• Community Wellness Outreach to continue until June 2025

  31 December 2024

  News from Reading Voluntary Action

  Help your community to benefit from the Community Wellness Outreach project in Reading.

  1,943 NHS health checks were carried out in community settings across Reading from December 2023 to October 2024 as part of the Community Wellness Outreach project. The community healthcare initiative is a pilot project to reduce health inequalities, and continues in Reading until June 2025.

  Partners Reading Voluntary Action (RVA) and Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust’s Meet PEET team run the health and wellbeing sessions in community venues, providing NHS health checks and holistic support to enable people to take action to improve their health.

  The sessions are open to Reading residents aged 18 and over, with a particular focus on people at risk of developing cardiovascular conditions and those who may not have been to their GP surgery for some time (or who may not be registered with a GP).

  The partnership is funded by the Integrated Care Board (ICB), with governance and project support provided by Reading Borough Council. GP surgeries and PCNs in Reading have been a key part of the project, sending messages encouraging eligible people to attend checks and providing follow-on clinical support for those who need it.

  What happens at the checks? Watch our short film at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap3HslN_B7U&t=4s. To find out more, please visit www.rva.org.uk/cwo. We look forward to seeing you!

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• Public awareness of local voluntary organisations survey

  26 December 2024

  News from Reading Voluntary Action

  To complement Reading’s Voluntary and Community Sector Survey 2024, Reading Voluntrary Action has put together a survey to gather public awareness and perceptions of local charities.

  The short survey explores residents’ awareness of the hundreds of charities and community groups working across our town. It also gathers views on their experiences of benefiting from local services and on feelings of trust towards local charities and community groups.

  The survey will be open until mid January – please complete it (it should take less than 5 minutes) and promote it to your supporters and via social media. To view the survey please visit:www.surveymonkey.com/r/CNRDGT3.

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• New Emmer Green play area – have your say

  22 December 2024

  Local residents are being invited to help choose the design for the popular play area at Emmer Green Recreation Ground, as part of the Council’s ongoing major investment in playgrounds across the town.

  £350,000 is being invested in Emmer Green Recreation Ground with the play equipment being upgraded to create a new, exciting and accessible play area for children aged between 3 years and 12 years.

  Residents can have their say on a shortlist of two possible designs at www.emmergreenplayground.commonplace.is.

  Both designs offer an exciting mix of equipment to ensure the play area is accessible to children and carers using mobility aids such as wheelchairs and walking frames and equipment.   The Emmer Green play area consultation closes on 13 January 2025, with residents encouraged to vote on their favourite design.
   
  Once complete, consultation results will be considered and form part of the final selection of the winning design. Other considerations include consultation with the Reading Access and Disabilities Working Group and detailed assessments on value for money and technical competency.

  The winning design will be announced at the end of January with work currently planned to begin in the spring of 2025.

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• Council’s online services upgraded

  20 December 2024

  The council has announced a significant upgrade to its online services, to make interactions easier and more efficient.

  Previously, logging in to use various public-facing portals often required separate credentials. To improve your experience, there is a new Sign-On (SSO) solution. This new system will allow you to access multiple services, such as:

  -Love Clean Reading (reporting and tracking environmental issues)

  -My Account (general council services)

  -Housing Online (housing-related matters)

  All these will now come under one secure and convenient login: My Reading Account.

  What does this mean for you? Your next login to any of these services will involve a quick one-time setup process. This process will link your current credentials to My Reading Account. Please allow about 10 minutes for this setup. Clear step-by-step instructions will be available on each portal’s login page.

  The council’s goal is to bring more services under the SSO umbrella, saving you time and effort.

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• RABBLE Up! Screen and Stage skills for the Whitley Community

  26 November 2024

  News from: RABBLE Theatre

  At RABBLE Up, anyone in Whitley can join our weekly sessions where we learn new skills and create theatre and film projects all about Whitley! You don’t need any experience, you just need… you.

  -Learn new skills
  -Create theatre and film projects about you and your community
  -Make new friends
  -Stay active and healthy
  -Have the opportunity to get involved on and off stage in RABBLE’s professional productions

  RABBLE’s new class takes place every week at WCDA’s Whitley Community Centre Cafe, Tuesdays, 18:30.

  Cost: £2.50 per session.
  Contact Lucina by email at admin@rabbletheatre.com to book your place or for more information.

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• Life Changers Therapeutic Gardening

  26 November 2024

  News from: Thrive

  Thrive, the gardening for health charity, runs Life Changers, a free, four-month gardening programme for those living with a life-changing illness or injury to enable them to improve their health and wellbeing.

  Whether recovering from a stroke, cancer or surgery, or living with a long-term condition like diabetes, multiple sclerosis or Long Covid, people experiencing a life-changing health condition can experience the joy of gardening, build new friendships and increase social networks and build confidence to regain or maintain an active, healthy and independent life.

  Typical activities include seed sowing, propagation and potting on and planting out, planting salad/herb containers to encourage healthy eating, or craft activities e.g. Christmas wreaths. No previous gardening experience required.

  The programme started in July, with weekly sessions on Tuesday 10:30-15:30 at the gardens in Beech Hill, Reading RG7 2AT.

  For more information and to book, call 01189 884844, email Trunkwell@thrive.org.uk or look on the Thrive website at www.thrive.org.uk/how-we-help/regional-centres-and-programmes/reading/life-changers-reading.

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• RBC Small Grants Fund – Deadline 13 December 2024

  25 November 2024

  Reading Borough Council has allocated £150k for small grants to the voluntary and community sector for the year 2024/25. Grants of up to £5,000 are available for smaller local VCS organisations, with a proportion of the Funding used to support bids under £2,500. The small grants fund is focussed on supporting the broader objectives of the RBC Tackling Inequality Strategy: to create further opportunity for local voluntary and community organisations to play an active role in making Reading a more equal place to live for its residents.

  This funding will support innovative and targeted place-based approaches to addressing the underlying determinants of deprivation within the borough that adversely affect education, skills, and training.

  The grant is available to smaller, local voluntary and community sector groups who:
  -Have an expected income threshold below £100,000.
  -Have not already received £20k or more grant funding via Reading Borough Council for the financial year 2023/24.

  The intention is to encourage small local voluntary and community groups and innovative community action, and the criteria is non-prescriptive to enable communities to apply for funding to support activities that are right for their community, but applications should demonstrate how they support some, or all of the following key elements of the RBC Tackling Inequality Strategy:
  -Enable everyone within the borough to share in Reading’s success
  -Drive attainment in skills, education and training, access to quality employment, and participation in volunteering
  -Support people in the town where you think the need is greatest
  -Support residents and groups of residents who you see as experiencing disadvantage
  -Provide additionality by complementing existing strategies, work, and partnerships aimed at making Reading a more equal place to live

  Grants can be awarded for purposes such as:
  -One-off local events.
  -Running events.
  -Minor start-up costs.
  -Purchasing equipment.
  -Sessional costs.

  Applications should be made using the Reading Small Grants Fund 2024/25 Grant Application Form. The deadline for application is 13 December 2024. Applicants will be notified by the first week of March 2025. For more information see the RBC Small Grants Fund website page.

  For further support from RVA with preparing your application or your policies and procedures required for this funding, contact Herjeet Vass at herjeet.vass@rva.org.uk.

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• Grassroots community action honoured at Community Awards

  25 November 2024

  News from: Reading Voluntary Action

  RVA’s Inclusion Manager, Azra Raja, recently received a Community Education Award at the Grassroots Communities’ Awards – congratulations Azra! The Community Education Award recognises:

  Individuals dedicated to advancing educational opportunities within the community. Honourees demonstrate exceptional commitment to improving access to learning, fostering education equity, and empowering individuals through knowledge and skill-building.

  Azra is leading the Community Wellness Outreach project at RVA, working in partnership with Reading Borough Council and Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust‘s Patient Experience Engagement Team, Meet PEET.

  Congratulations to Meet PEET, who also received an award for empowering communities through education for health and wellbeing. Healthwatch Reading and Wokingham and the Community Health Champions were honoured in this category as well.

  This is the third year of the Community Awards organised by the Grassroots Communities Network – ACRE, Utulivu and Mojatu Media – with support from Reading Borough Council, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Thames Valley Police.

  An inspirational evening on 31 October 2024 embraced the theme of celebrating our changemakers and reclaiming narratives, and in Azra’s words was a testament to ‘working together and the power of community’.

  Awards were made for:
  -Lifetime achievement
  -Volunteers
  -Bringing communities together
  -Positively integrating young people
  -Fighting gender-based violence and FGM
  -Positively integrating the seniors
  -Artistic, wellbeing, and mental health
  -Community education – organisations
  -Community feeding programme
  -Community safety
  -Community legal support
  -Community digital inclusion
  -Communication education – individuals

  All charities, individuals and organisations are welcome to join the Grassroots Community Network. Register at admin@utulivu.co.uk or info@acre-reading.org. The awards will return in October 2025.

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• Reading Family Aid Toys and Teens Appeal 2024

  27 October 2024

  News from: Reading Family Aid

  Over the next six weeks, Reading Family Aid will be collecting donations to provide Christmas presents to disadvantaged young people in Reading. But we can only do this with your generous help!

  Thanks to the support of many local organisations and businesses, there are around 25 places across Reading where you can drop off your gift donations. Please see the list of donation points and their opening times. Or you can check out the interactive donation points map to find the nearest one to you.

  We kindly ask that all donated gifts are new or in ‘as good as new’ condition.

  It’s not easy to buy for someone you don’t know…so we’ve produced a list of things we’d love you to donate, and things we can’t use.

  We need donations for children aged 0-16, but our key focus for this year is encouraging more donations for teens. So here’s a detailed list of ideas for what to donate for this age group.

  The final date for gift donations is Saturday 7 December.

  Check out the Toys and Teens webpage (www.readingfamilyaid.org/toys-teens-appeal.html) for more information or email info@readingfamilyaid.org.

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• Council apologises to drivers

  26 October 2024

  News from: Reading Borough Council

  The council is sincerely apologising and appealing to motorists who may have paid penalty charge notices (PCN) which were incorrectly issued for parking contraventions in certain parts of Reading. The council has discovered that the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) on sections of the East Reading Red Route and some parking restrictions in other locations are unenforceable. Drivers who have paid penalties for parking on them will therefore be reimbursed.

  A total of 6,136 PCNs were incorrectly issued and paid primarily between July 2018 and 2024, however, some date back to 2013. The council is asking motorists who believe they received and paid one of these penalties to visit the apply for a parking fine refund page from Wednesday 16 October to claim their reimbursement.

  For those motorists that have been subject incorrectly to a debt recovery process, the council will contact individuals directly informing them that they are eligible for repayments with interest and advising how the repayment will be made.

  The errors in the various TROs came to light when a member of staff reported a defect on the East Reading Red Route. A wider investigation was then launched to review whether there were further issues with TROs and a small number were found to be incorrect.

  There are five TRO areas where motorists were incorrectly issued with PCNs. Errors were found on a further four but these did not impact motorists in the same way. A report seeking approval for statutory consultation to correct all nine TRO areas was presented to the council on Tuesday 15 October.

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