Welcome to Darnall Forum's Community Website: January 2012

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Valentine's Day

Why not visit our post office to see our wide range of Valentine gifts and cards?

We also offer

passport check and send
foreign currency
travel insurance
home, car and business insurance
moneygrams
parcelforce guaranteed next-day delivery
the full range of parcel and postal services
stamps
cards, stationery, toys and confectionery

Monday, 23 January 2012

Community First Programme: Neighbourhood Matched Fund

Community First is a funding programme from the Office of Civil Society.

£30 Million is now available nationwide to fund community projects in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country.

Community First Neighbourhood Matched Fund is an initiative that provides local communities with the means to address their own priorities. Communities will set up local panels in each eligible ward, which will decide upon projects for funding in their area.

It is a matched fund programme, which means that every £1 provided in funding must be matched by a similar amount of in-kind donations (this means donations of cash, services, free products or volunteer time).

The East Community Assembly Area has £339,100 in total with £56,240 to be allocated by 31^st March 2012. If your group is in the Arbourthorne, Darnall, Manor Castle or Richmond ward and you are interested in applying for a grant of between £250 and £2500, contact the East Community Assembly Team on 0114 2735708 or communityassemblyeast@sheffield.gov.uk to find out more.

Monday, 16 January 2012

Please Join us for a Community Meeting on Wednesday 25 January at 7pm

We’ll Discuss Parking Problems Caused By Tenants of Davy Markham and the ‘Twenty’s Plenty’ Campaign for Staniforth Road

Please join us for a community meeting with your three local councillors on Wednesday 25 January at 7pm at Darnall Forum, next-door to the post office. The meeting will report on the progress that has been made in tackling on-street parking by tenants of the Davy Markham office block at 722 Prince of Wales Road.

The meeting will also consider proposal to create a Twenty’s Plenty zone in the streets around Staniforth Road. Darnall has historically been a neighbourhood where there was a higher than average number of road accidents involving children. Twenty’s Plenty is an initiative which is designed to make local streets a safer place for children to play, run errands and visit their friends and family.

There will also be a chance to raise any other issues which you are concerned about.

Clover Group Patient Group

The Clover Group of GPs is setting up a Patient Group. They say:

We want our patients to be consulted on the way we run our services. This will enable us to look at how we can play a bigger role in creating a healthier community.

If you're a patient, it’s up to you how involved you want to be. You can become:
• A full member. This will involve attending occasional meetings and providing feedback.
• A virtual member. The Clover Group will email or post you information for you to give them your opinions.

The Clover Group says:

We value your input
We’re proud of our practice but know it can be even better with your help.

For more information please contact Anna on
0845 121 4313 or at anna.majchrzak@nhs.net

Wednesday, 11 January 2012

Meeting about fire station closure, Thursday 12 January at 7pm

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue (SYFR), Darnall Forum and the East Community Assembly have work together to arrange a public meeting for residents in the Darnall area about the proposals to cut management and administration costs for the Fire Service by a quarter. The proposals include a new full-time fire station near to the Sheffield Parkway, to replace Darnall and Mansfield Road fire stations in Sheffield, and the meeting will give local residents a chance to comment and ask questions.

The meeting will be held at The Church of Christ, Station Road, Darnall, Sheffield S9 4JT, on Thursday 12th January 2012, at 7.00pm.

The proposals currently out to consultation, together with other internal staffing changes, will save around £4million per year following a one-off investment of £3.65million, including two new fire stations.

The public consultation document, and related business cases, can be viewed on the Service’s website, www.syfire.gov.uk.

To make their views known, residents can either attend the meeting or
• Write to: Public consultation, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, 197
Eyre Street, Sheffield, S1 3FG
• E-mail: serviceplan@syfire.gov.uk
• Twitter: @syfr
• Facebook: South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

How to join in

1) Follow us on Twitter @darnallforum
2) To post a comment, click on the link beneath the post or previous comment to which you want to respond and write your message in the box.
3) Complete the word recognition box, which is designed to stop spam.
4) Then, if you have one, you can enter your Google username and password.
5) Alternatively, you can click 'other' and enter your real name, or a nickname which you would like us to display, or you can click 'anonymous'.
6) Then click 'Publish'. Your message will be sent to us for checking.
7) We will know who you are but, if you have used a nickname or chosen to be anonymous, no one else will know.

How our community team can help

Chris, Nazia and Zahira are the friendly voices on the end of the phone line when you call us and the people who deal with your visits, letters and emails.

They work closely with community groups and individuals who want to make a difference to Darnall. Chris is our Lead Key Support Worker, helping people who are over 18 and currently out of work, to find jobs, education or training through Sheffield CIty Council's Pathway to Success programme.

Zahira is currently covering Nazia's learning Champion role and is the person to contact regarding our education programme.

We also have a team of adult community learning tutors who work closely with us. They help us run courses in IT, ESOL, employment skills, driving theory and other subjects.

If you want help with something which isn't listed here, and you live in Attercliffe, Darnall or Acres Hill, why not give us a ring anyway and we'll try to signpost you to the right place.

More about us

Darnall Forum’s day to day business is managed by a Board of local volunteers. Its vision statement is:

To create a listening space for the community, and
To work in partnership with other agencies and organisations to improve local services and help regenerate Darnall.

The Forum has four part-time staff who with local people to implement a Community Action Plan that was drawn-up after extensive consultation with all sections of the local community. The members of the Forum Board are drawn from the different faith and ethnic groups represented in the area and are elected by the members of the Forum at its AGM.

Darnall Forum is currently funded by Sheffield City Council, the European Social Fund and a small number of charitable trusts.

Darnall Forum also trades under the names D F Enterprise and Darnall Forum Trading, which reopened the community post office in 2010 and ran it for nearly eight years.

The Main Aims of Darnall Forum are:

To create a forum where people can meet to raise issues of local concern, where the agenda is set by local people and where leadership and direction remain with local people.

To work together as women, men, young people, elders, black, white, disabled or able-bodies, of different faiths or none, recognising, respecting and valuing our differences.

To form links with key agencies and local enterprises in order to work in partnership with them, discuss their role in the area and – where necessary – challenge them.

To gather resources to support and deliver initiatives begun and supported by local people.

To ensure that there is a clear and agreed process by which the Forum makes and acts upon its decisions, and to ensure that the Forum Board is accountable to the membership.

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