Hope for Belper

Donate as you shop!

Until now, the only places we have had donation points for ‘The Basic Idea’ have been in local church buildings – whilst these are accessable to most people, we have been looking for a way to make donating simpler.

So, to make it even easier for our friends and neighbours living around the Gregory’s Way and John O’Gaunts Way areas of town to donate items to ‘The Basic Idea’ we have partnered with the local team at the TESCO Express to provide a donation point in store.

The donation point can be found towards the front of the shop near the tills.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Modelled by the lovely Suzanne

Demand increasing for Basic Idea project

Hope’s Basic Idea food bank project has been boosted by Harvest Festival contributions from several local churches over recent weeks.

But organisers are continuing to appeal for donations to help needy families in the town with demand increasing over the past 12 months.

Now in its fourth year, the project has helped 138 households in the Belper area in 2012 to date, having provided assistance to 111 across the whole of last year.

Some updated information on the project, and how you can help, can be found here.

Youngsters highlight how Basic Idea project is making a difference

A group of Belper youngsters has helped make a short film highlighting the work of Hope’s Basic Idea food bank project.

Children from local churches went to find out why and how provisions donated by the community can make such a difference to local people in desperate need.

The children did all the filming and asked the questions they wanted to ask.

The resulting film has now been uploaded to YouTube and can be viewed here.

Belper Street Angels officially up and running

Belper Street Angels is officially up and running following a successful launch event at St John’s Chapel, Belper, last Friday.

Paul Blakey, the national founder of Street Angels, led a short commissioning service for the 19 volunteers who have so far joined the project and asked for God’s blessing on their work.

Hope for Belper co-ordinator Gareth Greenwood spoke about how the Street Angels project had evolved from Hope’s actitvities over the past four and a half years while project co-ordinator Rachel Marszalek gave a reading from Matthew 25, 35-40.

The service, which was attended by church leaders from across the town as well as Hope representatives and Street Angels volunteers, was followed by Buck’s Fizz (the drink, not the band!) and nibbles.

Afterwards, Paul joined the by-now-regular Friday night ‘patrol’ along with members of the Belper team. They are pictured outside the Memorial Gardens, Paul on the right.

Street Angels are still on the lookout for potential volunteers willing to give up one Friday night a month. If you care about young people and would like help make Belper a safer community for all please contact BelperStreetAngelsVolunteers@rocketmail.com

Street Angels are front page news!

We’ve had a great write up in the Belper News this week on the Street Angels project as it prepares for its public launch next Friday evening (22 June) at St John’s Chapel, Belper.

The angels have already carried out a couple of Friday night patrols but next Friday’s event sees the official launch of the project after months of planning.

The event will start at 7pm at the chapel with a short commissioning service for the volunteers, followed by a reception and an opportunity for photographs.

All those involved in the project will be attending together with some of the local partner organisations and members of Belper Town Council. The service will be led by Paul Blakey MBE who founded the Street Angels project natrionally.

The project has really come together over the past few weeks with all the volunteers undergoing training in safeguarding, first aid and youth culture awareness among other things.

The initial target of 16 volunteers has been reached, meaning that patrols of three to four people are viable each Friday of the month with people volunteering one Friday a month.

Outings so far have seen Street Angels walking the lanes of the Whitemoor estate and the Parks estate chatting to young people who are encouraged by our presence.

Project co-ordinator Rachel Marszalek said: “Our aim is to make our community a happy place, joining in with the good work that is already happening that impacts life here.”