NewsPosted by Clare Marshall Fri, October 30, 2009 10:55:39Rockingham Forests very own Sports & Activities Project which encourages children to try their hand at everything from bricklaying to basketball during the school holidays has won a prestigious national award for its work.
Rockingham Forest Housing Association, in Rushden, beat off stiff competition from over a 150 community projects from across England to be named as the national winner of the National Housing Federation’s What We Are Proud of Award.
Bob Hingston, chair designate of Rockingham accepted the award for the Sport Activity initiative at the social housing trade body’s annual conference at the ICC in Birmingham this morning (Friday).
Rockingham’s Sports Activity week takes place every summer in a neighbourhood where 60% of properties are classed as deprived and which suffers from high densities of health inequalities.
The scheme is free and open to all tenants’ children, aged from eight to 14.
As well as sports, children are encouraged to give some more unusual activities a go too, including bricklaying, tiling, canoeing and raft-building.
Many staff members took a week off work to arrange the activities for the benefit of their communities – at the same time helping to create new and better relationships between staff and tenants.
Families praised the scheme for giving their children their only real break of the year, promoting healthy lifestyles and giving their youngsters something worthwhile to do in the school holidays.
Rockingham were one of nine housing associations battling it out for the award, which recognises outstanding community-based projects and schemes.
Rosemarie Anderson, Chief Executive of Rockingham Forest HA said:
‘We are delighted to win such a prestigious national award and this just shows that a small community based association can achieve a huge amount by working with staff residents and partners. We are absolutely delighted to achieve such high recognition of our work.’
Greg Campbell, Director of Campbell Tickell who sponsored the Awards spoke on behalf of the judges:
“The Rockingham Forest Housing Association initiative is a great demonstration of how you don't need to line up a huge budget to achieve real results. The staff of this association have shown genuine personal commitment to their tenants and this comes shining through with their winning entry. Well done Rockingham Forest!”
The awards are organised by the National Housing Federation, the trade body for England’s housing associations.
Federation chief executive David Orr said:
“This is an excellent example of the fantastic work housing associations undertake in their local communities. It is true to say that the highest level of innovation came from small housing associations and Rockingham Forest HA are a remarkable example of how this innovation can support local communities. Our warm congratulations go to Rockingham Forest HA”
NewsPosted by Clare Marshall Thu, September 10, 2009 10:39:25The last of the Freedom Fridays was just for the kids. On 4th September fourteen of our residents’ children aged between 8 and 14 plus four RFHA kids aged between 44 and 50 went off to Grendon Hall for the day to have fun.
In the morning we scaled the dizzy heights of the climbing wall, zipped down the zip wire and attacked the assault course.
After a quick bite to eat Steve Bampfield, Rushden & Diamonds Junior Coach, put us through our paces on the football pitch. He tested our reaction skills and the older ones of us were found to be sadly lacking! We split into two teams and Team Brittany and Team Isabel went head to head. Final score: 8.3 to Team Isabel. Result!
The theme of the afternoon was water, water and more water. We built rafts and tested them out in the river. No-one sank, amazingly! Then it was into the canoes for some real fun and games. Everyone was completely drenched by the end of the afternoon.
After drying off we all piled onto the coach for the homeward journey, very tired but all grinning.
All of the kids were brilliant, they all had a go at everything even if they felt a bit scared. By the end of the day we had all made some new friends. Can’t wait to do it again next year!
NewsPosted by Clare Marshall Tue, August 25, 2009 15:40:11The heavens opened in the morning (thought we would need an ark) but then the rains cleared away for a glorious afternoon to spend time with the amazing creatures at Whipsnade.
The young ones on the trip said that they loved all the animals and particularly loved the Big 5 of Whipsnade. The Rhinos, the magnificent Lions of Serengeti having their nap (21 hours daily), the Giraffes led by Savannah, the protective mother and the Brown Bears. The highlight of the day was the Elephants with their unique family bond, with 3 weeks old baby Elephant trumpeting and lapping up all the attention of the adoring crowd.
Some of your comments on the day ‘We had a lovely day out’, ‘We liked everything about the trip, it was enjoyable for all of us’. ‘We had a fantastic day and would never have had the chance to take our children without this service’.
We at Rockingham Forest would like to add that despite the rains, we had a fantastic day and it was a pleasure to spend it with you.
NewsPosted by Clare Marshall Fri, August 21, 2009 09:29:10Having had fairly dire weather forecasts for the few days leading up to Friday 14th, in the end the weather was great, not too hot and lovely and dry.
We arraived at about 10am and the residents went off to explore the farm to look at all the animals and attractions. We met again at 11am to have a ride in a tractor and trailer around the farm and watch beetroot harvesting and smell the growing onions (not for sensitive noses!!!).
The shoeing of Colin the Shire Horse was a great attraction, with 3 of the children comfortably settled on the concrete for the 1 1/2 hour duration of the process, what their parents thought about this was kept firmly under wraps! Some of the kids alo tried their hand at grinding corn the really old fashioned way whilst visiting the working mill and it appears they got more flour on themselves than on the table!
The day was finished off by the kids playing on the swings, slide and jungle gyms in the rustic play area. By the time we got back to Rushden the kids were waking up from a lovely nap on the bus and the parents looked ready for a rest.
NewsPosted by Clare Marshall Thu, August 20, 2009 14:33:08At the early hour of 8 o’clock on 7 August a coach load of residents set off for the jolly seaside resort of Hunstanton. The journey went really quickly and Rob and Ivan’s games of bingo were a big hit with everyone. Lots of prizes too!! Well done to the little boy at the back of the coach who won twice!
Once we got there everyone went off to enjoy their day out. We met several families walking and playing on the beach and some brave souls even went in the sea! Others went to the Sea Life Centre, and out on a boat trip. The funfair was also ever popular with all, adults and children alike.
Fish and chips always taste better at the seaside, don’t they? Rob, Ivan and Trish felt they had to sample them. And then the ice-cream and the rock………. YUM YUM..
The weather was very kind to us despite reports earlier in the week of heavy rain all day and although not sunny was still dry and, surprisingly for the East Coast, not windy!!
All too soon it was time to come home. More bingo on the way back and soon we were in Rushden.
We hope you all enjoyed your day at the seaside. It was lovely to see everyone chilling out and we were most impressed with the children’s excellent behaviour on the coach. Well done kids!
NewsPosted by Clare Marshall Mon, August 10, 2009 14:38:34On the 31st July RFHA hosted it's first in a series of FREEdom Fridays. A coach load of residents set off for a fun filled day at Wicksteed Park. Once we arrived, and wristbands handed out everyone was free to experience the fun of the park.
We all met back up again for a picnic lunch and some games, with one lucky family winning Pizza Hut vouchers for scoring top marks in the quiz!
We hope that all of the families had a great day and enjoyed the rides - thank goodness the sun came out!!
NewsPosted by Kevin Furber Sat, August 01, 2009 20:59:13Our very first event of the 2009 Freedom Friday got off to a fantastic start with a trip out to Wicksteed Park.
Here we have a link that will show you 100s of photos taken of families at the event.
http://www.friendsofrfha.co.uk/photos/
