This week’s blog has two aspects to it, as we reflect on a recent event and focus on a future opportunity too.
Community Inspiration Awards
We are pleased to announce we have been nominated for an award!
The annual Community Inspiration Awards is organised by the Community Foundation, to recognise outstanding contributions made by staff from public sector organisations, charities, businesses and members of the community, whose efforts have made a positive difference in the community.
The 11th Community Inspiration Awards ceremony will take place in September 2023 where our panel of esteemed judges will announce the finalists and winners.
Nominations are now closed. However, there is still time to place your vote.
We have been inundated with hundreds of outstanding nominations highlighting the achievements made by individuals, public sector organisations, charities and businesses. We had a hard job whittling down to shortlist 9 nominations per award category.
The online voting is now open to help our judges select the two runners-up and the winner for each category. You can cast your votes using the Online voting link:
https://forms.gle/qDvUFRMFT3ZsLNiZ
If you like to vote for us we would appreciate it
Voting closes at 5 pm on Friday 30th June 2023.
Community Games in the Park
On Sunday the 11th of June we ran a creative stall, alongside other organisations at Community Games.
This event had a Focus on Youth Mental Health, following a Youth Mental Health discussion at The Hermon Arts Centre that took place on the 8th June.
The Community Games are set up to encourage our youth community to take up something they have not done before. This is a great way to Foster good emotional health as trying new things gives us a hit of dopamine , our feel good chemical and makes us feel rewarded.
Fear is often the biggest barrier to doing something new, so it was a great thing that more than 1,000 people of all ages turned up to enjoy the free activities in Cae Glas Park.
There were art, sports and food to try out throughout the day.
At our stall we provided a space for art, which included block printing and mono printing.
Local organisations that were present that day were:
OsNosh Community Kitchen who catered the event
St Martin’s school
Oswestry Team Tennis
Newcomers this year include Pickleball People, Community Wellbeing Hub, Designs in Mind, McIntyre Public Lounge, Oswestry Fencing Club, Llanymynech Golf Club and Llanymynech Juniors football.
Live music was once again provided by The Bartells.
This year the guest of honour was Kat Driscoll, World and European trampoline champion. You can read quotes from Kat and the lead event organiser, John Manford here in the Oswestry Advertiser article link https://bit.ly/3Pl2pWo
Sponsors of the day were Oswestry Town Council, Oswestry Business Improvement District, Oswestry Sports Forum, Shropshire Rural Housing Association Bunning Gas and DRE Accountants.
Oswestry Town Council, Oswestry BID and Oswestry Sports Forum are already agreeing to continue to sponsor the Community Games in the future
We had a couple of Staff and a few of our Members helping out at the event. They kindly shared with me how the day went.
Events like this helping to break the stigma of Mental Health Challenges not only help those who attend but also help our Members to step out into the community and extend their comfort zones, gain new experiences and help them promote what we do.
“I think it went really well. The event definitely helped to get the name of Designs in Mind out there and heard. It was great that a member of the group also got to speak on the microphone to the whole field as well – all really good promotion for us and what we are about. I enjoyed seeing the children create something unique and personal to themselves. Watching them be inspired and creative was a joy.
All the children really enjoyed both sets of crafts we had on offer. Seeing other people’s work also gave them inspiration. It allowed for them to learn new techniques that can easily be replicated at home.
It was lovely to be a part of something within the community. I enjoyed being there, though I didnt help too much on the art side, as I was too busy chatting to everyone!”
Emily, Studio Member
“It was wonderful to have a presence at an event shining a light on the importance of talking about Youth Mental Health.
We had a great time meeting the kids who got stuck in and produced the most amazing prints. Our stand was quite popular even on such hot day. It was quite a challenge to get printing done with the heat drying out the paint quicker as soon as we painted it on to the block!
We always love any chance to be out and about spreading the joy and power of creativity with our community.”
Emma Cummings, Studio Artist.
Blog Written & researched by Willow, Member & Social Media Coordinator