PURE Community Projects
Pure Response Team
Since 2008, we have been working with Stockport Council’s Town Centre Care and Repair Team (TCCR) on their Community Pride initiative. Through the creation of a team of service users, they work with the Council team and have made major improvements across the heart of Stockport undertaking essential work around the Council’s town centre car parks. Tasks include laying tree bark, cutting back shrubbery, and improving landscape areas through weeding, litter removal, hoeing and other duties as required.
Councillor Stuart Bodsworth, Executive Member for the Environment, said: “We are delighted that this partnership with Pure Innovations is working so well. Not only will their assistance help boost the work already underway, particularly in our local car parks, but it will also help to provide people in Stockport, who face major barriers to employment, with genuine training and volunteering opportunities. It is all about making Stockport a cleaner, greener, safer and stronger place to live, work and visit.”
We are pleased to be involved with this initiative, which is an extension to the work we already undertake with the Council in the borough’s parks and schools. It gives our service users, many of whom have spent many years in long term care, but now volunteer to participate in our projects, an opportunity to utilise many of the skills learned, but in a different environment, allowing for greater integration into the town centre community, as well as contributing to the regeneration of the area.
Following the success of the TCCR project, we were asked to attend the District Centre Management (DCM) team's sub districts in Stockport to look after their car parks. We now attend each of the car parks on a six-weekly rota basis in conjunction with the TCCR flagship sites. In addition, we have been asked to attend areas of concern where there may be issues of litter or bushes requiring pruning and other related work within Stockport where members of the public have requested that the DCM team attend as we can often respond faster. We have therefore decided to rename the entire project to Pure Response Team, as we feel that this is more reflective of the work we are undertaking.
Park Wardens
The Park Wardens project began in November 2001 in partnership with Stockport Council's Community Services.
Pure’s Park Wardens are service users who have volunteered to work in the parks. They attend a number of parks, and are assigned tasks by the Park Rangers and work closely with the council’s Parks and Recreation teams, undertaking tasks including cultivating land, hoeing, weeding and pruning, clearing litter, painting, laying paths, park upkeep and reporting any incidents to the Park Rangers.
We currently work in three parks in Stockport and one in Heywood, Rochdale on a weekly basis – Vernon, Bruntwood, Queens and Etherow Country Park, the latter being one of the most popular parks in Europe attracting over 300,000 visitors a year. This particular project together with the café we manage were instrumental in Etherow Country Park receiving the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management (ILAM) Open Space Management Award within the first year of operation.
At each of the parks, the park wardens contributed to the work undertaken to achieve Green Flag Award status. The Green Flag Award is the national standard for parks and green spaces in England and Wales and is a means of recognising and rewarding the best green spaces in the country.
Working with Schools and Nurseries
We work with a number of local primary schools and nurseries in both Middleton and Stockport, providing essential grounds maintenance and gardening tasks.
We provide the schools with a regular service which is not currently available and undertake tasks such as weeding, keeping flower beds and hedges neat and presentable, litter picking, sweeping and planting. These are all tasks that continually need doing but are often overlooked.
The partnership with the schools allows our service users to be fully included in a lively vibrant environment or the school and gives pupils a good understanding and awareness of the needs of disabled members of their community.
Kath Conwell, Head of Adswood Primary School in Stockport says “schools are a great place to foster community cohesion and the pupils and staff look forward to the visits – a great way to experience citizenship and enterprise”.
In Middleton, there is a link between the Park Wardens and Schools project as some of the plants not used in the park are donated to the schools for use in their grounds. This has been made possible through the partnership with Pure.
Fundraising for Local NHS Hospital Trust
Our day service in Alkrington, Middleton has created a volunteering project, fundraising at the North Manchester General Hospital, which is part of the Pennine Acute Hospital NHS Trust. They were approached by the Volunteering Coordinator who had heard about our other projects we undertake in north Manchester. It was decided that Pure Innovations would run a stall at the entrance to the hospital in Crumpsall selling essential items that patients may require if admitted to hospital.
The project commenced in September 2008, and by the end of 2009 we hope to have raised £5000 for the Trust. The stall is extremely successful, provding a service that is not available at the hospital, and is used by a wide range of people to the hospital including patients, visitors and staff. The donation will help support and enhance the Trust's services and patient environment.
This project is an example of how our service users can participate in a regular valued daytime activity which enables them to be involved with the local community, promoting service users confidence and combating social exclusion.
Working with a local Community Centre
Our day service in Alkrington, Middleton has created a new volunteering project at a Demesne Community Association. We work with a team of centre volunteers who provide a Luncheon Club for elderly members. For many members this is their only social activity they attend. We help prepare the room, serve refreshments to the members as they arrive, serve and clear away the main meal and dessert and assist with the afternoon activities.
This project is an example of how our service users can participate in a valued daytime activity with other community groups. It helps to improve service users confidence and communication skills. Centre Manager and club members are extremely grateful for Pure's involvement and have recently asked us to assist with grounds maintenance in order to create a vegetable patch in an area adjacent to the Centre that can be used by the Centre's nursery school.
