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Cre8's March 2021 Newsletter
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Music | Surplus Food Grocery | Social Enterprise | Cre8ing Hope | Sharing Stories | New additions to the Cre8 Team! | Emma's Goodbye
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Take a look at what's been happening here at Cre8 over the past few months!
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Our Music project has been back in full swing in the first part of 2021. Over the past few months, we've had lots of exciting things happening! We've started recording a podcast (Cre8cast) with our young people which we're really excited to share with everyone! The first 2 episodes are currently being edited and will be released soon. If you'd like to suggest any topics for our young people to cover in this podcast, please do get in touch with us!
Alongside our new podcast, we've done some samba with our professional percussionist. and run online sessions on music theory, making instruments at home, making music online, a choir and quizzes. We've also been inviting our young people to The Building for individual, socially distanced lessons since January. On average there's been around 21 individual lessons a week for young people to learn drums, singing, guitar, piano, theory, and ukulele.
There have been 23 individual participants since January with an average of 15 young people a week.
We are now doing small group work at The Building so that we can encourage peer collaboration and engage those who cannot take part online. We're looking forward to being able to widen our activities once it becomes safe to do so as 2021 progresses!
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Cre8's popular Surplus Food Grocery is still operating x3 a week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at St Barnabas Church, and Thursdays at the Green in the Corner Cafe on the Hurdsfield estate. We now have a total estimated 785 people benefiting from our Grocery, and are averaging at around 69 visitors per grocery! In February alone we had 47 new people come to our Grocery, and we love to see all the people we are now able to help!
For more information on our Grocery, please visit the Facebook page via the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/Cre8Grocery/
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Our Social Enterprise project is still going strong and having great success! We had a really successful Christmas Tree project over the festive period. Below are some of the outcomes:
- Sold a total of 65 trees and 20 stands. Most trees were sold by the 13th December. 16 trees were sold on Saturday 5th December. We made a profit of £1,035.92. This will be spent on employing young people to do work around the Cre8 sheds.
- Gave 34 hours paid employment to one NEET young person throughout December.
- Provided unpaid retail work experience to two young people during the open day on 5th December.
- Gave opportunity to one Learning+ young person to help with deliveries. He was rewarded with a free tree and stand.
- We put a Community Christmas Tree outside St. Barnabas which was partly sponsored by Down To Earth. A large star for the by a local resident, decorations were donated, and the lighting was setup by Cre8 Enterprise. This felt like a real joint effort and it looked great.
- Supported Rosendale Christmas Winter Wonder Scene by giving them a tree and stand. We also supported Just Drop In by giving them a tree.
- Made contact with numerous people who had never heard of Cre8. We solidified and touched based with many of our supporters.
- Used the project as an example of Enterprise in discussions with Peaks and Plains Housing Trust.
We completed a number of DIY jobs around the Cre8 House and the Cre8 sheds. This is work is all done paid employment for young people which not only pays but gives a sense of involvement with Cre8.
We’ve been experimenting with setting up a jet washing facility around the back of The Church. This is in preparation for a jet washing pilot project with Peaks and Plains Housing Trust. Hopefully more news on this will follow shortly!
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We've recently started a great new project in partnership with The Hope Centre called Cre8ing Hope. Funded by Cheshire Community Foundation, This project involves cooking for the homeless, and aims to teach young people cooking skills, how to support those in our community, as well as make a positive difference to the lives of others.
For more information on our Cre8ing Hope project, please get in touch with us.
info@cre8macclesfield.org
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Over the last few months, we have began with our sharing stories project. This is small group work with young people funded by Cheshire East Council, where we invite individuals with interesting stories or experiences to share, to talk to our young people and answer their questions. This is to allow our young people to learn about the experiences of others and have the ability to gain an insight into subjects that peak their curiosity or relate to their own experiences.
If you think you have an interesting story to tell and would like to get involved with our sharing stories project, please get in touch with us.
info@cre8macclesfield.org
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New additions to the Cre8 Team!
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We've had 2 exciting new additions to our Cre8 team!
Firstly say hello to Jo who will be with us for the next 12 months.
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"Hi, I’m Jo and I started working for Cre8 in March as their Youth and Community Administrator Intern. I have a degree in Marketing and Business Enterprise and have worked with some great charities in Glasgow. I moved to Macclesfield a few years ago and I’m excited to learn more about Cre8 and be a part of the amazing work they do. Feel free to say hello if you see me!"
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Next, Say hello to JennI!
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"Hi my name is Jenni, I have worked alongside Cre8 for many years and have admired the work they have done as an organisation. I have joined the team as Youth Work Supervisor and I am really excited about what the future holds. I really look forward to meeting everyone in person so if you see me out and about come and say Hi!!"
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At the end of March, sadly our intern Emma will be leaving Cre8 as her internship period comes to an end. Emma, who many of our Cre8 family knew as 'Welly', joined the Cre8 team in January 2020 on the Rank Foundation's Time to Shine programme. Since then she has managed our social media platforms, manned our office phones, and made much of the promotional content for Cre8 which has gone out over the past year. As well as producing Cre8's 2021 Annual Report which will be released in April.
Here is what she had to say about her time here at Cre8:
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"My time at Cre8 has been something I will remember for many years to come. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the Cre8 team and our young people, even through the difficult times that 2020 threw at us. I will deeply miss everyone here at Cre8 and within the community on the Moss Rose estate, and I will continue to keep up to date with Cre8's activities. I hope to continue to see everyone around Macclesfield, and wish Cre8 all the best for whatever the future has to offer. Thank you for a kind, welcoming, and enjoyable 15 months!"
- Emma 'Welly'
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