Mini Millbrook Group - Run workshop at Caribbean Festival

The Mini Millbrook Group spent their weekend at the Southampton Caribbean Festival running Carnival workshops for children and adults. Prior to this they had training with an artist to help them prepare and learn the skills they needed. And because they are now constituted and have their own bank account they were able to negotiate a fee for running the workshop, which paid for their equipment (which they can now use for future projects). Best of all they held the workshop completely independently and it was a massive success. They even had to close early because they ran out of material !!!

Congratulations to the Mini Millbrook Group - well done!

New Milton Gateway Group make Pots!

The Gateway Group in New Milton had an enjoyable evening making pinch pots.

22 members made a pot, which are now drying, waiting to be painted.

The evening also saw the election of 2 representatives from the group to attend the local

Mencap meetings and put forward the ideas and views of the members of how they want the club to develop. The two members elected were Dawn and David, who Stuart (CB Project)

will be supporting in the coming weeks in their new roles.

Next tuesday will be a music night, so watch this space

Mansbridge Cinema Club (Supported by the CB Project)

The Mansbridge Cinema project is now attracting
20 or more people at each showing, the last two films being 'Miss Potter', and last night, 'Lost in Translation'.

the next film is on Monday 9th June
6:50 pm (7pm Start) at Mansbridge Primary School

‘The Painted Veil’ The 2007 story of a British medical doctor fighting cholera in a Chinese village in the 1920’s.
Drama Cert. PG – 13

(Entry is Free. Refreshments will be served at the cinema events,for which a donation of £1.50 is requested)

If you would like to know more, or would be interested in becoming a volunteer (to help ensure these, and other events, keep running) call Stuart of Southampton Scrapstore Community Builders on 02380 915414 or email stuartjebbitt@hotmail.com

Dice Group begins another set of 8 sessions!

Dice Group (Drop in Centre Eastleigh) started up again yesterday for another 8 weeks of Art, Craft, Music, and FUN. This week we had a sing-song, followed up by a percussion workshop, which eventually turned into a Conga line around the hall!!

We also discussed funding ideas - including a table top sale and various sponsered events.

The group meets up on mondays between 10-3 at Wells Place Eastleigh. The mornings are for

Tea/Coffee and Chat and the afternoons (from 1pm), are for activities.

For more info call Stuart at the CB Project : 02380 915414

Fordingbridge Young Parents - More Activities

CB is continuing to work with the Fordingbridge Young Parents group which runs on a tuesday morning at the United Reformed Church. We have been running a lot of creative workshops for both the Mums (and some Dads!), as well as the kids. Over the last couple of weeks we have done marbling inks onto card and fabric painting onto kids T-shirts. Next week are planning to do more sewing (learning how to use the machines). A trip to the scrapstore is also planned for May 20th, followed by a picnic in Victoria Park. The group, encouraged by Emma, have now started their own facebook page where they exchange ideas and support each other.

Mansbridge Walks Continue!

Many thanks to Natalie of SusTrans (Sustainable Transport) for sending me this great photo of the latest Mansbridge Walk. CB have been very pleased to have helped this new activity get off the ground and that so many other agencies, Mansbridge Residents Association, SusTrans, NHS Health trainers, Local PCSOs have come in to help! really excellent group work! This is what community work is all about.

More walks to be advertised soon!

New Milton Young Parents Group

CB have been working with a new young parents group at New Milton.

This week we took a large block of clay and patterning tools to see what the group could do with it.

We made a number of decorative 'Pinch' pots as well as Handprint plaques of the children.

Things are now drying nicely ready for painting at the next session.

Fordingbridge- Young Mums and childrens group

Fordingbridge is a young mums and children group that we have recently started to set up workshops with. So far we have done foot spas and digital photography.

In this session we were making cushions and most of us were using a sewing machine for the first time! In the picture you see one of the girls using the sewing machine to make the cushion cover. For this session it was a chance to just get used to using the sewing machine. Next week the girls will be using old t-shirts belonging to their children to make cushions out of them!

Bargate Mums' Arts Group - manipulating images on the computer

Mums' Arts Group learns how to improve a digital photo on the computer

Today, the women in Bargate got savvy with a computer.

The session started off with Katy the Photographer giving a short powerpoint presentation showing photos before and after they'd been 'cropped' or 'brightened' on the computer.

The ladies then went outside to take photos in the sunshine.

Then everyone sat round the computer and learnt how to 'crop', 'resize', 'sharpen' and 'brighten' the photos they'd taken. And most importantly they learnt how to get rid of 'red eye'. There were a few false starts with heads being chopped off when they came out the printer but the end results were really impressive.

Next session on Friday 2nd May, the photography will be rounded off with some hands on craft making picture frames for the photos that have been taken. These can be taken home or they can go in a display of the group's work during May in the The Itchen Gallery & Coffee Shop (St Mary Street).

If you'd like to come along, get in touch with Becky to find out more on 07722 192 675
Friday 2nd May, Orchard Lane Church (near Debenhams in Southampton), 10.00 - 12.00 noon

Children welcome

Riverside Walks for Mansbridge residents

Last week we enjoyed our first community walk in Mansbridge. The idea initially came out of a discussion at the Mansbridge Forum, with Community Builders, the local PCSOs and NHS Health Trainer coming together to organise this new activity. The walk was well attended and included a stop off at St Marys Church, South Stoneham, and a look at the recently restored gravestone of Admiral Charles Bullen, who fought with Nelson at Trafalgar. Among the wildlife we saw, were a Comorant on the river and a Deer!. The next walk is scheduled for Sunday 20th April 2-4pm starting outside the Swaythling Housing office in Gilbury Close Mansbridge.

The project has already caught the attention of a new agency, SusTrans (Sustainable Transport),

who have expressed an interest in taking over the project in the longer term.

New Group evolving in Weston

Last Friday We held another Scrap workshop
in Weston, at the Chamberlayne Leisure Centre. This new initiative is being led by local resident and trainee community worker, Ruth Mould.

The workshop involved kids making toys from recycled materials - Robots and Squirty cameras (pictured), were among the imaginative items that were made.
The kids were then able to have their photo taken with their creations by Katy Peacock, our resident Camera expert, and printed out to take away as a momento of a fun afternoon. The plan is to set up a regular arts group for Parents in Weston. If you are interested in helping us achieve this, or would like to be involved please call Ruth 07708 837268 or Leeba/Stuart on 02380 915414.

DICE group to Continue!

The very successful DICE group in Eastleigh is set to continue with another 8 sessions booked at Wells Place, taking us to June 30th.

The group, led by Adam Williams (pictured with his self built recycled PC), hope to secure more funding to make the project more permenant as it has proved so popular among the learning disabled residents of the town. For those of you how don't know, DICE stands for Drop In Centre Eastleigh. We are also seeking volunteers to help keep the Dice Rolling! Speak to Stuart at Community Builders 02380 915414 for more information.

Community Cinema on the up!

The Mansbridge Cinema Project has seen a significant rise in numbers - maybe due to the lighter evenings, or the fact that word is now getting round!
There was a good turnout to see 'Miss Potter', the biographical film about the Life of Beatrix Potter, starring Renee Zellweger. The next film, 'Lost in Translation' is being shown on Monday 28th April, at Mansbridge School, Octavia Road, starting at 7pm.
The Films are FREE and half time refreshments are available for £1.50.

More Photos From Pilands Music Night!

the Pilands Music Event - Review by local resident Jamie Pratt

Sat 5th April 2008 at the Pilands Wood Community Centre

Before the nights entertainment, I didn’t really know what to expect from the night. Due on the bill was, firstly a singer called Candice, the next on the bill was an act called MC Dare and then finally Go Loud.

Pilands Wood Community centre main hall is quite a nice size, it was set out with some canteen style tables and chairs, not the typical setting for a gig. This was probably done on purpose to make the families more comfortable, and I think this worked well.

The first artist, Candice, is young local girl with a very good range of vocals and she displayed them well with a song list that covered her version of ‘Valarie’, straight into a rendition of ‘Joelyn’, both of these songs are rather different types of songs, yet she managed to put her own twist on them without making them sound too different.

The second artist was a drum and bass DJ backed with a very speedy MC, who goes by the name of MC dare. It was a very strange order for these 2 lads to be on in between a singer and a band and you would normally get this either at the end of the night or maybe as a crowd warmer at the beginning. Both the DJ and MC Dare seemed as though they were very comfortable and contempt doing what they were doing and it looked like they had done it many times before. In a different setting, I think they would of gone down much better, especially somewhere like a club.

Towards the end of the DJ set MC Dare introduced an unplanned addition to the bill, a guy who wanted to show off his talents as a human beat box and show off his talents he did! Some things were things that people had seen before but it was full of quality and most was very clever unique sounds that most hadn’t heard before. This was a nice surprise to the evening.

The last band was Go Loud who were the headliners. A four piece consisting of a drummer, bass, lead guitarist and a singer with rhythm guitar. Go Loud have a mix of their own songs and some covers in their set list. Their influences aren’t immediately clear because they play a wide range of songs dating from the 50’s to the present day, probably reflecting on the diverse age range in the band, yet by the middle of the set that you start to realise that they all seem to have a love for a mix of new wave music with a mix of arty prog rock. This is proved by a mid set highlight of ‘Love is a drug’ by Roxy Music, which pretty much falls into both categories. Their own songs are very similar to this in the fact that they have a bit of paunchiness and edge that new wave bands have and also a coolness and musical quality that the best prog rock bands have.

This does not mean that they only cover this spectrum, they don’t. They play a very 50’s Rock and Roll song that gets everyone up dancing. Towards the end of the night they play a touching version of Paul Weller’s classic, ‘You do something to me’, which is a song that many bands and artists try to cover well but actually don’t achieve to the best of their ability, but Go Loud do manage this and this pleases me no end because this is one of my personal favs.
The band are unusual in many ways, their age range and their influences are not the fashionable thing to do. Yet with this and the confusion of which musical direction they will play next, they turn out to be a very talented and good band live. The next thing is, whether their e.p that they are working on will sound as good on record than live and whether this will give them more songs of their own to play live

Mini Millbrook Group - French Partnershhip PECA Bid

Mini Millbrook Project meets with French Partners for PECA funding bid for European Funding

Bilingual in French and English, Estelle was perfect for representing the Mini Millbrook Project at a Council Dinner for PECA partners in the Duke of Wellington, Southampton (Tuesday 25th March). The Mini Millbrook Group is part of a collection of Carnival groups across Southampton who are currently working with the City Council to put a bid in for 4 years of European funding to develop carnival regionally.

This is Estelle feeding back to the group at the following Mini Millbrook meeting - telling them about meeting up with French partners and Regional partners from Winchester, Brighton and Yarmouth.

“I spent most of the night talking French…it was great, you kind of talk posh again!’

She was also able to give them some useful contacts in Redbridge that she got from Creative Partnerships, who are another Hampshire partner in the bid.

The Mini Millbrook group are also taking part in the Caribbean Festival in March. They will be running worksops for children and adults on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th of April. The group hope to be making hats and Swizzel sticks. The group will be taking part in a 3 week workshop to help them prepear for their workshop. Which began on the 3rd of April.

Mini Millbrook Group - Sport Relief

Mini Millbrook Project sponsored run for Sport Relief

The group was out in force on a Sunday to run one mile in aid of Sport Relief. Gail and Estelle came up with the idea, and the group decided on a 'bed time' fancy dress theme. Despite a blustery cold wind, everyone turned up wearing a a colourful choice of pyjamas, carrying teddies, hotwater bottles and wrapped up cosy in their dressing gowns. Heidi's family had 6 sets of dressing gowns between them. And just like the carnival, Kara slept through most of the event. Mandy had produced another very creative Mini Millbrook banner held up with her mop and broom handles - and thank yout to Estelle's husband for volunteering to be a banner holder.

So well done everyone for running (and walking) the mile, and getting the Mini Millbrook Project out on the streets again in artic conditions, just like the December carnival. Perhaps you should invest some of your budget in thermals!