Author: Fran Arnold

Darnall Well Being coordinated four Sheffield Healthy Holidays activities over the 2022 Easter holidays, funded by the Holiday Activities & Food programme.

All 71 places were filled by children who live in the S9 area and are on free school meals, the majority of whom go to primary school. We were supported in providing these sessions by STEAMWorks and Ignite Imaginations, and we worked with local venues Darnall Library, Tinsley Community Allotment and Kickabout Sheffield to run the sessions. Some of our staff and volunteers went along to support the activities, supervise, and hand out free, healthy lunch bags to all children who attended, too. We also supported Phillimore Primary School to organise two 4 hour activity sessions for local children.

In the first week of the holidays, children came to Darnall Library, where they made and painted plaster figures with support from Ignite Imaginations.

Children also came to Tinsley Community Allotment to take part in activities there, including decorating their own bunting together and planting seeds, supported by STEAMWorks.

In the second week of the holidays, the children enjoyed making slime and playing football at Kickabout Sheffield.

As well as giving out healthy lunch bags to every child, we also gave their families information about how to eat healthily, including these leaflets from Public Health England:

Update for colleagues, partners and beneficiaries – August 2021

From the very start of the pandemic, DWB has put the safety and wellbeing of the organisation and community as our top priority.

The rules around Covid-19 and the law changed from 19^th July, and again from 16^th August. 

Despite the easing of many legal restrictions, which means

• there is no legal requirement to wear a face covering in England (19^th July),
• double-vaccinated people do not have to isolate if they come in to contact with some who has tested positive for Covid (16^th Aug),

national and local government still expects and recommends that people to continue to wear a face covering in crowded or enclosed spaces and DWB will continue to ask staff and beneficiaries to stay at home if they have recently developed symptoms, tested positive or identified as a contact for Covid-19.

Sheffield Public Health team and Voluntary Community Sector are taking a more cautionary approach than central government.

Infection rates remain quite high in Sheffield, compared to other parts of the UK and at the same time, significant levels of the population have yet to either have their first or second vaccination dose. 

Even when fully vaccinated, people may still contract Covid-19, become unwell or pass it on to others who may be more vulnerable.  Removing the safety nets of mask-wearing and social distancing risks the emergence of new variants that are vaccine-resistant.

We are mindful of the differences in how people may feel about the changes but ask that our beneficiaries and partners continue to wear face coverings and keep social distancing measures in place when attending our group or 1-1 sessions.

We are adding to our existing best practice by requesting booking prior to some activities – even those outside – to ensure consistency and record-keeping. We understand that this may feel new or different to some people.  We thank you for cooperation with this.

To protect the most vulnerable children, young people and adults in our community, we will continue to support and encourage our team to:

• Stay at home and get tested if they have symptoms or have come in to direct contact with someone with Covid –  vital tools for limiting Covid’s spread
• Benefit from a flexible mix of home-working and time-tabled return to office
• Ventilate indoor settings by keeping windows and doors open
• Maintain social distancing where practical
  • This may mean we have to reduce the numbers in groups to ensure we can keep a distance from one another.

• Wear a face mask in indoor settings when moving around, if not exempt
  • This helps protect against infection but also positively contributes to social norms; making it ok for people who still want to wear a mask and help reassure those who may fear going out if others were unmasked.
• Maintain regular handwashing, enhanced hygiene and cleaning practices
• Promote the benefits of getting double-vaccinated for the individual and wider community (as well as significantly reducing their risk of getting ill with Covid or suffering from Long Covid, a vaccinated person is also about 70/75% less likely to pass on Covid).
  • As well as promoting benefits of getting tested if displaying symptoms.

• Offer community activity outdoors or remotely, in preference to indoors – making use of helpful alternatives like online (zoom) sessions, doorstop visits and phone calls, walks etc.
  • We will continue to develop our approach and plans for indoor activity going forward (such as volunteer training or small group sessions and meetings), where there is a clear service need, appropriate venue and reduced risk.

The above measures will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, either gradually easing or becoming stricter, subject to the global, national and local Covid-19 context, scientific guidance and best practice.

The above also helps to maintain service continuity. The more we work together to limit the spread of Covid 19, the more we can continue to deliver activity with fewer disruptions.

Thank you for working with us to help keep our communities safe.

The Darnall Well Being team

We put together a newsletter this summer to update everyone on our services. See below to view or download it.

Throughout Covid-19, we have put together and sent out activity packs to all our service users and volunteers. This July, we sent out the final one.

Together with our activity schedule and latest newsletter, we also sent activities to do at home, information about getting your Covid vaccine and staying Covid safe as restrictions lift. Included was a letter looking back over the time that we have been sending these packs. The text of that letter is below:

We want to say a very heartfelt thank you to all of you for your involvement with Darnall Well Being, particularly through the last 18 months, which have been a challenging time in so many ways. We are proud of the positive steps you have taken to try and stay connected and safely manage your health and wellbeing, when many of the healthy things we were used to doing, had to change. Darnall Well Being could not have adapted so well without the feedback from yourselves about what was difficult and what could help you through. We are proud to serve this community.

We have all had different journeys through this time, but hopefully we are beginning to come out the other side. It is important to be kind to ourselves and others as we gradually adapt to the new ‘normal’. We were glad to be able to provide activity packs in lockdown and to hear how you had enjoyed them. Please enjoy this final activity pack over the Summer. As our activities are starting up again, we will be focusing our efforts on these and supporting you to continue your journey with us, attending our activities and using the one to one support we provide.

The activity programme has been adapted to make it as safe and welcoming as possible – some activities are in person (particularly outdoor ones) and others are via Zoom (online) or over the phone. Thank you for your support, and your kindness to each other. We look forward to working with you in the months (and years) to come.

If you would like to download the activities from this or any of our previous activity packs, you can find them all on our Activity Packs page.

Yvonne, Jo and Saada from the DWB team were excited to attend the official launch of Beat The Street Sheffield recently.

The launch took place at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park on 19th May 2021. The city-wide physical activity game was launched at an event attended by organisers, local dignitaries, council representatives and Oasis Academy Don Valley.

Beat the Street gets underway from 16th June to 28th July 2021 and challenges schools, workplaces and community groups to clock up as many active travel miles as possible during the six week-game. Beat the Street is open to anyone of any age and ability – children and adults alike.  More than 450 beeping and flashing sensors called ‘Beat Boxes’ will be placed on lampposts around the area for the duration of the game. 

Players simply tap one of these Beat Boxes with their special card to start their journey. Walk, cycle, run, scoot, wheel or roll to the next one on the map within an hour to score 10 points. The further players go and the more Beat Boxes they tap, the more points they will score.

Darnall Well Being will have a number of Beat The Street cards to give out to our service users and volunteers, so that they can join with our staff in scoring points for Darnall Well Being!

Over the course of the six-week competition, the teams that clock up the highest number of points will win vouchers for sports equipment or books, and there are ‘lucky tap’ prizes given out to individuals during the game. There are also leaderboards for the highest number of average points, meaning that teams of all sizes are in with a chance of winning prizes.

Beat the Street was developed by Dr William Bird, a GP who wanted to get people active and to get communities walking together.  Since it was developed in 2010, more than a million people have played the game across 103 towns and cities across the UK and internationally. Beat the Street Sheffield is brought to you by Move More and Sheffield City Council. It is delivered by Intelligent Health, with funding from the National Lottery and Sport England, and local partners.

For more information about the forthcoming Beat the Street game, visit www.beatthestreet.me/sheffield or follow @BTSSheffield on social media for more information.

Two updates about our Dementia support

Twiddlemuff Donation

On Saturday 22nd May 2021 Jo-Anne van Levesley, one of our Senior Health and Wellbeing Workers, visited Lilian Beasley to do a doorstep collection  – outside, distanced, and Covid safe!

After knocking on the door, and retiring to the gate,  Jo was greeted with a fabulous donation of fifteen knitted, embroidered and decorated Twiddlemuffs. Each one is unique, and tenderly prepared as a gift and donation to  support  clients and carers with Dementia. These will be used in our sessions, Cafes and allotment work, as we are preparing to  reopen and venture out to meet face to face, once Lockdown is lifted.

Thanks abound to Lilian Beasley, from a branch of Sheffield MU –  who has worked so hard creating these for us.

They have been a real help and a project that has been ongoing for me through times of isolating, and not being able to get out and about in the time of lockdown. I have missed my groups and church,  and am looking forward to getting out and connecting with family and friends again very soon

Lillian Beasley, on making the Twiddlemuffs

New Dementia Activity Packs

Jo has been busy putting together yet another amazing activity pack for our Dementia clients and their carers. These will be delivered through their doors, giving them plenty to keep them busy and amused whilst at home.

Great opportunities to join a new walking football group – in Darnall on Thursdays for men and women, and at Goodwin Sports Centre for women only.

If you’d like to give it a try, contact info@communitywellnessservices.co.uk or 0114 5537 807.