Author: Fran Arnold

The Chief Executive of Darnall Well Being has been appointed to the Board of Directors at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.

Lucy Melleney will act as a conduit and help capture a local community perspective, working with the Board to deliver one of its key Olympic legacy objectives – to provide local people with significant improvements in health, wellbeing, education, skills, training, and job opportunities and to contribute to the economic regeneration of the local area.

Darnall Well Being is a local, not-for-profit, community anchor organisation working to help the people of Darnall, Tinsley and neighbouring areas stay healthy.

Through an integrated programme of activities and services, it aims to reduce health inequalities by working with local people, to help build knowledge, connections, cohesion and resilience.

Lucy Melleney said: “Darnall Well Being has 20 years’ experience of engagement with the community in Darnall, Tinsley, and Acres Hill, building trust and working in partnership to help people in ways that work best for them. We offer one to one and group support, workshops and training, as well as signposting information about local and national support to help improve health and wellbeing.

“We are well placed to collaborate with Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park and partners to further develop this work and achieve greater outcomes.”

Lucy added: “Enabling people to focus on what matters to them and encouraging opportunities in education and specialised training, will assist the economic improvements that are much needed, and which can in turn impact positively on the health and wellbeing of the local community.”

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park brings together a unique partnership of organisations with a vested interest in improving physical activity and wellbeing and a commitment to harnessing the power of education, research and innovation to deliver transformational change.

The 80-acre site is attracting substantial investment in one of the most diverse areas of the city, which is acting as a catalyst for regeneration and growth. It is expected to create 3,500 high value jobs and generate £1.38bn in benefits.

The Park is home to an Oasis Academy and a University Technology College, which has an employer-led curriculum supported by Sheffield’s two universities and over 70 employer partners – equipping the workforce of the future with skills inHealth Sciences, Sport Science, and Computing.

Lucy added: “Darnall and Tinsley have above average rates of unemployment and insecure employment, and encouraging people to take up opportunities in education and specialised training will assist the economic improvements that are much needed.”

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is also home to Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC), a global centre for research and innovation in physical activity, dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of whole populations. The partnership with Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park will build on the collaborative work Darnall Well Being is already carrying out with the AWRC.

Darnall Well Being is also a recognised Community Hub organisation, providing an essential role during the current Covid-19 crisis, working closely with a range of services in the local area and acting as a conduit between the City Council and local community.

Sandi Carman, Assistant Chief Executive of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “As a founding Member of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is delighted to welcome Lucy to the Board as a Community Director which will help us deliver improvements in the health and wellbeing of the local community through collaboration, education, awareness, activities and events.

“We already work closely with communities in the surrounding area through our Park partners but by having Lucy on the Board we hope to engage even more to help with the delivery of the London 2012 Olympic legacy through the themes of sport, community, environment and economic regeneration.”

Darnall Well Being –  Our Stance on Tackling Racism and Inequalities

June 2020

By working with you – the community we serve, our staff, volunteers, trustees and partners locally and across the city, we want to take action against racism and inequalities and become a more equal community.

As an organisation, we know we must do more to address this, and we must do it better.

We are committed to:

• Explicitly state our commitment to challenge racism in our society
• Make a sustained effort to ensure this is entwined and in the ongoing fabric of the culture and values of Darnall Well Being, now and in the future
• Look at how we are able to broaden our reach and diversify who attends our activities and services
• Discuss at a senior level how we achieve more diverse representation on our Board of trustees, to match the diversity of our team and area
• Maintain and grow a mix of representative voices
• Continue to tackle the ongoing inequalities that lies within our communities
• Listen to the voices of local people in order to learn and connect with their context and experiences.  In turn, this will inform and shape our approach and services
• Acknowledge and respect our differences, whilst embracing unity

Did you know that June is Move More Month in Sheffield? Move More Sheffield have created a calendar with suggestions to get more active every day in June. Here at Darnall Well Being we know what an important role physical activity plays in making our physical and mental health better, so our team have been doing as much as we can to get involved. As well as sharing what we’ve been up to on our social media channels, we have also delivered the Move More calendar to all of our service users, to encourage others to join in, too!

From yoga to running, cycling to boxing, garden workouts to chairobics, and plenty more besides – here’s some of what DWB staff have been up to so far in June. We hope it inspires you to move more, too!

Darnall Well Being featured in Now Then Magazine on 9th June, in an article about the activity packs that we have been delivering around the local area to people we normally get to see in person. Have a read here, if you’d like to know more!

We’ve also been putting together a number of new activity packs, starting with one for a number of our regular contacts, on the theme of Move More Month, which is taking place in Sheffield throughout June 2020. As well as the Move More calendar, to give ideas of activities to get people moving, we also sent sporty wordsearches, advice about regular walking, and other information about Covid 19, too.

Our Dementia Activity Packs have been popular, so another set have gone out this month, with quizzes and colouring sheets, as well as the Move More contents.

We would normally be starting our On The Plot group at Darnall Allotment in June, but because of Covid 19 restrictions, that sadly isn’t possible this year. So we have sent out some gardening themed activity packs, specifically for people who would usually come along to help on the allotment.

Don’t forget that some of the contents from all these packs are available to download here!

Sarah, our Volunteer Support Worker, has made this wonderful, short video to help you practise mindfulness.

We’ve loaded the video to YouTube to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week. Mindfulness can be a very helpful way of relaxing and reconnecting with our bodies, thoughts and feelings. This can be particularly useful in helping to deal with the stress and anxiety that many people are experiencing during the Covid-19 pandemic:

https://youtu.be/w01yY-Y3lMg

Our latest activity schedule for Darnall can be viewed and downloaded here:

Our latest activity schedule for Tinsley can be viewed and downloaded here:

Darnall Well Being officially launched as a Community Hub, with a dedicated hotline and email account in April 2020. Our approach is to keep in touch with our existing volunteers and people we have supported previously, support everyone in the community in staying well at home, and maintain 2-way communication with statutory partners. We have been linked in to the citywide Voluntary Care Sector picture and Voluntary Action Sheffield Hubs calls from the outset.

We have taken on an enabling and facilitating approach to helping people get the support they need, rather than i.e. offering shopping and delivery services.

Darnall Well Being are committed to providing a remote / virtual community wellbeing programme and continuing our Social Prescribing Service remotely. Our approach is developing over time and includes online messaging, positive wellbeing information and public health guidance shared on social media accounts. We are sending out activity packs and newsletters regularly, and have a team rota for staying in touch with group beneficiaries (walkers, conversation club, diabetes/chronic pain group, carers, dementia café, allotment users, craft group, ladies chairobics, cycling etc).

It’s good to get the activity pack with something positive to do.  Darnall Well Being have done so well, not just forgetting us.  It is so nice to know we are thought about and the phone calls make a really big difference.

Hazel, volunteer and group attendee

Our digital volunteer Wellbeing Champions are involved with our Communication and Engagement Worker in exploring ideas to stay connected with the community. Watch this space for future news on what we have been doing!