the very early days that if only they had a shelter, they could offer art sessions and other activities.

Jack said, “For a long time, there was very little indoor space on the plot at all – just a small shed and a polytunnel. Thank you to Darnall Well Being for successfully applying for funding to help get this shelter built at last.”

The ribbon to officially open the shelter was cut by Cookie, and the shelter has been named “Cookie’s Corner”, in recognition of her vision all that time ago of what a shelter could bring. As Cookie noted, “People have come and gone at the plot, and all have taken away inspiration about how to de-stress from the time they’ve spent here. The more that people come, the more they love it and the more they want to do on the plot.”

Sarah Emberson, who works at the allotment as well as for Green City Action, said, “It’s really exciting to get this shelter built – it completely opens up what we can do.” It will provide shelter from the rain, wind and sun, and is available to book by anyone who wishes to use it for an activity. Some activities have already taken place using the shelter, including a Green Social Prescribing visit to the plot, organised by Darnall Well Being for local women, and a strawberry cream tea, which was open to the public.

Darnall Allotment Project is open to the public to come and get involved in helping to run it on Fridays from 10am to 1pm. The “On The Plot” sessions are specifically for people with Dementia and their carers, and are run on Tuesday afternoons by Darnall Well Being’s Jo-Anne van Levesley with support from volunteers. The sessions are open to local people with Dementia and their carers. Other events are also held at the plot, including annual apple juicing and Christmas wreath making sessions.

You can find out about future events at the allotment via their Facebook page.

There is more information about our Dementia activities at the allotment and elsewhere on our website here.

Our team nominated Jo-Anne van Levesley for Sheffield City Council’s Dignity Awards, for people working in adult health and social care, and we’re so pleased to say that she was announced at the awards event on 10th July 2023 as the winner in the category “Connected and Engaged – Everyone can connect with communities that care and support them”.

The Dignity Awards celebrate outstanding examples of best practice in adult social care and support in Sheffield, and we really felt that Jo was a worthy candidate! Our nomination is below, and the judges said it really illustrated that Jo puts clients at the centre of her practice. They were particularly impressed that Jo helps her clients in non-judgemental ways, giving them happy memories and fun things to do.

The awards ceremony was a lovely event, celebrating real embodiments of dedication and care across the city. Jo was presented with her award by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Cllr Colin Ross.

Jo’s nomination in full:

Jo is responsible for delivering Darnall Well Being’s support for people living with Dementia and their carers in Darnall ward. She runs Dementia Cafe in Handsworth with volunteers. Aware of the need to break down stigmas around Dementia in the BAME community, she also started Dementia Café in Darnall, with language support. She runs an online carers’ support group and a weekly session at Darnall Allotment Project for people with Dementia and carers, too.

Jo is dedicated to her work, treating referrals as she would want her own family to be treated, ensuring they feel comfortable and welcome. In January to March 2023 alone, Jo made 32 wellbeing calls, saw 48 people in person, and made 98 calls to 20 new clients. Feedback for her support on these calls – “The way you work is very professional and caring – sensitivity in a situation like this makes all the difference”. LO (carer)

Jo regularly seeks feedback from attendees and volunteers about what people find helpful and how sessions can be improved. The impact is clear from the high regular attendance at all sessions. “Jo has the unique ability to encourage, entertain and motivate people to take part in activities, whilst remaining professional, allowing her to be a trusted source of knowledge and support, and a source of fun and freedom,” Sarah, student attendee.

Participants are full of praise for Jo’s groups:

“like one big happy family” JR (volunteer at Dementia Café/allotment)

“best thing we’ve ever done – so pleased I’ve brought him here” (B and D, Dementia Café attendees)

“You are the only place that treat us all properly, nan and the family … so very impressed with the care, dedication, and sheer life you breathe into clients and carers.” JK (carer)

“This provision is good for Dad – I feel supported too, right from the first phone call… You even had thought about our fast – thank you” R (Carer)

Jo has spotted opportunities to link external projects with her groups, e.g. Sheffield University’s Hack The Hug project and Out Of The Box storytelling. She also encourages participants to take part in our other activities, and arranged for Dementia contacts to attend the World Seniors Snooker Tour in Sheffield, as well as organising an annual seaside trip for service users and carers.

She is recognised by others as being a key contact in the city. She is an Alzheimers Society Dementia Friends Ambassador, and provides Dementia Friends training for our team and partner organisations.

To increase awareness of available support, Jo helped to create videos with herself and café attendees, in English and Arabic, sharing what people can expect from Dementia cafe and encourage them to come and seek support – from local sessions and from city-wide services. Jo is open and approachable, with a passion for involvement and inclusivity. “She places the people she supports at the centre of everything she does. Her enthusiasm and genuine care for those within the group is the backbone to its success,” Natalie, OT student

In March 2023, we welcomed people from the communities in Darnall and Tinsley to two Covid community memorial events, which gave us all an opportunity to share experiences from the pandemic. Representatives and resources from Sheffield Mind, Compassionate Sheffield and IAPT were there, sharing support and guidance for anyone who wanted help with managing their feelings.

We provided craft resources for people to create a memory book and gave everyone a candle and holder, which we lit together as a joint act of remembrance of lost loved ones, led by local faith leaders. We also provided food for everyone to eat together. A member of our team used her Out of the Box storytelling training to help some attendees to talk about their experiences. And we filmed interviews with some people sharing their Covid memories, as well as encouraging people to share their memories verbally and on paper in communal memory books.

Both events were very positively received by the communities and were well attended. People sat around tables and got to know one another throughout the events, as well as catching up with old friends/connections. The craft activities really helped people to talk about what they’d been through and share their memories with each other and in our videos/memory books.

We had faith leaders, Sheffield Mind and Compassionate Sheffield at the events, recognising that the topic might trigger painful memories for some people, so we had support on hand for people who needed it. This was really helpful to a number of people, and when Sheffield Mind were with us in Darnall, this led to 3 referrals to their bereavement support services, for people who were struggling with their grief.

We had a lot of positive feedback at both sessions about how needed people felt these events had been: “We felt forgotten, and now you have made our hearts so happy”, “really enjoyed meeting new people”, “today is very helpful – it got me out of the house to meet others – and that’s helpful!” and “today has been really good, enabling people to get together again”.

Watch the videos from both events here:

Volunteers Week 2023 was the perfect time to get our volunteers together and thank them for everything they do!

On 6th June 2023, 15 of our volunteers joined Yvonne, Jo and Fran at DWB’s office for a celebration event. As well as sharing information and ideas, they also had some fun taking part in an activity about the importance of good communication, using some very long telephone tubes!

There was a group discussion about what people enjoy about volunteering with us, and the volunteers came up with quite a list:

The volunteers also heard a thank you message from Gareth Johnstone, DWB Chair:

Thank you for everything you do for Darnall Well Being. Your time and effort has a real and positive outcome for our community. With your help we are changing lives, increasing opportunities, and improving health. You are valued members of the team, and greatly appreciated.

After talking about what they would like to do with DWB in future (with ideas ranging from accredited mental health first aid training to regular socialising opportunities, like a book club), the volunteers ate lunch together and got to know one another more.

By Sarah and Natalie, students who were on placement with DWB in Spring 2023

We are two Occupational Therapy students from Sheffield Hallam University currently on placement at Darnall Wellbeing. We planned a new persistent pain support group, starting off by holding an information gathering session to ensure that future group sessions will meet participants’ needs. We were careful not to replicate services that already exist and focused on creating a support group, and not a pain management program as this is already provided by the NHS and is above our current skill set as students.

We were pleased to have a good turnout for the first session. We were joined by people living with persistent pain and healthcare professionals also interested in the group. The session began with some basic information about persistent pain. We defined persistent pain as pain that lasts after normal tissue healing time (usually after 12 weeks) in which other treatments have been unsuccessful.

The high prevalence of persistent pain in the local community was highlighted in order to help reduce the stigma and isolation of living with persistent pain, as participants realised that many people can live well with persistent pain.

We discussed when pain is helpful and unhelpful. The purpose of pain signals are to protect us from damaging our bodies.  However, sometimes when the body has healed, the body systems that lead to the experience of pain stay ‘awake’ and ‘on alert’, tricking the brain into still feeling pain.

Benefits of a persistent pain support group include participants being able to share their experiences of living with persistent pain and supporting each other, whilst increasing their social interaction.

To facilitate social interaction we led an icebreaker activity in which we asked participants to use coloured air-dry clay to create a shape that represents their experience of persistent pain. Some participants took a literal approach by creating a human figure indicating where they feel pain, while others took a more abstract approach.  Participants were invited to share their experiences of persistent pain with the group. It was highlighted that participants felt sharing and listening to others experiences of persistent pain made them feel less stigmatised, less alone, and more positive about their ability to live well with persistent pain.  This activity encouraged frank discussion about issues such as the challenges of expressing concerns to health professionals due to short appointment times, as well as the uncertainty and confusion regarding the benefits and side effects of taking pain medication.

The session finished with a discussion about what participants wanted out of future sessions, ending in the collection of feedback. Suggestions for the content of future sessions were voted upon to ensure a co-productive approach.

For details of Persistent Pain Group sessions, please have a look here.

by Oluchi, one of our Community Champions volunteers

Today’s event went really well, as there were people from different organisations present. It was a welcoming environment, as Mike first had us introduce who we are and where we volunteer, what we have learnt, our skills and qualities of a community champion.

We had in attendance speakers and volunteers from Flower Estate Family Action (FEFA) and Compassionate Sheffield (who spoke on compassion and tips on how to become a compassionate Community Champion). There was also a speaker from Healthwatch Sheffield who educated us on identifying the symptoms of Long Covid, and she also mentioned Healthwatch is working to see that more referrals are made for Black and Asian minority groups. Present also were a group of retired nurses who are for the Black community.

Also, we had a self care session taken by Ruth, a therapist. She emphasised that it’s important that as community champions, we take care of ourselves as much as we care for the communities. She also took us on a memory jar journey, where we wrote out 5 memories we’ve had and then, using salt and coloured chalks, we created different colours in a jar as a representation of our memories. We went home with this jar.

In all, it was a great event.

A blog reporting on our AGM, written by Zoyah Kanwal, one of our Wellbeing Champions.

Each year Darnall Well Being hosts an annual general meeting (AGM) to celebrate the impact that DWB has had on the community. This year’s event was held for the first time at SHU’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre on 20th October 2022. From incredible staff case studies to powerful volunteer stories, this AGM in particular highlighted the significant contributions our organisation has made to combat the challenges brought by the pandemic. This event revealed how collectively, as a community, we transformed our difficult and dreary moments into strong and memorable ones.

Unity is not only a fundamental part of strengthening a community but at the very core of DWB’s values and principles. The evening showcased how we converted measurable investments into immeasurable impact, throughout the course of the pandemic we’ve collected stories from over 7,000 contacts and distributed 32,000 Community Connector leaflets, especially targeting digitally excluded areas. We’ve also involved over 273 people with underlying health problems to access existing support across Sheffield such as: diabetes support, Live Lighter, stopping smoking and alcohol reduction – everyone we’ve supported were immensely grateful for DWB facilitating these opportunities getting them closer to their healthier selves.

At the very heart of DWB’s work are the determined and dedicated volunteers. The evening featured speeches from volunteers focusing on why they volunteered and how they benefitted as volunteers. A wide array of responses was shared, demonstrating that ‘you get as much out of it as you give into it’, that ‘it’s lovely to do things which you can’t do otherwise’ knowing you’ve made an impact and that ‘you feel you’re needed’ by your community – a valuable sense of purpose and responsibility, especially when feeling lost in life is highly prevalent in these challenging times. Many volunteers have found that volunteering ‘helped them mentally’ and ‘there wasn’t the help and support to this extent in the past’. 

An important benefit from volunteering is ‘companionship and finding people in situations worse than you’ to help better understand our community’s needs. Others find ‘a sense of peace and calm, taking time to reflect in a non-stressful environment being in the fresh air amongst nature around people in similar situations to you’, you’ll even find that volunteering allows you to ‘come and have a laugh’ with fun being common theme in a variety of activities. Furthermore, encouraging the constant maintaining and improving of mental health, volunteers feel compelled to help ‘de-stigmatise mental health and other things like dementia, because it can happen to anybody’ – no one should feel alone.

Volunteering with DWB, has been a unique and inclusive journey for all volunteers due to the vast diversity of ‘different ethnicities, different age groups and walks of life, different work experiences and different skillsets’ illustrating that ‘everyone has an opportunity to get involved’.  DWB has ensured their impact is further expanded by broadening horizons for its volunteers. Volunteers utilised opportunities to upgrade their skillsets through training courses in areas like sports leadership, dementia, digital skills, mindfulness, first aid and nutrition. As a result, the constant focus of improving our work and volunteers led to opening new activity areas like sports and mindfulness to explore, increasing community engagement.

A closing speech given by Professor Robert Copeland from SHU’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre explained the 3Ps concept (‘People, Place and Purpose’) and emphasised its significance for supporting our community. It’s the lives of the people in Darnall who we’ve transformed and supported that keeps our organisation standing. Darnall is a place that matters to us, ‘we want to create a safer Darnall, where people are hopeful and feel belonged – the power to bring stability in uncertainty’. DWB is a purpose-driven organisation, committed to empower others to rise and flourish, instilling purpose to those we serve giving them value and meaning to benefit from – ‘truly the most powerful gift to a society’. The driving force behind each and every part of our service is the compassion from all our staff, trustees, volunteers and most importantly our community. As Coretta Scott King once said, ‘the greatness of a community is measured by the compassionate action of its members’.

A blog post by Amran Jimale, a third year medical student at the University of Sheffield.

Amran, who did her social accountability placement with us in December 2022, was really interested in the different ways that we reach the community, and she wanted to share her experience with our Green Social Prescribing craft activity.

Crafting has been shown to have numerous benefits for health, including reducing anxiety and depression, and improving self-esteem and cognitive function. It can also provide a sense of accomplishment and purpose, as well as a creative outlet for self-expression.

I really enjoyed myself and it was a great opportunity for members of the community to come together, socialise, and make something beautiful. I hope to attend more events like this at Darnall Well Being.