Groundwork Action - Shaw Heath Park

Gym photo, finally!

projectofficer — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:38:16 +0000

Well, I’ve managed to upload one photo at least!

Here is the beautiful gym in all its glory and it has been well used over the past few months, I’m sure this will continue! Local people are really impressed with the free facility in their park and lots of other local authorities have been asking me “where can we get one?” which I’ve been happily helping them with.

The equipment can be viewed on line at www.tgogc.com (the great outdoor gym company) so if you would like one in your area, why not visit the site, get involved in your local friends / residents group and see what you can do? Good luck to everyone, and if you want any advise, please drop me a comment on this site and I will see what I can do!

This site needs photos doesn’t it……..

projectofficer — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:17:23 +0000

but sadly i can’t upload them currently, yet another technological problem. So for now I can only post a picture of the layout of the gym, will try more tomorrow

Little blog rant

projectofficer — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:36:15 +0000

One of the things we were asked to do when writing these blogs about a year in the life of a Groundwork project, was to be honest and tell things like they are. So here goes, technology is a pain and quite often fails you (being polite)! The college gang did some great film interviews a while ago and I finally gave myself time to sit down and upload them and guess what, my camera decided to crash whilst downloading that specific film and an error message came up and that film became corrupted. It didn’t happen to the insignificant practise films did it? I am really annoyed as there is no way of getting the film back, it is gone and I can’t upload it. What a massive shame.
Another “truth” is that blogs are a great idea, but it’s all about finding some time to sit down and actually write them, they seem less important than other tasks in a pressure-filled week for me. When I meet with the group, they are more keen to get out to the park (which is what is should be about, rather than tying them down to desks and p/cs!). I’ve also struggled to be able to create the films other than at home, as I’m unable to open You Tube in 1 of the office’s I’m based in.
Right, so that’s my first official blog rant finished!
Everything else is going great, the gym is really popular and I’ll upload more films and photos soon, when I get some time!!!

projectofficer — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:12:29 +0000

This is a film of the 4 Shaw group, watching the fantastic chainsaw artist, Tim Burgess at work in the park. He took one and half mins to make the owl sculpture! The guys were pretty impressed!

Gym is open for use!

projectofficer — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:39:26 +0000

We went to the park last week. We had a go on the gym to try it out! There’s nine piecee’s of kit to use.

Mark thought “it was alright” but we did not really like the colour! Helen did tell us that the other colour option was pink, so maybe green was ok in the end.

We reckon we’ll go down again but its about to rain now so we’ll see this afternoon.

All systems go

projectofficer — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:49:17 +0000

Big launch events planned!

Well, the gym equipment has been installed; the contractors are laying the turf as I write this and everyone is very busy making final plans for the 2 launch events this coming weekend. Let’s hope the weather stays as nice as it is today for the rest of the week!

Friday 24th April from 1pm

This is the formal launch event where the Mayor and local councillors will be making speeches and officially opening the facility and trying out the equipment with other project partners and local school children. Chainsaw sculptor Tim Burgess will also be in the park taking ideas from attendees and adding more features to the log - what will feature on the sculpture? Please keep your eyes on it - will there be animals or people or something else carved on there?

Sunday 26th from 1pm

This is the BIG one - a family funday for local residents to come down to the park and try the equipment and have a great afternoon in the park! Imagine FM radio will be joining us and there will be entertainment for all the family - face painting, bouncy castles, and a smoothie-making bike!! Sports Instructors will be there to show everyone how to use the new equipment and this will be a great chance for gym novices to have a first try or experienced users to show everyone else how it’s done! This facility really is for everyone, so make sure you come down and check it all out on Sunday!

Hard Work

projectofficer — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:34:38 +0000

Do you know what, I have been working so hard this week with admin and meetings and emails and phonecalls, that I honestly have had to wait until 6.30pm on a saturday to have enought spare minutes to sit and update this site! I do apologise but since my arts event, as a senior project officer there is a lot to work on and to be honest, a blog is at the bottom of my pile of ever-growing “Work to do”!

But here I am, and I’m glad to say, that Shaw Heath park is in the process of being dug up and redeveloped, and despite the fact that I live nowhere near it and only work there, I am quite excited and wished I was having a free outdoor gym installed on my estate!

Myself and a group of partners (e.g. Sports Development, Parks & Landscape, Community Development, the PCT and Marks & Spencers are in the process of arranging the launch event in the gym, which I am happy to reveal is going to be spread over 2 days and the date is………….

Look on the next post!!!!

That’s all for now folks, from Helen

Setting up before the Community Arts event

projectofficer — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:51:34 +0000

The day before a big event, the co-ordinating project officer tends to be rushed off their feet, busy printing questionnaires; liaising with partners; sorting refreshments and so on. This was the case for me today, except with a couple of “different” elements. I started off by going to a local charity shop, the Heaton’s Animal Rescue shop, who usually collect clothes from people like me, but I collected a bag of clothes that they have kindly donated for me to use in the recycled fashion show tomorrow.

Then, I visited Marks and Spencers and was kindly given a basket full of tea and coffee and biscuits to give out to all the residents who are going to join me tomorrow. I also left with a headless mannequin, clothed in plastic bags, for display as part of the fashion show!!! After I’d filled my car with clothes; old plastic bags and bottles; refreshments; felt tip pens, clipboards and enough craft materials for 20 Brownie units, there was hardly room for my new friend the mannequin, but I juggled everything around and managed to make room for me too! Then I went to the office to complete all the admin things. Now I’ve just got to take it all to the park tomorrow, in the sun and run a great event!!

I have promoted the event via the local radio station, Pure FM, the local paper (Stockport Express) and through 400 fliers to local school children and houses. Its horrible though, waiting to see if all your hard work will be worth it and waiting to see if anyone will turn up…………………… I’m sure they will, the chainsaw workshop is bound to attract people isn’t it?

I’ll let you know

Shaw Heath Group meeting

projectofficer — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:11:25 +0000

There is an important meeting being held this Wednesday (28th) at Cale Green school from 6pm, which all local residents are urged to attend. We desperately need local people to join up with a range of free schemes in Shaw Heath park, so why not come along and see if you can gain new skills, make new friends and start achieveing some of your new year’s resolutions!! We’re starting an allotment scheme in the park; setting up a youth group; are holding arts workshops and once the gym equipment is installed in March, we will be holding training sessions on the exercise equipment, so there’s a great range of things for all the family to join in with.

Come on now, it’s YOUR local area, we need YOU to get out and use it!!

I hope to see new faces at the meeting on Wednesday!

Happy New Year, Happy New Park!

projectofficer — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:35:44 +0000

Hello. This is an exciting start to 2009 for Shaw Heath park, as we are getting set to install the outdoor gym equipment and the Sport Development team will be preparing to run training sessions for ALL members of the local community, so everyone can be trained / helped to get onto the equipment and start using it, knowing what they’re doing!

We also are linking up with M&S staff from 3 local stores, to create a community gardening area, which members of the new Friends of Shaw Heath group are going to welcome to grow fruit & veg and flowers on (please drop Helen an email if you’re interested & would like to get involved in this exciting new group! - helen.collins@stockport.gov.uk)

But its not just all “healthy living” things, we are also looking to run a youth project in the park over the next few months, where young people will be invited to get involved in a free film and arts project in Shaw Heath. We hope to run a chainsaw sculpture course (”what is that?” - keep your eye on this website for more info!!!) and create some community murals which young people can paint / design themselves!

There’s going to be lots going on in your local park over the next few months, so please keep your eye out, both on here and around the park for info on how you can get involved!

Fun Day in the park

projectofficer — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:02:01 +0000

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our consultation in September about our plans for the redundant bowling green. We sent out questionnaires and despite it being a cold, grey day, we also held a fun day in the park on October 4th.

Children who attended enjoyed having their faces painted and the bouncy castle. Everyone who attended was able to try doing some Tai Chi; view the plans for the park (including the tree work) and try out 2 pieces of the Outdoor Gym equipment and then comment on whether they would like to have this equipment in the park and whether they and their family would use it.

The overwhelming result from the survey was that people would like to see more facilities for adults and young people in the park and that residents thought the gym equipment would be an exciting and worthwhile addition to the park!! We have now placed an order for the equipment and this will be installed in the new year. The council’s Sports Development team will be running some induction sessions for residents once it is all installed.

Please click on the link below to see a short film of the event and to view the equipment!

Fun Day

Bulb Planting Event

projectofficer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:43:25 +0000

On Tuesday November 4th Year 5 pupils from Cale Green primary school joined Helen Collins, Senior Project Officer to plant daffodil bulbs in the Park. This event was organised in conjunction with Marie Curie’s Field of Hope planting campaign, to bring some colourful pretty flowers into people’s lives and to improve the park. 120 bulbs were planted to brighten up Shaw Heath park and this event raised some funds for the charity through donations of money. Children from the reception and nursery classes donated books and clothes, which were given to the local Marie Curie shop.