Love in a Box at Pilands

at Pilands Community Centre in Burlesdon, where we have worked with the local residents on a number of projects, we helped some of the

newer volunteers put together and decorate gift boxes to be collected by the 'love in a box' charity that sends christmas gift parcels to children in

war torn countries.

Sadly, We also said goodbye to centre co-ordinator, Phil Tyler, whose role has come to an end, and whose many and varied tasks will now have to be covered by local volunteers.

Hopefully the centre will continue to have strong links with Southampton Scrapstore and keep up all the recycling that they do.

EU Artists photography show going ahead!

The EU Artists group met last night to discuss the upcoming photo exhibition. They plan for it to take place at the Marlands Mall in Southampton, (exhibition spaces pictured), from the 23rd of January to the 2nd of February with a special preview evening on 22 January. The theme of the show is 'Southampton'. Although it will primarily be advertised as a photo exhibition, They will welcome other artistic expressions on a Southampton theme. It will be open to anyone who lives and works here from a foreign country, although it's expected that most of the contributions will be from EU residents. They also plan to run a children's drawing/painting competition as well, with prizes. The next planning meeting will take place at Stacja PL restaurant in Onslow Road at 6.30pm on 12 November, and interested parties are welcome to attend. The show is being supported by the Southampton Scrapstore CB project and EU Welcome, working together to assist the group.

Gateway preparing for Peter Pan

Last night at Gateway we started designing and making sets for the upcoming production of Peter Pan. Peter painted background scenery, while Carly and Rupert worked on the Pirate Ship!

Heather Road Carnival at Blackfield

During the course of our work with the Blackfield Community Centre, Carnival has come up as something local people would be interested in. Having enjoyed African drumming workshops and various Scrapstore Art sessions, it seemed the next logical step. So CB arranged for the centre volunteers to meet with Crazy Thornhill Carnival, to hatch a plan to start a brand new carnival in Blackfield. After a local tradegy, in which two lives were lost in a road accident, the Carnival was turned into a fitting tribute and gave a focus for the local community to pull together in mutual support.

Gateway group revitalised with CB support.

It was a pleasant saturday, when Stuart from CB went down to Brockenhurst College to help the Gateway club taking part in the New Forest disabled games. The group decided to call themselves the 'Tigers' which definately helped as we won the table tennis and basketball and eventually got overall first prize! This was an opportunity for the members who had missed out on the Eastleigh Paralympics to take part in a sports event. CB is now supporting the Gateway group with their Christmas production of Peter Pan. Stuart will be helping them make a pirate ship and crocodile, whilst bringing the drama group, Curious Arts, to help with the acting side. It's all looking very exciting, so watch this space.

Volunteer Training - Day 2

Roll up, Roll up for Day 2 of our Training course for Volunteers!

A week later, on Wednesday 15th October, everyone was back for more. 'Be amazed - Spectacul Groups' kicked off the morning's training, with guest speaker Gail from the Mini Millbrook Project giving a lively talk about setting up a carnival group.

Louise Evans from Southampton Voluntary Services then took to the stage to tell everyone about support that SVS can give to groups, in particular, help with fundraising applications!

Then it was off to lunch at the Aspire Training Restaurant at City College. The puddings were really good and everyone enjoyed the treat; so much so that the St Denys group are going to go back for there for their Christmas meal.

After lunch it was time for everyone to presented with their certificates and a 'bag of tricks' which included a fabulous Survival Pack full of yet more top tips on how to keep your group going. Adam from DICE then presented DICE's video, to show groups how they could advertise themselves. And Stuart followed this up with an introduction to Blogs and Facebook.

After this, everyone stumbled home, laden down with goodies and a headful of ideas. Well done to Gail and Adam, and many thanks to Louise from SVS, the students at City College and the glamorous TWICS showgirls.

Volunteer Training - Roll up, Roll up!

Community Builders ran the first of its 2-day Training Courses for Volunteers, to help people involved with or running community groups.

15 people from 6 different groups came along; St Denys Junior Youth Club, Sedbergh Area Tenants & Residents Association, EU Welcome, DICE (Eastleigh), Mini Millbrook Project and Southampton Scrapstore. The groups came from Southampton and Eastleigh, and some were independent groups not known to the CB Project.

To make it fun, the training had a Victorian Music Hall theme. Everyone invited received a formal invitation and trick dice through the post. James Street Church hall was decked out with green tables, feathers and playing cards; the Trainers, Jennie and Pat from TWICS dressed up as a glamorous assistant and a fairy God Mother to host the show; and Stuart provided the organ and snare roll accompaniment.

Show stoppers included 'You don't have to saw yourself in two' - how to delegate, 'Houdini's escape from the rut' - moving your project forward and 'Magic'ing up support' - where to find help & advice.

The day was finished off with 'Multiplying Membership not Rabbits', - a hands on craft activity making personal invitations to advertise a group. Out came the scrap, sleeves were rolled up and everyone got stuck in.

Many cups of tea and lollipops later, the music hall cleared and everyone went away happy and looking forward to day 2 the next week. The feedback was good and what people really seemed to like was meeting others 'in the same boat';

'Brilliant, got lots of ideas and information, enjoyed meeting new people and the loved the costumes – you made it fun.'