The only way we can make a difference is by working together
Our Activities and Partners:
Activities
Local Support - our community engagement workers regularly knock on every door in the Revoelution area - that’s around 1,300 doors. In the last two years they’ve spoken to well over 1,000 people, referred over 500 food parcel requests to Blackpool Council, provided new washing machines and support with utility bills through Cost of Living funding, referred people to Counselling in the Community, bought bedding/mattresses and a range of household goods, set up social activities, and provided a wide range of one-off support. We also host support agencies at the Hub including benefits advice and alcohol support - see the Partners section.
Work Club – Wednesdays and Fridays 10am-Midday at the Hub
Help with CVs, job searches, computers, etc here at the Hub. We’ve got several people into work and onto courses recently so there are places available, just turn up and speak to our volunteers Joyce and Linda.
Romanian advice sessions - every weekday evening except Wednesdays. We provide a translator and advice on all sorts of form-filling to Romanian families in the area.
Gardening - we garden when the weather’s ok, in the space outside the Hub. Tuesday mornings, but you can pop in at any time to do some weeding!
Other groups - we’re always on the look-out for new ideas and we’re happy to help set up and support new groups. We’ve recently funded a music group, a women’s group at Ibbison Court and Bugs 2 Butterflies at New Life Church. Things in the pipeline at the moment are creative writing, a walking group and sewing.
Youth Work – various days. We run sessions every week for young people aged 8-16. There’s a Juniors Club (age 8-12) on Thursday evenings at Ibbison Court and an arts group for teenagers on Wednesdays.
Football on Revoe Park - Wednesday and Thursday evenings 5.30pm. Football training for ages around 7-14 with Alan and Jack. It can get busy - we get over 40 young people in the summer - so get there on time!
Consultations
Talking to residents is fundamental to what we do. See our Plans and the Community Profile to understand how we use input from residents to design our activities and pick our priorities. We’re currently having conversations with teenagers in the area to get their ideas, and we’re discussing the possibility of a community-run facility on Central Drive - we’d love to hear your views! Here are some examples of our past consultations:
Revoe Masterplan consultations - Spring 2020
Revoelution were the community lead on a Masterplan for Revoe commissioned by Blackpool Council and run by GL Hearn. Partnership members took part in several focused discussions and we organised consultations at Ibbison Court and on Central Drive. We are currently working with the Council towards seeing the vision set out in the Masterplan realised.
NHS Integrated Care Board research into hospital admissions: The ICB research team asked us to look into reasons for the high numbers of unplanned hospital admissions in the area. We spoke to over 200 people, including three small discussion groups and a larger consultation event at Ibbison Court.
Plan consultations: the development of each of our spending plans includes consultation of residents to confirm or amend people’s priorities for the area, and focused discussion groups to find out what actions people would like to see in each Theme.
Partners
We can’t do everything ourselves! Some of our most successful projects have been ones that we’ve fully or part- funded to be run by someone else. We also get vital support and advice from a range of agencies.
Blackpool Coastal Housing are Revoelution’s ‘Local Trusted Organisation (LTO)’. We benefit greatly from their support. They host the Revoelution project; they hold our accounts, employ our staff and provide the Hub rent-free. We work closely with BCH staff in supporting their tenants and they facilitate our connections with the Council and other agencies.
The umbrella organisation that oversees the work of Revoelution and 149 other Big Local areas, Local Trust provide guidance, training, peer support and a representative – Sian Jay – who attends our Partnership meetings.
Our local Councillors, Jim Hobson, Mel Fenlon, Pam Brookes and Lisette Roe, are very supportive of Revoelution and often help us out with their advice and connections. We also work with the Council’s Environment, Public Health, Community Safety, Housing and Economic Development Teams
Blackpool Football Club Community Trust
Blackpool Football Club Community Trust was Revoelution’s LTO from 2018-2021 - we benefited greatly from their support. We continue to work closely with the Community Trust; we have hosted their Princes Trust teams, provided funding for their Kicks and Tower Above projects and we refer young people to their projects.
We receive invaluable help from the police when dealing with anti-social behaviour in the area and have worked with them on consultations and projects such as CCTV, the Drugs and Alcohol Consultation and the Community Café.
Job Centre
The Job Centre refer people to us for CVs, job searches and benefits advice, and have helped make our Friday morning Work Club a great success.
Our Partnership have funded several eight-week courses of counselling at this donation-based charity and we’ve had great feedback.
We’ve held meetings at His Provision and host their Community Pantry on Thursday afternoons.
Blackpool Centre for the Unemployed
BCFU offer specialist benefits advice, and are based here at Revoelution on Thursdays 11am to 3pm.
Horizon
We host Shaun’s alcohol advice sessions every Wednesday from 1pm to 3pm.
We’ve worked closely with LeftCoast on the some great community arts projects over the last couple of years.
Birmingham University – Bigger Story
Angus McCabe, a respected writer on community engagement and development, has brought his Bigger Story team to visit Revoelution regularly as part of a multi-media monitoring project at Birmingham University.
We’ve funded Karl to produce street art on Central Drive near the Hub – look out for his work on the playground next to the George.
Dance and creative projects for young people – we’ve funded urban dance and parkour.
TESP’s are running arts and dance workshops for us over the Summer, and helped children at the school produce lanterns for the winter festival.
Ibbison Court Gardening Group
We have a fantastic garden next to the Hub, thanks to Brenda, Trish and co!
Augusta’s fantastic group at Ibbison Court on a Thursday always attracts a good number of people.
