News & Developments

Derbyshire County Council are working with a range of partnership organisations to tackle the problem termed 'holiday hunger' as part of our £528,550 'Feeding Derbyshire' project.

School holidays equate to around 170 days per year when children can miss out on meals as well as missing out on social activities such as trips and days out.

The holiday hunger scheme aims to link with existing summer schemes such as clubs and play schemes to offer children social opportunities such as games, reading and other activities as well as a free, healthy meal.

Groups or organisations that run holiday clubs or summer activity schemes for young people and would like to help tackle holiday hunger can contact Public Health Manager Jane Hicken tel: 01629 537675 or email: jane.hicken@derbyshire.gov.uk

See also DCC website

You can sign up at www.dsc.org.uk/grants-for-good-2/get-involved/

This summit is part of the Grants for Good campaign in association with DSC, CFG, NAVCA and Children England. It’s promoting the use of government grants for charities and voluntary groups and you can join it by providing case studies of how grants have helped you and your beneficiaries.

Charities are being asked to join this summit and share  experiences of grant funding as there will also be a forum for sharing case studies that can be used to strengthen the campaign. The event is free to attend and you can find out more and sign up here. 

If you aren't able to attend but would still like to follow the campaign and submit a case study, follow the link to find out more. 

There are 3 prizes of up to £5,000 worth of kitchen equipment to be won.  G52 is the only group from Derbyshire selected, and is competing with other deserving groups across the country from Hampshire to Belfast.

A prize would mean a lot to G52 – ‘Gamesley Working 52 Weeks a Year’ – and help them to set up a Community Hub providing services and work experience for local people, and to expand their excellent catering service. The group has already provided training for local people, set up and run ‘Bellies Not Bins’ which distributes surplus food, and put on fun events such as ‘the Beach comes to Gamesley’ which offered all the fun of the beach including donkey rides and candy floss.

G52 needs your support now – to win the kitchen equipment they need you to vote!

Yes, Stoves is asking the nation to choose which community groups will receive their prizes so please vote for G52 at wshe.es/gaVOOxeV

They are also actively recruiting players returning to banding after a break.Perhaps you have taken a sabbatical due to work or family commitments. Or maybe you learnt at school but haven’t played since. If you are considering a return to playing brass then Whaley Bridge Band could be just what you are looking for.

The band have all the standard brass band instruments available – including percussion – and will provide support to get you blowing again. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you get back on track, and it’s never too late however long you've been away.Several players have done just that, returning after breaks of over thirty years, and are now stalwarts of the band.

For more information see our website www.whaleybridgeband.co.uk

Email: whaleybridgeband@gmail.com
Phone Jane Walker Cull 01663 719712

They need volunteers to help with this and have volunteer surveyor opportunities in  High Peak, North East Derbyshire  and  Amber Valley.

You will receive training on how to do the surveys and you can claim travel expenses.

To get involved contact Steve Cresswell on  01629 539660 or email steve.cresswell@derbyshire.gov uk

Veterans make up 10% of our communities.  1 in 4 people experiences a mental health problem in any year and that includes former and current members of the Armed Forces.  

This two-day course will help people who support the general public as part of their role to understand some of the issues faced by people with mental health problems and to know how to respond in an emergency situation and also longer term.  

The course costs £198 per person.  To find out more or book visit www.derbyshiremind.org.uk/training-2/

The new two-year pilot, run in collaboration with existing  health care professionals has been launched  in response to the call for greater patient choice; for some people their last and greatest wish is to die at home in familiar surroundings.

The service startedon 11 April and will support patients and their families and carers with sitters day and night.  Overnight sits will offer carers the chance to have a good night’s sleep, while a few hours during the day gives carers a break to go shopping or have time for themselves.  

To access Hospice at Home contact 01298 813007 or email hospiceathome@blythehouse.co.uk  

To find out about other  services offered by Blythe House Hospice, contact 01298 815388.

High blood pressure (BP) is the biggest risk factor for stroke. Visit The Devonshire Dome on Friday 22 April 2016 between 10 am and 1 pm or The Springs Shopping Centre on Saturday 23 April 2016 between 9 am and noon for your free blood pressure check; it only takes a few minutes.

It could save your life as about 152,000 strokes occur in the UK each year – that’s one every three to four minutes! At last year’s BP measurements in Buxton, of 197 people screened, four were advised to seek urgent help and 63 advised to contact their own doctor routinely because of higher than normal readings.

Previously, victims calling Derbyshire Domestic Abuse Helpline could be passed onto other agencies depending on their assessed level of risk and men would be referred to another number.

Now all services have been brought together under the existing helpline meaning victims only have to make one call whatever their circumstances or gender.

Last year Derbyshire police received more than 12,300 reports of domestic abuse and nationally one in four women and one in six men will experience abuse at some point in their lives. Meanwhile, around 130,000 children live in households with a high-risk of domestic abuse.

Derbyshire Domestic Abuse Helpline 0800 0198 668.

The county's first Super Kitchen opened in Holmgate Church, Clay Cross, in November 2015 with a branch in Cotmanhay set to open this month (April 2016) with another in New Mills following in May 2016.

The system uses surplus food that would have been thrown away by supermarkets to provide residents with a hot nutritious, low-cost hot meal cooked by volunteers.

Both venues have organised welcome events to give anyone interested in setting up a Super Kitchen such as youth clubs, food banks and charities the chance to have a look around, meet staff and enjoy a free social eating meal.

The New Mills branch will be open in St George's Parish Hall, Church Lane, on Friday 6 May 2016 between 5pm and 7pm.

More details on DCC website