HOPE Nottingham

Inspiring & growing communities of HOPE throughout Nottingham and beyond

Hope Nottingham's vision is to 'inspire and grow communities of Hope throughout Nottingham and beyond'. We are a Christian charity, which supports those of all faith or none. We work in shared mission with local churches and community groups, empowering volunteers to serve those in need in neighbourhoods all around Nottingham.

Hope House in Beeston and our newly developed Carlton Community Hub have become one-stop community support centres, working in partnership with many local agencies, to provide places of trust and transformation for local people.

Hope Nottingham operates many neighbourhood Foodbanks across the city, helping people out of crisis and directing people to life-changing support. Some of these centres are beginning to develop the same model as Hope House to meet the physical, material and spiritual needs of local communities.

40 GoodGymers have supported HOPE Nottingham with 12 tasks.


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NottinghamCommunity mission
+5
Bozena Kendal
Nigel Rowden
Elspeth S
Tom Oliver
Peter Edwards
Rachel Levick

Meadows Foodbank

Wednesday 1st October

Written by Rachel Levick

It was a bumper turn out at this week’s task as 11 Nottingham GoodGymers headed to the Meadows Foodbank and Pantry. Mark greeted us on arrival and, once he found his to-do list, he set us to work on a variety of tasks.

Dayna and Elspeth took on the task of sorting and tidying the clothes in the foodbank. Matt, Bozena, Rafe, Nigel, Rosemarie and Vytautas did a huge clean of the floors, shelves and fridges. Meanwhile Peter, Tom and Rachel headed upstairs to tackle a flat pack Ikea table and a clothes rail.

As some of these jobs proved quicker than others, a few of the group then turned their hand to dating some of the food, and photographing and cataloging some toys and baby items which are going to form part of the foodbank’s Christmas campaign (see information poster in photos). Finally, as if we hadn’t ticked off enough different activities this evening, Nigel took on the important job of folding bits of paper for the foodbank’s raffle which was due to be drawn in the coming days.

We welcomed Rafe to his first GoodGym session, and also Elspeth who has recently moved to Nottingham from Leeds where she used to do GoodGym.

Also congrats to Dayna who has now done 10 tasks, and a big well done to Bozena who did the Robin Hood Half Marathon at the weekend!

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NottinghamCommunity mission
Natalie Cooper
Dayna Bethell
Matt Simms
Nigel Rowden
Tom Oliver
Rachel Levick

A little warm up for the pub quiz

Tuesday 16th September

Written by Rachel Levick

GoodGym Nottingham recently decided to mark various milestones within the team with a task and pub quiz combo.

The group congregated at the Carlton Hill Sensory Garden (Garden for the Blind) to do a spot of tidying and litter picking. We had expected to pick up where we left off last time and get stuck into more of the overgrown bushes, however someone had beaten us to it and the garden was actually looking very clear and tidy. Leah managed to find one patch which still needed a bit of a prune, whilst the rest of the group split up and looked for litter and anything else that needed a little chop.

The group did still manage to fill a bag of cuttings and get quite a bit of rubbish from the surrounding streets, so it was still time well spent.

After the task, we headed to the nearby Brickyard Pub to eat pizza and do the pub quiz where we placed fourth. Not too shabby, although we have realised that our knowledge of James Bond themes and Thomas the Tank Engine needs work.

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NottinghamCommunity mission
+2
Rosemarie V.
Hannah Reddin
Tom Oliver
Peter Edwards
Rachel Levick

Coming to our senses

Wednesday 6th August

Written by Rachel Levick

Last night GoodGym Nottingham paid our first visit to the Carlton Hill Sensory Garden (also known as the Garden for the Blind). We had been given instructions by the team at Hope Nottingham, who look after the garden in addition to many other community projects and foodbanks around the city.

Our task was to do some general weeding and tidying of the raised beds and around the garden, so we got stuck in straight away with clearing the weeds and trimming various overgrown and dead plants. Some of the group also did a spot of litter picking around the garden.

As this is a sensory garden, it seemed that all the plants had been selected specifically for their sensory properties, both in terms of the way they looked and, more notably, the way they smelt. As we pruned away, we enjoyed the smells of lavender, curry leaves and many other scents that we couldn’t necessarily name but were very pleasant. We all agreed that it was our nicest smelling task to date!

It was also one of our noisiest tasks. Usually we are tucked away in a quiet corner of Nottingham such as a hidden community garden or a church yard, however the Carlton Hill Sensory Garden is right in the heart of Carlton high street which was bustling on this warm August evening. There were children playing on the neighbouring park and a crowd of people enjoying an after-work drink outside the Wetherspoons opposite.

This actually came in helpful in two ways – firstly, Peter nipped over to the pub to borrow a dustpan and (very small) brush to sweep up the cuttings as we’d forgotten to bring our own, and secondly, a passer by noticed us hard at work in the garden and ‘papped’ us, posting on the local Facebook group in celebration of our efforts before we’d even finished! This was incredibly heart-warming (especially as some of us were referred to as ‘youngsters’), and gained a lot of likes and several encouraging comments.

After an hour of work we downed tools, cleared up and transported several bags of green waste to Peter’s car as he had kindly agreed to dispose of it for us. This was a great task and we hope to return to the Carlton Hill Sensory Garden soon to continue where we left off.

Thanks to this task's volunteers Dayna, Rosemarie, Hannah, Leah, Peter, Rachel, Tom and Vytautas.

A huge well done to Tom who we had not seen since he recently completed the Lakeland Trails ultramarathon in a massive heatwave!!

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NottinghamCommunity mission
+3
Vicky Smith
Bozena Kendal
Nigel Rowden
Rachel Levick
Marta

The Bee's Knees

Wednesday 23rd July

Written by Rachel Levick

Nine Nottingham GoodGymers returned to the Bridgeway Hall Methodist Centre for our latest task. We met Paul on arrival who greeted us with open arms and explained what our task would be for the evening.

He also excitedly told us about the new heating system that had recently been installed in the centre by a fantastic group of volunteers called Warriors of Warmth – a team of experienced plumbers and engineers who provide heating systems to charities and organisations across UK (a bit like a more skilled and professional version of GoodGym!).

Whilst installing heating systems may be beyond our capabilities, we can still do our bit, so we all set to work with our jobs for the evening. The hall is also benefitting from a brand-new kitchen very soon, so AJ, Bo, Lindsey, Marta, Vicky and Rachel started by emptying the kitchen cupboards and transporting the contents to a store room upstairs. Paul requested that we just leave enough plates, bowls and cups in the kitchen for the forthcoming community meal, so an element of brain power was also required (or ‘plate maths’ as Vicky described it).

Whilst this was going on, Leah, Nigel and Khiltee worked outside in the garden, clearing an area of overgrowth and weeds. A somewhat less delicate operation than the crockery-moving going on inside, the long trailing branches required a lot of heavy-handed pulling and tugging to get them up. Although they did need to pause for a few moments to try and rescue a couple of bees which had been un-earthed in the process (see pictures).

After half an hour and several trips upstairs with various plates, cups, bowls, cutlery, jugs, slow cookers and a microwave, the kitchen team had finished so also joined in the gardening outside. This included moving some picnic benches and a spot of weeding.

It was a pleasure to return to the Bridgeway Hall where we have done tasks in the foodbank on a number of occasions. It was also great to hear about all the new developments and to chat to Paul who we had not met before. We hope to see you again soon!

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NottinghamCommunity mission
+3
Bozena Kendal
Liz
Tom Oliver
Rachel Levick
Nigel Rowden
Hannah Reddin

The Meadows Foodbank, but not as we know it

Wednesday 9th April

Written by Rachel Levick

Nine GoodGymers returned to the Meadows Foodbank last night for our latest task. We've spent many evenings helping inside the foodbank, sorting donations, cleaning, stacking food and moving snooker tables, but on this occasion we had the pleasure of helping in the garden out the back of the Bridgeway Hall Methodist centre where the foodbank is housed.

We were met by Dave on arrival who gave us our instructions and some refreshments, then we set to work out in the last of the day's sunshine. The winter months had resulted in the garden becoming pretty overgrown with weeds, so our main job was to pull these up to clear the pathway and raised beds. We also chopped back some of the thorny bushes and collected some compost from the far side of the garden to be put into the weed-free beds. The beds will soon be planted with seeds and potatoes. There are also plans for the centre to install some secure bike parking in the back yard, so we may have a future task assisting with clearing this space.

We welcomed Adrian to his first GoodGym session, and Liz who has moved to Nottingham from Bristol where she used to do GoodGym. We're also delighted to see some of our previous GoodGym Nottingham folk return after a bit of a break, and of course we're always pleased to see the regular faces too!!

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NottinghamCommunity mission
+2
Nigel Rowden
Tom Oliver
Rachel Levick
Lindsey
Matt Simms

Speed Dating

Wednesday 8th January

Written by Nottingham runner

In the second part of our double-header to welcome in the new year, we headed back to the Meadows Food Bank.

Six of us had a run (or a run/walk) down to the river and back, headtorches on and looking out for ice – it was -1°C after all! Thankfully we all stayed upright and arrived back with enough time for a quick stretch before heading in to get stuck into Mark's latest jobs for us.

The Food Bank often has to buy large quantities of stock at once, so it's difficult to keep an eye on the dates on things and make sure the products with the shortest shelf lives get given out first, avoiding unnecessary wastage. Our task was therefore to sift through the various stock categories and arrange things in date order so the regular volunteers don't have to spend time looking at all the packages when they come up to grab stock.

Rachel and Leah started with cereal before heading over to help Nigel (celebrating his 25th task, amazing job!) find any tins with a date in the next three months and bring them down. The three then had a few minutes left to split up several four-packs of tuna (a surprisingly tricky task) and date them all before putting them out on the racks.

Meanwhile, Tom, Matthew. Bozena and our brand-new GoodGymers Lindsey and Maisie carried on sorting out the stock upstairs, with Tom apparently having to buy us all a drink at the next social after losing a bet about whether there'd be any pasta packets with a different date to the rest in the pile.

All in all, a fantastic start to the year! Go GoodGym Nottingham!

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