Knowle West NewsletterIssue 2Spring 2002

Your Newsletter

This is the second edition of Knowle West Newsletter.We’ve responded to your feedback on the first edition.

You said the type was too small - so we’ve made it bigger.You said the format was too big - so we’ve made it smaller and easier to handle.You said you didn’t like the colours - so we’ve changed them. Hope you like the new look!

We welcome your comments on thisedition. It’s your newsletter – so send in your ideas for articles, competitions,drawings and photos to:Neighbourhood Renewal SteeringC/o Knowle West Media ProjectLeinster HouseLeinster AvenueKnowle WestBristol BS4 1NL

LOVE YOURSELF......AND KEEP HEALTHYThe Knowle West Healthy Living Centre was officially opened on Valentines Day 14 February 2002, with a message of“love yourself…. and keep healthy”. The Centre provides a range of stress busting services, which include Counselling,Advice and Advocacy and Complementary Therapy.

Over 600 local people came along to the Health Park’s Walk-in Centre, which is the main base for the healthy livingservices, to find out more and try out the new services. They were also thoroughly entertained by the many local actsperforming on the day.

The centre is the result of thorough local consultation. Many people saw stress as a major cause of illness in KnowleWest. They felt that these stress-busting services like the ones in the new centre, would go a long way to tackling thecauses of stress.

“We were so pleased so many local people came to celebrate the opening of the new Healthy Living Centre”, said SuePartridge, the Healthy Living Centre Co-ordinator. “Our health is affected by lots of different aspects of our lives, andhealthy living includes taking time to de-stress and look after ourselves. We want the Knowle West Healthy LivingCentre to be somewhere where local people know they can turn to, to get help to relax and tackle the parts of their lives

that they know are having a bad effect on their health.”

Indeed many local people are already using the services, visiting them not just at the Health Park, but also in otherparts of Knowle West including the Mede Community Centre, the Education Park and Filwood Hope.

The National Lotteries’ New Opportunities Fund has made a major contribution to funding of the centre. They have alsoinvested in theHealthy Living Café, which is due to open on the Health Park in July.

To find out more or make a booking, telephone 903 0000. All services are free to residents of Knowle West.

Mark Baker Health Park Manager

What's Happening At The Park?Have you been down to The Park recently? Whether you’re into gardening or basketball, furniture restoration orperforming arts, The Park is where it’s at. The former Merrywood School is still packed with learners, but now theyinclude older as well as younger students.

As soon as you walk in the door, you’ll notice the relaxed atmosphere of The Park. From first thing until 10.00 pm, thePark Café is busy. You can grab a coffee or a bite to eat; you can use the free computers in the reception area to lookup things on the internet; and you can get information about what’s on in Knowle. Other facilities include conferencerooms, sports halls and a new sound recording studio, all of which are there for the benefit of local people.

Bristol Community Education runs vocational and traditional ‘evening’ courses that cover anything from Aircraftmaintenance to Yoga. Whether you want to learn job-related skills, or catch up on learning that you’ve missed out inlife, all courses are free if you have a BS4 postcode. Thanks to a Government-funded initiative called UKonline, there’salso a brand new learning centre at The Park. It’s called the digital media room – ‘digi room’ for short. This is a suite ofhigh-performance computers that are dedicated to building links between the new technologies such as video, musicand the internet. You can learn how to shoot a video, then edit it to produce a professional-quality film. You can recordyour own music, mix it, edit it, then burn your own CDs. And you can explore how to make interactive web pages foryour community organisation that really do sing and dance!

Whatever your age, you’re welcome at the ‘digi room’. So come on down to The Park today – you’re sure of a bigsurprise!Jony Russell

If your group is in need of accommodation, there will be space at The Park, Daventry Road from early 2003.

Contact: Clive Harryor Helen Hooper on 903 9770

Broadway Performing Arts CompanyThe company has just celebrated its second birthday. There are around 100 students in the company, aged 9 – 19. Werun two groups - Tuesdays 5.30 – 8.30pm and Saturdays 9am - 1pm. We are based at The Park where we have agreat rehearsal studio. Each year we put on one major production and five smaller shows, which are performed in themain hall. If you love music, dance and drama we’d love to hear from you – we’re always looking for new members.

Call Julie or Su for more information.Julie Churches 0117 903 9777Su Hopkins 0117 903 9770

Knowle West Media ProjectKWMP is based at Leinster House

We work with local people of all ages using photography, video and multimedia on projects that iam to benefit thecommunity. As well as our project work we provide traineeships and short term work experience placements for localyoung people. We have been under the umbrella of Knowle West Health Association – many thanks to them for all theirsupport over the last two years – but are now an independent organisation. Over the next year we aim to develop ourcurrent projects.

These projects include:

Mouth of the South - a newsletter by and for young people that we work on with Knowle West Youth Forum.Safe Routes - a website project with young people that documents routes across the estate and highlightsimprovements that the young people feel should be made.Brave New World - a project with young disabled people that imagines a more inclusive world.Digital arts and Health Projects - based at Knowle West Health Park.

We want to work with local people and groups on new projects and videos over the next year – we’re always open tosuggestions – get in touch if you think you’d like to work with us , or have any great ideas.

As part of our work we will be co-ordinating this newsletter for the Neighbourhood Renewal Steering Group – thatmeans local people write the articles and decide what goes in the newsletter.

We are keen to support people who want to get involved – whether learning design and writing skills or taking thephotographs. We’re also developing a community website; involving local groups and creating a real network ofinformation and contacts in Knowle West.

If you want to know more about KWMP please ring us on0117 903044 or email us projects@kwmp.orgCarolyn Hassan Project Manager

Street Wardens are coming to Knowle WestKnowle West will soon be recruitingits own team of Street Wardens.These will be a professional group of people who will act as the eyes and ears of the community. Their main focus willbe social and environmental issues – spotting trouble; reporting graffiti, rubbish and abandoned cars. They will also actas ‘professional witnesses’ to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Based at the Kabin, their visible presence will make people feel safer. They will patrol the Filwood ward and Inns Courtbetween 11am – 10pm, Monday to Friday, working slightly shorter hours at weekends. Eight wardens will be appointedand they will work in 2 groups of 4, going out in pairs on two shifts.

Street wardens will receive training from the police and will also be trained in First Aid; Health and Safety; RiskAssessment etc. However, while wardens will become familiar faces in the area; they are not police officers and do nothave any powers of arrest. Great care will be taken to appoint people who can command respect and will have the rightsocial skills and sensitivity to deal with day to day problems. Street wardens will be answerable to Knowle Safe’sManager and a Steering Group made up of local residents. They will also be in regular contact with other services e.g.youth service/education welfare.

For more information please contact:Anita Pearce on 9231930 or email knowle.safe@blueyonder.co.uk

BROAD PLAIN FOOTBALL COACHING SCHEMEOne man’s passion helps young people’s dreams’

One June day in 2001, a police officer looked out of his window over the Broad Plain site and thought, “How can I helpthe young people of Knowle West make use of this space?” As a keen footballer himself, he thought “Ah, I havecontacts with Bristol City Football Club.”

Bristol City FC already ran a schools-based scheme that enabled young people to train with Bristol City coaches, whilealso developing literacy and numeracy skills through additional training at the Bristol City IT Study Centre. His idea wasto make the scheme available to the young people of Knowle West, using Broad Plain House Youth Centre.

Next, key workers and local people got together to write hundreds of letters to raise funds. Everyone was very exited - itwas the first time BCFC had run the scheme outside of schools. Positive press coverage meant businesses were eagerto support the idea and soon there was enough money to run a 6-month pilot project.

We were also able to improve the football pitches with a clean up and new security fences, plus fencing for the 5 A-sidecourts.Word was out, and we soon had young people hammering at the door to take part; but there were only 40 places onthis first come-first served scheme, with additional places set aside for referrals from local schools and for youngpeople excluded or on the edge of exclusion.

Kick Off was in September and 6 months later, young people are still turning up every week. What a sight! The

youngsters are keen to show off their newfound skills and are still learning …the next stage will be to attend a 10-weekcourse at the Bristol City Study IT Centre. The feedback from young people has been brilliant.

The scheme for this group has been extended to July 2002. Photo and video documentation of the project will be usedto make a CD Romwhich will be sent to prospective funders to access 5-year funding.

We are now looking for young people and adult volunteers for the next intake, who will receive training to assist in thelong-termprogramme.

If you’re interested, call in for an informal chat with coaches Cath, Tommy or Ian.

Cath Fisher:Broad Plain House Youth Centre0117 940 290Coaching Sessions -Tuesdays & Thursdays 4-6pm

Eagle House Gets New Facilities

The refurbishment of the 5-aside car-park is the first phase of a longer term vision to develop Eagle House and theYouth Centre into a multi-purpose community centre offering a range of services.

A questionnaire sent to residents came back with positive responses to exciting ideas for the community centre - e.g. agarden; job club; community café; arts activities; after school club; health information etc. The next step is to work withan architect from Business in the Community to explore the potential of existing land and buildings.

The development of the site has led to visible improvements to the Newquay Road area, which local residents feel hasbeen neglected in the regeneration of Knowle West. The project is a joint partnership between Eagle HouseCommunity Association and the Youth Centre, and is well supported by the community. People can see things aregetting done and this has really raised morale.

Young people are very excited and are arranging football matches on the new pitch, which has attracted a lot ofattention since the floodlights were installed. The recent installation of child safety barriers provide a safe pedestrianwalkway through the car park to the multi-purpose court when it’s in use.

Young people said:"When's it going to be finished?""Can't wait.""We've been waiting a long time"."It's great".

Members of the Over 50s Club said:"It's actually being done".It was an eyesore"."about time something was done"."It's lighter now"."That's much better"."I can leave my car here now instead of getting my son to pick me up".'Perhaps it will stop the kids getting onto trouble now they have somewhere to go".

Anita PearceFor more information please contact:Anita Pearce or Julie Maunder on 0117 9231930

Florence Brown Community School Composting Scheme

Florence Brown Community School has been involved in a community composting scheme for several years.Local people and the community caretaker were the principal contributors to the scheme, whereby green waste in theform of hedges, brambles, grass mowings etc. were brought to the site and then processed and composted.

The scheme has been so successful we’ve had to buy in the services of an outside contractor.

The service was very well supported and so we formed a steering group with representatives from Florence BrownSchool, Knowle West Development Trust, SITA and the Recycling Consortium to take the project forward. Partnershipworking has been vital to our success in fundraising; we now have our own machine and vehicle to power and tow it;storage for the vehicle; and are able to employ a worker for up to 3 years to work on the project.

From May SITA will carry out a regular collection of green waste, using the local Pathfinder service.

After processing, compost will be available to local community green projects and for peoples’ gardens.

It will also provide a source of food for worm farming, which will produce a high- grade compost available for sale. Themachine and driver will find other work locally to generate income, sustaining the project for the future.

We plan to open a resource base for Bristol schools, based on composting and spin-off activities. There is enormouspotential for work relating to science and citizenship, subjects that are the government’s current area of focus inschools. We hope that the project will also provide opportunities for work experience for young people and also as atraining placement for New Deal.

Dick BerryFlorence Brown Community School0117 963 2991

Schools Plus - Knowle West

The Knowle West Schools Plus project includes all the schools in the Filwood Park ward: Connaught Primary, IlminsterAve Primary, The School of Christ the King, Novers Infants, Novers Juniors and Hengrove Secondary.

These schools are working closely together to tackle local under-achievehof children, their families and the widercommunity.

There is an identified need to improve academic achievement and other related factors like attendance and the SchoolsPlus project attempts to impact on these by:

extending the school day so that children and their families can be offered an increased range of exciting andchallenging Schools Plus activities.supporting each school to collaboratively offer a range of learning opportunities for local families and the widercommunity, promoting themselves as neighbourhood centres of learning.encouraging schools to play an increasing role in enabling local families to access other services e.g. health,housing, social services on the school sites.

An important part of the project is to engage and involve local people in the shape and format of the learningprogrammes that will be available in Knowle West to ensure that increased participation is at the very heart of themeasure of success.

The schools and the School Plus team will work with a range of other agencies active in the area and will encouragethe sharing of expertise and good practice. The project has also appointed a parent consultant for each of theparticipating schools. This local person will act as a link between the schools and the community.

The Schools Plus project is being independently evaluated by UWE Faculty of Education in conjunction with

Inperspective, an agency specialising in applied educational research.The evaluation will focus on identifying the key ingredients of success as well as potential barriers to the project’sprogress. The evaluation will provide a clear picture of where the schools are accurately measured.

Bob JenningsSchools Plus Project

The Bedminster and Knowle Credit Union

The closure of the Knowle West Credit Union at the end of last year left many of us feeling rather disappointed.The good news is that it is being replaced with a new Credit Union which is in the process of being registered. It will belarger than the previous one and will cover a wider catchment area, including workers, paid or voluntary who work inKnowle West.The Bedminster and Knowle Credit Union will have its registered office at No. 8 Filwood Broadway and two weeklycollections have already begun to take place there on every Tuesday and Friday morning from 10am to 11am. You arewelcome to call during these times for more information. The Credit Union belongs to you.Joanna BrennanCredit Union Coordinator0117 9664854

Knowle West FlyerThe Knowle West Flyer has not been in service since November and there have been many rumours around thereasons why.The former manager of the flyer was dismissed from his job for three counts of gross misconduct. He complained to theEmployment Tribunal with nine different complaints against the Mede Centre.The Tribunal was heard on Friday 22nd March and after a hearing that lasted all day, every complaint was dismissed.These decisions prove that the Mede Centre acted lawfully and properly in the dismissal of the former manager.No money has been stolen from the Knowle West Flyer, and due to the Mede’s rigorous financial book-keeping,irregularities were found at an early stage and rectified. We are now seeking further funding to get the Flyer on the roadagain.It has also been claimed that people paid for memebership of the Flyer. This is not true. Books of tickets only werepurchased and if anyone would like a refund they can do so by bringing their unused tickets along to the Mede Centre.We will try to resume the Flyer service as soon as we can. Meanwhile, to obtain accurate information about the Flyeryou can contact the Mede Centre on 0117 9041220 between 9.30am and 3.30pm.Rose Manning - Chair of The Mede

News from KWADsKnowle West Against Drugs is having an Open Day on Wednesday May 1st from 10am.Everyone is welcome to come along to our base at 49-51 Filwood Broadway and see what we do. We’re having a raffle– and tickets are free, available from KWADs between 15th-30th April. Prizes are 10 free tickets to the May ball and willbe drawn on the day by news presenter Susan Osmond.The May Ball is on May 25th 2002, to be held at The Park, Daventry Rd. Tickets are £45.Denise Chair of KWADS0117 9533870

CompetitionHave a go at this competion and you could win a prize.A close reading of the newsletter will give you all the answers you need!Winners will be the first 3 correct answers picked out of a hat.Prizes include a family ticket to the cinema, a family takeaway and a basket of fruit.Answers to:Knowle West Newsletter CompetitionNeighbourhood Renewal SteeringC/o Knowle West Media ProjectLeinster HouseLeinster AvenueKnowle WestBristol BS4 1NL

What was the launch date of the Healthy Living Centre?1.How may places were available to young people to train on the football coaching scheme run by Broad Plain2.

House Youth Centre?What kind of dance class are members of Broadway Performing Arts taking part in, as shown in the photo onpage 2

3.

What is Mouth of the South?4.How much money will Knowle West receive each year until 2004 from the Government’s NeighbourhoodRenewal Fund?

5.

Community Action PlanTorrington Avenue has had a history of being used as a dumping ground for rubbish and abandoned cars, but all that isnow changing with the Torrington Avenue Community Action Plan.This in an initiative by residents to improve the look of their street – now in its fourth month, things are really starting tolook better.

Previous appeals to the council, police, housing department and schools had previously met with little response. Someresidents were advised to keep diaries of the dumping incidents, but became frustrated when no action was taken.In September 2001, Neighbourhood Develop-ment worker, Anita Pearce, set up a meeting between the communitybeat officer, ward councillor George Micklewright and representatives of other agencies, to which some residents wereinvited to voice their concerns. They were met with a positive response and the result was the Community Action Plan.The key points were:

A monthly walkabout for residents and agency representatives to keep an eye out for rubbish and take actionquickly.Regular communication between agencies to get them working together more effectively on dealing with therubbish in the street (i.e. the police; neighbourhood housing services, environment department; education andwelfare; community development and the youth service).To liase with the Pathfinder Project who now clean the street twice a week.A resident’s survey by the Council to identify concerns.Regular residents meetings.

Two further meetings open to all residents were very well attended and people have seen a real improvement to thearea.Some residents were concerned that the continual high turnover of tenants in Torrington Avenue has added to itsproblems but with the Action Plan, this is now being addressed.The next target of the Community Action Plan is to install better lighting and to implement the Streetwardens Schemewhich will benefit Torrington Avenue and the surrounding neighbourhood.Anita Pearce - Neighbourhood Renewal Facilitator

If you want to get involved or have similar concernsplease contact:Anita Pearce on 0117 9231930or email: knowle.safe@blueyonder.co.uk

Neighbourhood RenewalA Chance to Make a Differenceor Just another Government Scheme?The Government has made a commitment to improving life for the 10% poorest people in the UK.Previous attempts todo this have not worked well enough, so it wants future action to:

Be more firmly based on evidenceTake a wider view and be better planned and measuredMake better use of the money Government puts into “Mainstream Services” (the Police, the NHS, Educationand so on).

It also wants to see a more effective partnership between local people

and “professionals”.

Sounds Good - How's It Going To Change Anything In knowle West?The Government wants Local Authorities that contain the 10% poorestneighbourhoods in the country- including Bristol City Council, to:

Set up a Strategic Partnership between all Agencies that deliver services, and representatives of local people.Identify the poorest areas and create Neighbourhood Partnerships in each of them that bring together localpeople and Agencies that deliver services, these Partnerships must be controlled by local people.

Each Neighbourhood Partnership has to produce an Action Plan that sets out what needs to be done, what theevidence is and what the priorities are.

The Government also wants to see Mainstream Agencies start to work in different ways - ways that will tackle theproblems faced by the poorest Neighbourhoods better than they do at the moment. To help this happen there is arelatively small amount of money available for three years to encourage new ways of doing things. This will be about£300,000 a year for Knowle West, until March 2004.

What About Knowle West?Bristol City Council has identified 10 Neighbourhoods it wants this to happen in. Knowle West is one of three “priority”Neighbourhoods (along with Ashley and Southmead).

Six months ago, the Knowle West Development Trust, supported by community leaders, agreed with the Council thatthey would take responsibility for setting up a Partnership, help to set up new ways to do things and produce the firstAction Plan. Since then the Trust, a group of local people and staff from Delivery Agencies have been working hard tomake this happen.

The first draft of the Action Plan will contain mini plans for the next year covering - Work, Learning, Crime and Disorder,Health and Housing and the Physical Environment. These are being produced by Action Groups of professionals andlocal people. The groups have identified the most important issues for Knowle West as:

Behaviour (anti social behaviour)Achievement (low achievement)Health and Well Being (poor health and stress

Set up a Strategic Partnership between all Agencies that deliver services, and representatives of local people.Identify the poorest areas and create Neighbourhood Partnerships in each of them that bring together local people andAgencies that deliver services, these Partnerships must be controlled by local people.

Each Neighbourhood Partnership has to produce an Action Plan that sets out what needs to be done, what theevidence is and what the priorities are.

The Draft Action PlanThis first plan - available before the end of April - will be just that, a first plan. There will be lots of things missing andthe aim is to produce an improved version by the summer. This will take into account the views of more local peopleand Agencies that deliver services. It will also give us some time to work out how we are going to tackle those threeissues - Behaviour, Achievement and Health and Well Being.

Will Any Of This Make A Difference To Knowle West?The honest answer is that we don’t know. The approach is sensible and stands a better chance of succeeding thananything that’s happened before. It will depend on lots of things outside our control - will the Government continue tosupport this way of doing things? (it’s bound to take a number of years to make a real difference), will the big Agenciesbe prepared (and able) to work in a different way?

It’s chance to do something positive in Knowle West and it’s a real opportunity for local people to have a central role indeciding what happens and making sure that it actually does happen. So far we’ve done a good job but there’s a longway to go. Getting the first Action Plan in place will be a big step forward.

Michael Webb - Neighbourhood Renewal Project Manager

953 2957You can also contact:Anita Pearce,Community Worker923 1930

How Poor Is Knowle West?The Government has a way to measure this, using seven different indicators, it is called the Multiple Deprivation Indexand scores all 8,414 Wards in the UK (Knowle West is Filwood Ward). On this score Knowle West is the 221st poorestWard in the UK, putting it in the bottom 3%. One of the seven indicators is educational attainment and Knowle Westscores seventh from bottom in the UK on this.

You have passed Go... Collect £5000!Neighbourhood Renewal’s Community Chest opens for groups in Knowle West - What is it?The Community Chest is a quick, straightforward funding scheme which can provide up to £5000 for community andvoluntary groups working in Knowle West.Community Chest has been set up by the government to enable local groups to fund activities which

Encourage greater involvement in local community activitiesHelp community groups to improve their local neighbourhood

Help black and minority ethnic or other com munities to find out more about their origins and culture andmaintain their traditions

Enable local community and voluntary groups to contribute to the regeneration of their local area in other ways

The fund is particularly keen to hear from groups which have not been able to gain access to other sources ofgovernment funding and from excluded or marginalised communities.

The Community Chest is run by the Greater Bristol Foundation. The application form is fairly straightforward – just fourpages long – and you should get a decision within four weeks of putting in your application.You don’t have to be a registered charity to apply but you do need to have a written set of rules saying how you work, acommittee which runs the organisation and a bank account for the organisation or a written agreement with anotherorganisation which can receive grant money on your behalf.

For information and application forms contact:Alice Meason - Greater Bristol FoundationRoyal Oak HouseRoyal Oak AvenueBRISTOL BS1 4GB Tel: 0117 989 7700Email: info@gbf.org.ukIf you would like help with your application form please contact Anita or Keith at The Kabin.

KNOWLE WEST CARNIVALVolunteers are needed to help organise this Years Carnival.If you are interested please contactJulie at The Kabin - 0117 9231930.

Watch This SpaceThe neighbourhood Renewal Steering Group is atemporary group of local people working with the Development Trustto draw up the neighbourhood plan.

The aim is to have a partnership set up by September - more information to follow in the next edition.

Credits and Thank You'sWith Thanks to the following people:

Neighbourhood Renewal Steering GroupManager - Michael WebbNeighbourhood Renewal Facilitator - Anita PearceResident Members - Denise Britt, Rene Gough, Ross Thomson, Floss Moulton, Carole Casey, Rose Manning, MarySmith, Sue Baldock, Margaret Jordan, Sister Joanna Brennan

PhotographyJo Jansfrord, Sandra Manson, frances King, Mouth Of The South news team, Cherly Martin

Editor: Frances KingDesign: Rowena Dugdale

The Following Projects have received funding from Neighbourhood Renewal:Schools PlusEagle HouseFlorence Brown Community CompostingStreet WardensBroadway Performing ArtsKnowle West Media CentreBristol City Library ServicesArt Of WellbeingBristol City Arts Development

Special thanks to:Harrison CowleyKeith Houghton - Bristol City CouncilKnowle West Media Centre