OUR LATEST NEWS AND EVENTS PREVIEW

As we've already shared our next Open Meeting is just after the Easter Weekend, on Wednesday 4th April from 6pm at the Broadway Rooms by St Nicholas Church, Fleetwood. These meetings are an opportunity for everyone to get involved.

After we round up the news and events it’s over to you so please come along and ask questions, make suggestions and best of all, share your experiences. Each time there are some truly inspirational stories from residents who’ve made a difference to their lives and we’d love to hear more. Free refreshments are served and we’ll finish around 7.30pm.

On the subject of sharing experiences, several of our resident volunteers went along to the recent World Health Innovation Summit at the Winter Gardens Blackpool and were recorded by digital storyteller John Popham. You can see the wonderful videos at http://bit.ly/HFWHIS2018

Something we want to discuss at the Open Meeting is expanding our residents committee. This is the group who meet monthly to look at forthcoming events, supporting local projects from our Community Fund and act as a voice for residents in discussions with our partners such as the local authorities, NHS and care agencies, businesses, and the voluntary community and faith sector. If possible we want to recruit residents from all the wards of Fleetwood so if you do live in a FY7 postcode and want to get more involved, please speak to one the committee at the open meeting or email listening@healthierfleetwood.co.uk

Jenny, our wellbeing mentor, has started to contact residents referred by their GPs for the social prescribing path. After a chat on the phone Jenny has been able to direct the individuals to an activity suited to their needs and goals and we’ll be developing this path more over the coming weeks and months.

Sunday 8th April is ‘One You’ – The Health & Wellbeing event at Marine Hall, Fleetwood. This is a family event for all ages to come along and find out more about healthier lifestyles.

There will be a variety of stalls and demonstrations from local organisations, community groups and businesses including hypnotherapy, physiotherapy, exercise classes, tropic skincare, slimming world and more. There will also be live demonstrations of activities and performances from the Harmony and Health Singing group.

Healthier Fleetwood will be there with our community and health partners including The Festival of Transport, the new Fleetwood Parkrun and Wyre Council’s reminiscence programme and you can still be involved. We have a couple of places left for partners on the day, a chance to meet visitors and talk about your organisation. Our partners should be charities or community based non-commercial groups offering residents something to make a positive difference, as well as raising awareness. If you can’t be part of the team but want to display leaflets please email us to arrange delivery ahead of the event - sorry, we can’t collect your leaflets.

Any commercial businesses wanting to book a stand at ‘One You’ please contact the venue direct - email cassie.mochan@wyre.gov.uk

Looking further ahead we are planning another new event, a showcase of dance and movement to support long-term health & wellbeing projects. So far a few interested parties have had a quick chat about how this might work and we’ve already got plenty of ideas but want more! If you live or work in Fleetwood and have a passion for dance and movement, perhaps as a teacher, event organiser or would just like to get involved, please get in touch.

Wyre Council has an excellent volunteer training programme and have let us know about some opportunities .… the new reminiscence programme will use artefacts and replicas to trigger memories and conversation at various events in Fleetwood and around the region. Volunteers are invited to be part of the team delivering the programme in the community, please contact Chris.Wyatt@wyre.gov.uk if you are interested.

There is also a Health Walk Leader Training course on Tuesday 17th April at Stanah. Anyone attending would need to commit to co-leading a health walk in the future as part of their training and to achieve the accreditation so it’s an excellent opportunity to add to your CV or just put something back into the community. For further details of this training please email alison.boden@wyre.gov.uk – places are limited.

Finally another positive outcome. We want to offer support to residents starting new groups and can do this in a number of ways. At our last open meeting only three weeks ago, Samantha said she wanted to start a new mums and tots group.

In this case all we did was say “go for it” and within a week she had the venue booked, acquired some start-up equipment and with a little help from us on the promotion the ‘Mum’s With Big Mugs’ group has started and will run every Tuesday morning at Fleetwood Library. By the way, the title is inspired by the fact they like a proper mug for their tea and coffee …. and chatting with a friend over a brew is always a good thing.

Please keep in touch with your news and events for us to share and thanks for your continued support as we all work together to create a Healthier Fleetwood.