COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS’

NEWSCOMMUNITYWORLD’S END AND CREMORNE

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE WORLD’S END AND CREMORNE COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS

Winter/Spring 2014 The art of wellness

l Health and art inspires festival goers … p2

l Motivated to free your mind.... p3

l Introducing Shawna…p3

l Coming up…p4

In this edition...

We here at Chelsea Theatre are passionate about bringing the arts and public health together.

This is why we have launched the Community Champions’ programme that aims to support people living on the Cremorne and World’s End estates to live healthier and happier lives!

We hope to do this by providing you with the relevant information and pointing you in the right direction for more support. Our team of dedicated volunteers are here to listen to your needs and make sure you get the best support possible.

We would love to meet you and tell you more about the project and what’s coming up. Why not come to our next Teatime Tuesday or Wednesday Coffee morning? Turn to page 4 for full details.

We look forward to meeting you soon!

Meet your community champions

Contact your team of community champions Drop into the Chelsea Theatre, 7 World’s End Place, King’s Road, SW10 0DR or

call us on 020 7352 1967shawna@chelseatheatre.org.uk | barbara@chelseatheatre.org.ukwww.communitychampionsuk.org | www.chelseatheatre.org.uk

Keeda and India perfect the art of the perfect handshake at Talk Body Language one day course

The World’s End and Cremorne Community Champions – your team of local volunteers

Health and art inspires festival goers

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NEWS WELCOME TO THE NEWS

We hope you enjoy this new, regular newsletter featuring news and health tips from the new community champions team on World’s End and Cremorne Estates.

The Community Champions project at Chelsea Theatre was launched last summer at the World’s End and Cremorne Health Festival. The festival was attended by over 300 residents.

It was a day of arts and health activities where we talked with residents about local services and concerns. Stalls offered lots of useful health information and there were short films broad-casting health messages and inspirational personal journeys for festival-goers to watch.

The theatre provided poetry, singing and performance work-shops too, including an outdoor tea dance and play sessions from children. Massage, yoga, healthy

food and free bike-powered smoothies made it an interactive fun-filled health day.

We also conducted a short survey that will help us under-stand more about the people that

came to the festival. We hope this will give us a better idea about what health topics people on the World’s End and Cremorne Estates would be interested in knowing more about.

Dancers enjoy the music at the tea dance

Young festival-goers pedal for their smoothies on the smoothie bike

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NEWS WEDNESDAY COFFEE MORNINGS

Don’t miss our weekly coffee mornings every Wednesday from 9:30 - 12 noon at the Chelsea Theatre. Get to know the team and find out what’s happening. Enjoy a cuppa and a biscuit too!

Hello everyone! My name is Shawna Martin and I am honoured to be the Community Engagement Project Manager for World’s End and Cremorne Estates at the Chelsea Theatre.

I have lived and worked locally for over 25 years playing an active role in steering and management committees within the commu-nity.

For many years I worked for

Macmillan Cancer Support and have since qualified as a personal trainer, exercise to music teacher, Diabetes Facilitator and Expert Patient tutor.

I have a long-term health condition so I understand how important it is to live healthily in both mind and body. My own experiences and empathy mean I am motivated and committed to relating well to and helping others.

Guest speaker Natasha Benjamin discussed mental wellbeing with a ‘Free Your Mind’ talk at one of our regular Wednesday coffee mornings last December.

Natasha shared her self-help approach to dealing with mental health issues with participants.

She explained, ‘healthy mental wellbeing is made up of satisfac-tion with life, happiness, fulfil-ment, enjoyment and resilience in the face of hardship. When someone is unable to cope with some of these expectations, depression can set in.”

Natasha motivated partici-pants by encouraging them to speak out and help to end the stigma of mental health.

Natasha used her life experi-ences to develop a blog, which

she then grew and developed into her own online mental health and wellbeing service.

After the talk, community champions Simone and Elleni were awarded with their Food Hygiene certificates. Simone was particularly pleased to be accred-ited, as she is now responsible for preparing the healthy dishes at the theatre café.

Three Danish guests on a fact finding visit attended the

coffee morning to discover more about the Community Cham-pions’ programme with a view to potentially developing a similar programme in Denmark.

To find out more about Free Your Mind, contact Natasha Benjamin on 07706 0007 or email natasha@freeyourmindcic.com. Alternatively you can call West London Action For Children on 020 7352 1155.

Introducing Shawna…

Motivated to free your mind

Shawna, Project Worker

Natasha motivates listeners with her Free Your Mind talk

NEWS

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Introducing Barbara…Hello readers my name is Barbara Ofori-Boateng and I’m the Community Champions’ Volun-teer Coordinator.

I was born in Ghana and came to London when I was 5 years old. I have lived on the World’s End Estate for over 30 years. I live here with my husband and 9 year old son; my mother lives a few doors away!

I am an Art and Design grad-uate with a passion for dance and drama and an interest in Art Therapy so I have always felt at home in Chelsea Theatre.

It was after my recent diag-nosis of Type 2 diabetes and

JOIN OUR TEAM OF VOLUNTEERSWe’re always on the lookout for new people to join our friendly team of local volunteers. Contact us to find out more.

Community Champions needs YOU

learning how to manage my condition that I was inspired to help people in my community to improve their health and well-being. I enjoy helping others and therefore jumped at the chance of becoming the volunteer coor-dinator.

I can share my knowledge of local health services and organ-isations with the volunteers in a relaxed, fun and engaging way during our Wednesday Coffee Mornings. I am excited to be part of the catalyst to change people’s lives by improving their health and wellbeing of their families and ultimately the community.

Coming up….Teatime Tuesday starts from 4 February, 4:30 - 7pm – a regular evening get-together aimed at volunteers and residents who prefer to meet in the evening. This is a chance for residents and our champions to meet and find out what is happening in the community. There will also be guest speakers, information, friendly company and tasty food. Yum!

Wednesday Coffee Morning – 9:30 – 12noonMeet the team over coffee and biscuits and find out more about us and what’s coming up.

Art of Wellness - Saturday 22 February Fun activities, entertainment and food plus useful local info and health checks will all be on offer at our Art of Wellness event. Look out for more info or contact us for further details.

Children’s First AidTwo community champions attended a 3-hour paediatric first aid course last year to then pass on their learning to friends and family with children.

The course taught child resus-citation and what to do when a child chokes or receives a burn. The early signs of meningitis were also covered.

Community champion, Elleni, said; ‘I really enjoyed the course and am considering doing two more courses that cover children’s first aid in even more detail! Then I can share this with more local people.’